When should I organise my rental accomadation?

[benjicon]

Hi Everyone ,

I am relocating from Sydney to Singapore , moving on my own , I have no experience relocating to a new country , one of the thousands of questions I have is ...

When shoud I start looking for a place to rent ?? Should I get in touch with an estate agent now while I'm still in Aus and work remotely with them? , or , Should I wait till I get to Singapore , then start looking for a place while I stay in a hotel ? or any other suggestions on easy transitions would be ace : )

I guess another question I have is how long should I expect to have to wait to find a place to live ?? I know in sydeny a person can look for months to try to find a place to live because the competition is so fierce , is it the same scenario in Singapore , or is it generally easier to find accomodation ?

Thanks in advance for your time ,

Ben .

[Guest]

hmmmm,

Thought I'd at least get one or two responses , maybe I should rephrase my question .

Could I perhaps get some people to share what they think is the easiest way to find a place to move into in SG ? Start looking when I get there ? or , Start looking now before I get there ??

Maybe I'm looking in the wrong forum ??

Cheers , Ben .

[Lisab]

Hi,
We are also moving to Singapore from the UK and were told by the real estate agent to wait until we get there before we start looking for properties to rent. Things move quite quickly?? Sorry i can't be of more help.

[cyber_m0nkey]

I'm in the same boat, also relocating from Sydney to Singapore later this year. I intend to go on a house hunting visit with my wife about one month before we move.

If you're going on an expat package then see if you can get your employer to include both a house hunting trip and at least one month accomodation in hotel or Serviced Apartment aft the move just in case you don't find anything the first trip or your selection is not ready to move into.

[Strong Eagle]

The market is relatively soft right now so finding housing of your choice should be relatively easy.

The question however, is what is your choice? You can rent everything from unairconditioned, real cheap HDB flats to exceptionally expensive condos and houses. The prices vary depending upon location, the quality and age of the unit, and the amenities supplied.

I think the other poster has it right. At a very minimum you need a trip over to survey the situation... to travel to where you will work, and to see what is available. An agent is probably the way to go, and I also agree that spending some time in a Serviced Apartment before making your final selection is also a good idea.

[benjicon]

Thankyou to everyone who posted advise for me .

I am basically a single person , nothing to move over with me apart from clothes and some small items which I will arrange at a later date , the rest I'll store , for this reason I'll be looking at getting a fully furnished place .

My relocation package includes my flight over , and a lump sum payment ( several thousand ) to do what I want with , e.g. set myself up with a place to live etc and any thing else I deem neccessary .

My new salary is around SG90K, which I think is very liveable , so I'll be looking to spend max $2000 on rent for 1 or 2 br .

I was planning on coming over 3-4 weeks before I start my new job so I can sort all the accomodation out , not sure if work will pay for a second flight over to help me with time to find a place , cant hurt to ask though : )

Thanks again people , really appreciate it .

Ben .

[Clueless Student]

Hi there!

I am a student moving over from Sydney to Singapore in a months time. I have contacted an agent (via this expates site) and currently they are looking for apartments that fit my criteria. Then when i arrive there, i will view all the apartments and decide. I am going 10 days before Orientation week starts at the uni so i am hoping to be moved in by then. Apparently a best-case scenario move-in is 6-7 days.

Hope that has helped!

[E]

Hello there,
My suggestion would be to get here first. Its super easy to get accomodation here. You may want to decide first what kind of living arrangements you're happy with - do u want a house, condo or government / private apartment. Do you want to share? Then I'd suggest you book a hotel for at least a week while u look at places.

Look at the property postings to get an idea of rent.
Happy moving!