RENTAL PRICES

[AussieEm]

Hi All,
I am trying to find an apartment at the moment but the prices are just insane! My company's housing allowance isnt making a dent.....Can anyone recommend an area to try. Im currently living central and realise that I need to leave. I used to live on th East Coast but those are almost as high!

HHEELLLLPPP!
I have looked through the Singapore Expats classifieds for housing too Just need some advise please!

Ta
M
AKA: Lady who is soon to be living in a tent!!!

[humpbackwhale]

all those whose lease expired for the past 3-5 months all had a bad experience, especially those staying in city central, but high rent is here to stay.

You should have re-negotiate last year, too late to do anything now. Your only choice is to learn to commute from outside city. Cheapest is furthest.

Good luck.

[muratkorman]

Although you haven't indicated your budget, further you get out of the city, cheaper it is. If you find an agent and give details about your requirements like the size, facilities and so on, you can see your alternatives. Choosing between HDB and condo makes a big difference, but it all depends on how much you want to sacrifice from your comfort.

[guruvishwanath]

Someone I know who was recently trasnferred came here and its been 1 month and he is just unable to find a place. I dont know how much he can afford or even if his company is splitting the accomodation costs, but it seems like he needs to probably consider living out of the central zone and in fact may even have to consider HDB.

I started speaking to a few people and I realized that rents have soared like crazy that even HDB's have increased. Phew! Good Luck to all those who are looking to renew or negotiate a lease. I am hoping the market will correct itself by December when my lease comes up for renewal. And I may not have to suffer that much. Although I am not that central, its still just a 15 minute train ride to work.

[humpbackwhale]

guruvishwanath - you may not like to hear this but the only correction will be another huge upward correction. Rent/price will continue to go up for the next 3 years until the new casino is built. The record en-bloc, or tearing down of old condos will only make the situation worst. The good economy and huge foreign REIT buying into Sing will add fuel to the fire.

By december this year, if the rent does not go up by another 10% from current then consider yourself very lucky. This is happening not just in Sing but all the major cities in SEAsia.

Even those that is staying outside city is not safe, rent just outside city might climb more than that of city in terms of %. Anyway good luck.

[willen]

Shall we save enough money so that we will be able to buy one property for our own?

Then the price keeps going up and up which makes our fund become a nice investment.

[rhino]

Its definitely an interesting situation... I think it was reported on the weekend that either rental or property prices (maybe both) went up by about 8%... In the first quarter of the year! If that keeps up it will be about a 35% increase in a year. Not exactly the definition of sustainable growth.

Unfortunately for any newcomers (and anyone renewing a lease), continued en bloc sales added to, well, the newcomers arriving will see prices continue to go up. En bloc sales are like a double whammy. A 40 flat block being sold takes 40 places to live off the market, and at the same time adds 40 households (probably cashed up!) looking for a new place to call home. The amount paid for a block in Holland Village recently, about S$850m, is enough to make your head spin, with each owner taking home about S$2m each from the sale!

All parties come to an end when the music stops however (if you believe it will go on indefinitely, then you're kidding yourself), which will probably happen when all this new supply comes on stream, some sort of external event has a negative impact on Singapore (China's growth stumbles, outbreak of bird flu etc), or because the net increase of people coming here turns down, or goes negative, because they look at the amount being asked for rent, and just decide its not worth it!

There's my 2 cents

[sundaymorningstaple]

The last good property run started around 1981 or 82 when I arrived on these shores. That ever increasing bubble wasn't burst until 1997 when the Asian Financial Meltdown struck the region. 16 years is a pretty good run. It's set to go for probably 5 years at least and I'm betting on 7 to 8. (I bought when the market bottomed out in Jan '99)

[bzmum]

Yes, for the next couple of years, property market will still be expected to increase.

Try somewhere in west, not too far from city... about 20mins train ride to town. Or somewhere like upp bt timah

[humpbackwhale]

i agree with sundaymorningstaple that property bull run is not like stock market where it will end in a short while. US has been having a property run for the past ten years and only recently showing signs of slowing down.

currently it is the foreign buyers that are pushing the price up (for the next 3 years), then when the casino opens in 2010, it will continue to run for another 3 years with the influx of tourist and wealthy individual (singapore will be the new play ground for the obcenly rich), then the locals will push it up for another 3 years before there is a chance of slowing down.

the supply of the newly "finished" enbloc properties 2-3 years down the road will not burst the market but make it even more pricey; all the en-bloc properties are sold for record prices, the finish property will be even more expensive (above $3000 psf at least). These properties are not for the locals because i don't think the locals (except for the top 0.1 %) can afford them.

The entire city condos (D9,10,11) will be own by foreigners that do not need to work for a living. Gone will be the time when expats working here will stay in the city area.