WHAT can you buy with $75,000?

A new 1.6-litre Honda Civic perhaps.

Or a classy Patek Philippe watch.

How about a terrace house a 10-minute drive away from town?

This was how much one double-storey inter-terrace house was sold for last October, according to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) website.

It has a land area of 725 sq ft with a built-up area of about 1,300 sq ft - slightly bigger than a five-room HDB flat.

It's small for a terrace house but its $75,000 price tag takes some beating.

There's a catch - the house has a remaining lease of only 11 years.

Buyers will also have to pay the full amount upfront as they can't use their CPF savings and are unlikely to secure a bank loan.

The New Paper was unable to contact the buyer but neighbours said that the unit has since been rented out.

There are about 300 such terrace houses with similar short leases at Upper Boon Keng Road near Kallang Bahru, making the area arguably Singapore's cheapest private housing estate.

Land area ranges from 725 sq ft to 853 sq ft, and transacted prices ranged from $75,000 to $166,000. With such prices, the houses are far cheaper than most resale HDB flats in the market. Even the smallest one-room flats in Bukit Merah are going for about $150,000.

It took this reporter three trips to the area before he found this little residential enclave hidden among flatted factories in Kallang.

The registered addresses of the houses are Lorong 3, Geylang, but they are at least a 10-minute walkaway from that lane.

Some residents said they feel like they are living on borrowed time because once the lease runs out, they do not know if it will be renewed and if so, at what price.

The houses are on State land which is zoned as residential under the Master Plan 2008.

Miss Koh Peck Choon, 65, said she will live there till the lease runs out. Her parents bought a unit for about $4,000 when she was in her late teens.

The retired seamstress said: 'I like the estate a lot. I have a garden outside my house, and there are many coffee shops and markets in the area.

'I've received offers from agents to market my place but I don't want to sell. I don't like living in HDB flats because I've a fear of heights.'

The estate is a 10-minute walk away from Kallang MRT station and there are wet markets, coffee shops and provision shops nearby.

Safe & friendly

Mr Eric Lim, 39, said his family has been living there since their house was built in 1961.

His parents were given an option to buy a house there after their attap house nearby was destroyed in a fire that year.

They bought two units side by side for about $4,000 each for their family of 10.

Mr Lim, who's unemployed, has seven brothers and one sister.

He said in Mandarin: 'Our family was spread over two houses. The estate was predominantly Chinese and many of our kampung neighbours moved here after the fire.'

His mother, Madam Heng Say Moi, 75, remembered that their terrace housewas situated by the sea.

She said in Hokkien: 'It was a bustling neighbourhood and we all knew one another. It was so safe we kept our gates unlocked and opened.

'We would also gather to watch Chinese opera during religious festivals.'

Each terrace house has a small garden, a living room, a kitchen and two toilets on the ground floor. There are two bedrooms on the second floor.

The Lim family sold one of their units for $130,000 two years ago as most of the children have moved away to HDB estates.

That unit has since been rented out to foreign workers.

Madam Heng said she's thinking of selling their house to rent a two-room flat instead. But she has to overcome her fear of heights first, she said.

'I stayed temporarily with my daughter who lives on the sixth floor of an HDB flat in Yishun. But I couldn't get used to it and felt dizzy. I moved back home after one night,' she said.

Today, the estate is a far cry from the busy neighbourhood it once was, she said.

Many of the houses have been sold and converted to temples.

Madam Heng estimated that out of more than 300 houses in the estate, about 40 per cent are now temples, and another 40 per cent are rented out to foreign workers.

Only about 20 per cent are occupied by owners.

There's also a church in the estate.

There was a 'For Sale' sign outside one of the houses. The seller, who declined to be named, said he was looking at about $160,000 for his place.

HSR Property Group executive director Eric Cheng said the estate is likely one of the cheapest in Singapore.

He said: 'There are some houses in Geylang with about 11 or 12 years left on the lease. But they're scattered around the lanes. They're not in a self-contained estate like here.'

This article was first published in The New Paper.