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Looking for help on where to live! Please!!

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55 north
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Looking for help on where to live! Please!!

Post by 55 north » Thu, 24 Jan 2008 9:44 pm

Hi we are possibly emigrating from the UK sometime in the next few months - details still being finalised. So we are a family of 4, with a 6yr old and 4 yr old, want the kids to go to Tanglin Trust School, ideally. Planning a visit early April to have a look round and get a better idea of what we are doing. I would rather live in a townhouse/semi detached or similar - the thought of high rise apartments and children on balconies freaks me out!! Can anyone recommend a complex of low rise condos, with ground floor condo with patio area, or landed property of some sort. Ideally near to park or beach and mrt - as well as travelling distance to school. Have got loads of ideas already from looking at this site, but hadnt plucked up the courage to register as it seems more real doing this! Help!! Thanks in advance for your ideas/help everybody
xxx

TAJ
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Post by TAJ » Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:18 pm

Hi, and good luck with your relocation from the UK. We did it 8 months ago, and I remember the stress well! On reading your post I noticed Tanglin Trust School is your preference. Great school, my 2 boys are there and love it, but please do get your childrens names down as they do have long waitng lists. The school recently announced that they will be selling debentures so that people with fat wallets or generous employers willl be able to shoot to the top of the waiting lists. Lots of us parents disagree with this money grabbing policy, but there you go! Don't mean to be alarmist, but do get on the 'list' and check with admissions about timing of places. You can consider using Overseas Family School or Chatsworth as a stop gap if your timing dictates.
For accommodation, we opted for a ground floor apartment to avoid the high level balconies, and it's worked really well, especially as there are no lifts involved in getting to the pool or outside areas to play football and ride bikes. All the advantages of a condo without the high rise feel! You will get a feel for the place during your April visit, and consider travel time to work/school/airport if applicable. Wishing you good luck with your plans!

55 north
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Post by 55 north » Fri, 25 Jan 2008 5:52 pm

Taj - thanks for your words of encouragement. I just can't imagine at the moment how we are going to get there! At least we won't be blown all the way to school like we were this morning - and the windows won't rattle in the wind! xx

kiwigal
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Post by kiwigal » Sun, 27 Jan 2008 3:08 pm

Hi there. We have been here just over a year now, and i remember well that feeling of not doing too much as it didn't seem real enough, but then later on running out of time to get everything sorted. So... start now, and pre-empt situations, particularly the schools.

Get your kids names down at TT NOW. Pay the deposit yourself if you have too. the large majority of it gets refunded if you decide to withdraw your app. before a place is offered. WE DIDN'T and deeply regret not doing this.

You may need to compromise on the accommodation front somewhere along the line. Don't rule out condos to start with as that leaves your options much smaller to start off with. You can at least specify to your letting agent, LOW RISE condo, or LOW FLOOR. Be aware of the VERY high rents now charged so that your expectations are managed. Find out your budget NOW. Have a look at some rental websites so you get an idea of what is around for that price.

Regarding location ; we'd all like beach, park and MRT, but getting all together can't be done. There aren't MRT's near the beach. the only beach really is the east coast area. This is very quiet during the week and busy at weekends. You don't see many expat kids actually playing on beach, most ride their bikes or skate up and down the cycle paths. There are Sentosa beaches, but again, expats would tend to visit this area at weekends.

Park areas... there are lots of green spaces in Singapore, so some form of park is accessible. If you can't walk to one (very hot here) you can always drive to one.

MRT : I presume access is needed for a certain someone to get to work. In my view, having seen that lots of people get cabs to work, I would say that if you decide to live far from work, then access to an MRT is required, as taxis would become the more expensive option. But if you decide to live fairly close to work, then a bus or taxi would be good choices. My husband gets dropped off at an MRT, then uses that.

Housing : This I think is more difficult. I had to get my head around the fact that I wasn't going to match what we left behind in London, in terms of quality and space and location for the budget we were given. Initially we requested a house, but most of what we were shown should have been pulled down. In addition to this, the streets some of the houses were in were a shock to my system in that they seemed very "local" or "traditional" and not very londonised. Of course they're not "londonised" but it was still a shock to my mindset. Don't let the streets put you off. I know now that if you were expecting to have the best street in the best suburb, you wouldn't need to work - they are that expensive !. So there are houses available, more for your money out at the east coast, rather than Holland Rd, Sixth ave, etc.

There are loads of condos, older ones are more spacious, some possibly may go "en-bloc" whereby the whole bloc gets sold and tennancies are cut short. there are also some townhouses and semis. Townhouses may have the facilities too, e,g, The Tenerife, whereas semis normally have some outside space but no pool unless the owner has had one provided in the back garden.

When choosing a location combined with school, i think all schools have school buses. what you should bear in mind is the start time of the school and the time that the bus would pick up your kids. Sometimes its VERY early, depending on where you are on the bus run. But the kids do get used to taking a school bus, sometimes its just a much earlier start and longer journey thats the killer. Don't rule out living on the East coast with having a school such as tanglin etc. located more to the west. Quite often the buses just pick up around the East coast and then wizz off to school, so not necessarily a longer and earlier journey.

Fingers geting tired now. Hope this helps.

55 north
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Post by 55 north » Sun, 27 Jan 2008 6:02 pm

Kiwi gal - thanks so much for your reply - phew - not surprised your fingers were tired!
At the moment I am trying to find out as much info as I can before next weekend when hubby actually makes the first trip to negotiate his contract, so need to know as much about housing, school costs, how much we can rent out our house in england for, etc before then. Once we know that then he knows what we are asking for. Next problem is how soon his current employer would let him go, and how soon he would start in Singapore - possibly before we get everything sorted here- worry about that next month! I'm just trying to survive the next 3 weeks until we know that! I'm looking round our house here wishing I was more of a minimalist than a hoarder!!
Thanks again for your input - definately helps hearing from someone who has survived this!!!
xx

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