How much haggling for condo rents?

[nburge]

Ok, I've seen a couple of posts here that say 'don't pay the asking price or tell the agent what your budget is! They'll rip you off!' which is common sense, but also good to know. This has an obvious flip side, in that the advertised rents must be negotiable, so I'm wondering what sort of discount I should try and get.

I will be moving to Singapore next year, and have so far looked at condos on the east coast (Cote D'Azur, Mandarin gdns, Bayshore, Costa del Sol etc) where the advertised rental rate for a 2 bed place seems to swing from about $3k to about $5k (and more). Ideally I'll end up paying somewhere closer to the low end of this range, but still want a decent condo with a good amount of room (I'll be working from home, and living there with my wife).

So the question is - how much less than the asking price should I be paying? If it says $4k, can you get it for 3.5? Or 3? Or am I looking at paying 3.8+?

I will probably only want to rent for a one year term, and may take somewhere unfurnished (if I can be bothered to ship my possessions) in case that makes any difference.

Thanks.

[x9200]

So you do not tell your agent your budget and you gonna visit all the places including these for 2k and 100k rental, or you give the agent a list of the properties you want to visit? We always informed about our budget and never felt being ripped off. What we never said was how flexible we were. It is like with any purchase on the open market, regardless rental or a 2nd hand car. You need to do your homework and not to decide on anything without having sufficient data. The same goes for the 2nd part - it depends on the location and condition of the particular apartment, market situation, LL himself, typically something within a range of 5-10% but you can get zero and would be still fair.

[nburge]

Thanks, I'll bear that in mind.

[ksl]

X9200 is right!

Stick to your budget and view the locations, 3K is doable in Novena too for a 2 bedroom, which isn't far from Orchard!