Living
Woodlands
At first glance Woodlands seems an unlikely place for expats to live. It’s located at the northern tip of Singapore, where the causeway connects Singapore to Malaysia. It’s not near any great amenities or locations where expats work. The real draw is the Singapore American School. An expat community has sprung up around the sprawling campus on Woodlands Street 41, and while it may have its inconveniences, it continues to draw expat families.
Shopping & Amenities
Entertainment & Leisure
Safety & Annoyances
Accommodation
Accommodation around the American School is limited to a compact area along Woodgrove Avenue and its side streets. This mainly has landed houses to offer with a couple of condo buildings in between. Houses rent for between $4,500 and $10,000 per month while the condo units start at $1,500 and go up to $5,000.
Shopping & Amenities
Woodlands’ one major shopping mall is Causeway Point, which has everything you’d expect to find in a suburban mall including a Cold Storage grocery, a bookshop and cinemas. Several smaller shopping plazas are dispersed around the neighbourhood but for anything more, you have to head into town.
Entertainment & Leisure
There are numerous small parks spread throughout Woodlands, so wherever you live you won’t have to walk too far to reach a green patch. The Woodlands Swimming Complex is great for those days when all you want to do is submerge yourself to escape the heat. There’s also the Woodlands Regional Library at the Woodlands Civic Centre, just across the road from Causeway Point.
Healthcare
Woodlands has two clinics: the Woodlands Polyclinic on Woodlands Street 31 and the SATA Woodlands Clinic at the Woodlands Civic Centre. The area isn’t particularly well-served by hospitals: the nearest private one is Adam Road Hospital and the closest public hospital is at Mount Alvernia near Braddell. The Raffles Group has a private dental clinic as well as a Women’s Centre at the Causeway Point Shopping Centre in Woodlands.
Education
The real reason that Woodlands is popular with expats is that it’s home to the Singapore American School. The vast, modern campus houses everything from pre-school through to high school. SAS is one of the top schools in Singapore and the region.
Traffic & Parking
The main problem is that Woodlands is near the causeway that crosses over to Malaysia. This means heavy traffic during peak periods and nightmarish line-ups on the eve of long weekends as labourers and Singaporean tourists wait to cross over to Johor Bahru. Marsiling and Woodlands MRT stations service the area, but be prepared for a long ride if you’re using the train to get into town.
Safety & Annoyances
Woodlands is safe and pleasant but the traffic associated with the causeway to Malaysia is a major drawback.
