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Condo living - safety issues etc

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hapa-girl
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Condo living - safety issues etc

Post by hapa-girl » Fri, 22 Apr 2011 2:15 pm

Hi,
I am a newbie. My hubby has been offered a job in Singapore starting in July. Ideally, I would love to go and check things out before we move but I am 34 weeks pregnant with baby number three so I don't think that will be happening. So I may have to ask a lot of stupid questions, I'm just try to gather as much information as I can so I can hit the ground running (with newborn) when we get there.

I was wondering about child safety in condos. Do windows open fully, do balcony doors have safety latches etc? I have never lived above the 2nd floor so the thought of living high up kind of freaks me out. Also, I thought it might be nice to live on the ground floor of a condo so we could potentially have a small garden or patio for the kids and our shiba inu dog. Are ground floor flats hot/dark/full of bugs etc?

Thanks for your thoughts.

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Mary Hatch Bailey
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Post by Mary Hatch Bailey » Fri, 22 Apr 2011 9:37 pm

You're smart to ask. Don't think for a minute that Singapore has the child safety standards as the US, Canada, Australia etc... Railing, stairways, windows, etc... all can be unsafe. It depends on the condo complex and the individual units. I had a friend here who was a carpenter who worked full-time retro-fitting homes to make them safer for kids.

The good news is, there are ways of fixing the problems ~ so no worries, you'll find something. You might want to consider a semi-D if budget allows. No facilities but access to your very small garden for the dog. Also, excellent medical care here too for you and the kiddos.

Good luck with your move!

hapa-girl
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Post by hapa-girl » Sat, 23 Apr 2011 12:05 pm

Thanks for your reply. Good to know that there is someone who specializes in child proofing condos. I might have to ask you for his contact details in the near future.

I like the idea of a house but not many of the houses advertised online have photos or floor plans so its impossible to make any kind of decision without seeing it first. I really like the idea of a cluster house. Our budget is max 7000 a month for housing and I saw that there are some cluster houses within that price.

jostonusa
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Post by jostonusa » Sun, 24 Apr 2011 2:38 am

Hi,

I'm a newbie as well, both on this forum and in Singapore. I have been here for 1 month now and did a lot of online research prior to coming, but obviously, seeing the neighborhoods and actual units in person is a totally different thing.

First, if your company or husband's co is providing you with temp housing at a Service Apartment, you can use that time to do a lot of visits. If not, I would recommend even paying for the short term premium stay at a service apartment so you can have the time to do a proper search. Like you, I was very averse to high rise living...apparently, this is common with Americans according to my (local) broker. Whereas the locals prefer high floors, foreigners in general like to be low to the ground so you are not alone.

We ended up finding the perfect apartment, but no units were available on low floors...anyway, we asked our agent to just continue searching and we lucked out with a ground floor not too long ago so we are negotiating terms. The best thing is to be specific with what your needs are and then communicate that to your agent. In my opinion, all of the units appeared to be relatively child-safe - though I do not have children so I didn't look for that criteria. The windows for the high floors open a crack, but there is a latch or mechanism to fully open it to have air flow if you want. For 7k/mo, you're probably looking into a newer building so you may be surprised on the level of safety measures built in.

hapa-girl
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Post by hapa-girl » Mon, 25 Apr 2011 2:00 pm

Thanks for your reply. We do get a month in temp accommodation from the company and I would be quite happy to extend that at our own expense if it means getting the flat we really want. Its frustrating to not be able to check things out yet.

Good luck with your negotiations!

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