How To Choose Between Woodland and Tampines As Your Preferred Neighborhood

How To Choose Between Woodland and Tampines As Your Preferred Neighborhood  | Tampines, Woodlands and Jurong were identified as regional centres more than two decades ago. With Tampines Regional Centre as the pioneer and the most established regional centre compared with Jurong and Woodlands, which have largely been associated with industrial estates. However, Woodlands is the up and coming regional centre. As Singaporeans begin to ponder which is the best, the revival of Woodlands or the Tampines – new lifestyle hub of the East?

Credit picture : http://www.singapore-guide.com/#

Let’s reminiscence the old Woodlands where we call it the “ulu” regions of Singapore, the north part of Singapore. Admiralty, Marsiling and Woodgrove are actually belong to Woodlands area and while Woodlands refers to Woodlands itself. In year 2013, it was announced that Woodlands Regional Centre (WRC) would be the Singapore’s “Northern Gateway”, it would be split into two districts: Woodlands Central and Woodlands North Coast. Here comes Tampines, one of the regional centres in Singapore which includes Tampines North and Simei. What was once considered the Twilight Zone of the East, it is now a major retail and lifestyle area.

On top of that, government’s plans to decentralise commerce and expansion business activities in suburban regional centres. Tampines is now upscale of proliferation of large businesses and multinational corporations (MNCs). This means more job opportunities in the area as well as a vibrant city buzz. This will be in turn a wonderful news for HDB flat and private residential property owners as it increase the demand. 

Woodlands or Tampines, which regional centre is better to live in?

Both Woodlands and Tampines are the regional centre and it is always subjective. Let’s be honest because there’s always two sides on the coin. Let’s breakdown into few categories:

· Accommodation

· Environment

· Retails 

· Office and work

· Accessibilities and transport

Accommodation

Comparing resale HDB flat prices will be a good general indicator of how well received the area is. It is more reflective of the majority.

Here’s the recent median resale HDB flat prices for Woodland and Tampines, as of Q2 2017. Figures from here: 

District/Room Type	3- Room	4- Room	5- Room	Executive
Woodlands	$264,000	$346,000	$415,000	$575,000
Tampines	$332,000	$435,000	$535,000	$651,500

It is obvious that Tampines HDB is still the more desirable choice for property values because of the advanced transformation into a regional centre with all the big corporations sitting in Tampines Regional Centre. On the plus side, the property you are buying now may have factored in price of future developments. Although, Woodlands may appeal to be more profitable due to lower prices but do take into consideration if Woodlands Regional Centre development, there will be more room for the prices to rise, perhaps not for now. 

Winner: Tampines

Environment

Woodlands is renown for its parks and clean air, mind you, it has 27 hectare Admiralty Park with preserved mangrove habitat. Despite Tampines best attempts to expand its park land. In fact, the retail hub around the MRT station has become a noisy, congested traffic. With three huge malls clustered there, you can’t walk two inches on the weekend. Now that Simei is more open. Unless, you like staring at row upon row of HDB flats, with few distinctive landscape features. Otherwise, it’s like looking at bad motel room art.

Not all is bad for Tampines’ environment, we still have Tampines North which will include a 10 hectare quarry park, and a 7.5 hectare Boulevard Park that will connect to Sungei Api Api. When they’re complete, Tampines may stand a chance of enhanced environment.

Winner: Woodlands wins. 

Retail and Dining

We got to give credits to Causeway Point for being a wonderful mall and all, with its 250 shops and whatnot standing proudly in Woodlands. But let’s face it, it gets outright flattened if it runs up against Tampines’ three giants (Tampines 1, Century Square, Tampines Mall). The mere fact that Uniqlo chose to open here is enough to justify Tampines winning. Tampines has an vast range of dining options, from Japanese chain restaurants like Sakae to IKEA’s Swedish meatballs. Well, Woodlands has some pretty decent restaurants and coffee shops and such; on par with almost any other neighbourhood. But it’s got a long way to go to even come close to Tampines. Three warehouse retails namely IKEA, Giant and Courts. Check here for hangouts in Tampines.

Winner: 3 malls and 3 warehouse retails, need us to say more? Tampines

Office and work

Due to the planned Innovation Corridor, Woodlands is likely to catch up fast. It will be able to accommodate many kinds of industry. Tampines, while it has Changi Business Park and industrial sites under development, may not have enough room for a diversity of industries.

There are large cluster of office buildings, from the AIA building to the nearby Telepark. Several banks, such as DBS and OCBC, also have offices in the vicinity. Not to forget both districts have Central Provident Fund (CPF) buildings. Nonetheless, Tampines is the lead for this right now.

Winner: Tampines, for now.

Transport and Accessibility

First, the Causeway allows Woodlands residents easy access to Malaysia. It also appeals to landlords especially HDB flat’s landlords, who can attract Malaysian tenants who cross the border on work or business. This will be further complemented by the construction of the JB-Singapore RTS.

Meanwhile, we can see that Tampines is going to have three new MRT stations for Downtown Line come 2017. Tampines West will hook Temasek Polytechnic up to the transport grid, while Tampines East will do the same for Ngee Ann Polytechnic. The main interchange station will also serve as a bus interchange, making Tampines Regional Centre a transport hub.

As Woodlands is already a transport hub, the underground Woodlands bus interchange means residents are well connected by both bus and MRT. Woodlands will also benefit from the completion of the Thomson line in 2019, which will add two new MRT stations along a north-south stretch of the regional centre.

Winner: Woodlands for catering both Malaysia and Singapore transport

With that, it is obvious that Tampines have won the with three out of five score.