With great restaurants, bars and amenities, it’s no surprise Holland Village is one of the main expat areas. A mix of landed houses and condo blocks provide a good range of accommodation options. The area directly around Holland Avenue is like a small self-contained community and could be termed Holland Village proper. You’ll see familiar faces at the grocery store or at the cafes along the street. There’s a lot of construction going on right now to connect Holland Village to the MRT Circle Line. Once completed it will be yet another of the area’s pluses.

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Traffic can be bad along Holland Road heading towards Orchard and downtown, and the construction of the new Circle Line MRT station at Holland Village has slowed traffic down too. This should improve once construction in completed in two or three year’s time, and the MRT station will provide a welcome new link to the rest of the island. Taxis are easy to catch, but you may have to wait in line during peak periods.

Holland Village has a profusion of restaurants and bars along Jalan Merah Saga, Lorong Mambong and Lorong Liput. Dining options range from hawker stalls and fast food joints to elegant restaurants serving western, Asian and fusion food. Many restaurants and bars have outdoor seating, creating an ambience reminiscent of European cafes.

Furniture and clothing boutiques, a fine foods store, an excellent electronics store and a petshop can all be found in Holland Village. Holland Road Shopping Centre has a Cold Storage grocery store and there’s a wet market off Lorong Mambong. Several banks have branches in Holland Village, including HSBC and DBS. A few health spas offer massage and beauty services.

There are a number of small medical clinics in Holland Village and the Camden Medical Centre is close by. The public National University Hospital and the private Gleneagles Hospital are nearest, and both have full services and accident and emergency departments.

Anglo-Chinese School (International) is located in Holland Village, while Dover Court Preparatory School, Tanglin Trust School, and United World College of South East Asia are close by. Holland Village is also near the National University of Singapore and INSEAD campuses. The Canadian School and British, Hollandse and German European Schools are also easily accessible.

Immediately north of Holland Road are modern condo blocks with full facilities that range from $2,500 to $4,500. Set further back from Holland Road are many luxurious landed houses that rent out for between $12,000 and $30,000 per month. You’ll find many embassies among these too. There are some smaller – and generally older – low-rise condo blocks south of Holland Drive. These range from $2,000 up to $5,000 depending on the size of the apartment and the facilities included. Further west along Holland Road is Sixth Avenue, one of the more sought-after locations in Singapore. The landed houses that line Sixth Avenue and its side streets rent out for anything from $5,000 to $20,000.

Construction of the new MRT Circle Line does create traffic bottlenecks in and around Holland Village and there’s also construction noise to contend with. But the area is safe and you can walk around at any time and feel comfortable.