Advice required on Good locality to rent

[Almost_In_Singapore]

My husband and I will be relocating from India to Singapore in October. We have been searching the internet for information on places to live and are fairly confused now. Information overload you can say. We know that we dont want to spend more than 2000$ per month all inclusive. Ideally, we would like facilities like swimming pool but with increasing prices, I think it will be difficult. We are looking at one or two bedroom apartment. Partially furnished. Even HDBs are ok. We want to lead a comfortable life. Does not matter if its not lavish and in the most expensive expat area.

We want advice on the following -
1. Which districts should we look at? We both will work in Raffles area and Shenton way area.
2. What internet sites can we use to search for properties. In Singapore expats, they have only listings above 2000$.
3. How long will it take to find such a place?

Thanks for any help...

[ching]

Hi,

I'll let others chime in on recommended districts... personally I like 11/12 but prices are so high here these days.

You may have already thought through these - what kind of place are you looking for? For example, what size of bedroom or living room are you looking for, is having a lot of space important to you? Do you want to be in a quiet residential area or someplace close to shops and eateries? I don't mean to overwhelm you, but these choices will help you narrow down and choose a place from all the options that an agent will present you -- it will save you time and effort when viewing.

If you're willing to take the bus instead of looking for a place near the MRT, you may be able to save some money. Living one or two bus stops away from the MRT seems to work quite well for most of my friends. You can walk/bus to the MRT when you need to and the rest of the time you can just take a bus direct to your destination.

In my experience (from our last two moves), we try to start viewing places about a month before we need to move in. View too early and you'll be at a disadvantage because the landlord won't want their place to sit vacant while waiting for you to move in... view too late and you'll be under unnecessary pressure to find a place fast. It may take about 2-3 full days of viewing (again, just our experience), that will still give you a good couple of weeks to prepare for your move after you've selected a place and signed the tenancy agreement, before you have to move in.

Even though the property market is red-hot these days, don't let the agent pressure you into signing a lease after your first viewing. Particularly if it's your first time here, if you have time do look around at a few different units before deciding what you like.

[Almost_In_Singapore]

Thanks Ching ... just to give you an example.. in Bombay, India.. we live in a 500 sq ft apartment - One living room... (medium size), kitchen (small) and Bedroom (medium size). In Singapore, we are looking at One living room (medium size), Kitchen (small ok) and Bedrooms (2 medium size). It will be great if it has built in wardrobes. An apartment of 800 - 1000 sq ft will be great if you ask me.

As for furnished / unfurnished - we want a partially furnished place... built in wardrobe, maybe with fridge, kitchen stuff and all.... For the living room and other things, we will buy Ikea furniture or have minimal stuff... we like a clean look...

In Bombay, we live in a place which is in the middle of a market... shops, grocery, vegetables, dvd, books, etc.. everything... we are ok living in quite places or in the middle of things.. we are ok with taking the bus or walking to MRT.... we are very flexible..

So.. Ill check out 11 / 12. Any other ideas...

[ching]

If you're coming from a 500 sq ft 1 BR you should be fine with most of the flats here! Most of the 2 BR places we looked at (with about the same budget as yours) were around 800 to 900 sq ft. The second bedroom will likely be a bit small but should still be ok.

I couldn't remember where you were planning to work, was it around Raffles Place / Shenton Way? If that's where you're working, you should also take a look at places around the green line of the MRT - Lavender, the East Coast area, or Tiong Bahru (although it may be a bit pricey there) and further west.

[Last Hegemon]

Hey guys, what do you think about Serangoon area for a single guy? The apt is close to the MRT. Thanks in advance.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Hey guys, what do you think about Serangoon area for a single guy? The apt is close to the MRT. Thanks in advance.

If you are close to an MRT then you would be in good shape. Being single makes it easy.

[Last Hegemon]

thank you sir, I'm gonna go for it.

[annalei]

hi,

I just moved here in SIngapore also, barely a month. we (me, my husband and 2 kids) are living in a condo in woodlands. the place is actually really nice and have a 2 year lease. with a big pool, playground gym etc.

we are really happy with the way things are with the condo, but sadly I think we need to move. I cant find a school for my daughter (p3 in 2008), someone asked us if we could move near tampines because there are vacancies in the school there.

If I could find a suitable school for my daughter, I need a family to move in to my condo. It still has a 23 months in the lease. we already asked we can only have our deposit back of we can get a suitable tenants to replace us.

[aikido]

hi annalei

My husband and I( with 2 kids) are also relocating to Singapore soon, probably in about 2 months time or so and we are actually looking for a condominium to rent around the woodlands area. And I'm sorry to hear that you have to move to another neighbourhood.
Since you r looking for another family to continue the lease i might be interestedso i would like to know a few details:
How much is the rent per month?
The size of the condo?
And the name of the condo?
alterantively you can email me coz i'm interested.
[email protected]
best regards and hope to hear from you soon.