Apartment hunting in Singapore - need some advice

Brooklynjenn · Post by **Brooklynjenn** » Tue, 01 Nov 2011 8:56 am

I just went through the apartment search, and I saw over one hundred apartments. I consider myself an expert on the condos in the central area now. We also used to live in NYC. I stayed at Orchard Scotts during the search, near Orchard and Newton, and I can tell you that in six weeks I was so sick of the Orchard Road/Ion hassle it wasn't worth it. I really didn't like it. One of the apartments we were looking at seriously was the Patterson (we needed a four bedroom), but decided against it BECAUSE of the Orchard Ion thing. I got really frustrated trying to navigate around all of the people, being forced to walk slowly because the tourists are lingering, etc. I would liken it to living near Times Square.

We ended up near Holland Village and love it. My husband works near Raffles, there is a bus that is pretty convenient, and a new MRT station just opened up. There are plenty of grocery stores.

Places around here that I thought were REALLY lovely were the Cornwall, which has a beautiful Balinese style resort pool and nice apartments. It was quite peaceful, and not too large. I also really liked Duchess Crest, although it is a bit farther out. Closer to Orchard Road I also liked the Solitaire and Suites at Central. I would also suggest River Valley, and I really liked the Imperial there with its gorgeous view of Ft. Canning Park. My number two place was Martin Place, but it is a little larger than you are looking at. It is worth a look, though, because it is absolutely gorgeous and it has a great Olympic sized pool. We decided because we had kids to live in Holland V where more classmates were located. The bus ride would have been too long from River Valley to school, but if we didn't have school to consider, I think River Valley would have been a great place to live because of the night life.

My other advice is to ditch your company provided agent. I caught mine lying to me twice, and it took her four weeks to find apartments we would consider, a total waste of time. When we moved here, at least 10 people from my husband's company told us to ditch the company provided agent and go with one they recommended. He had placed all ten of them in wonderful apartments. I talked to him, told him what requirements I had, what I had seen and what I thought about each of them, and he set up viewings that made me besieged and paralyzed with choice. Ultimately, we ended up renting the very first one he took us to, the one he called and said he could only get one viewing time, but he thought it would really be suitable to our needs, so we jumped in the car and viewed it right away. PM me and I will share his contact info, he really is an expert at showing you the right apartments and not wasting your time.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Tue, 01 Nov 2011 4:26 pm

Brooklynjenn wrote: I talked to him, told him what requirements I had, what I had seen and what I thought about each of them, and he set up viewings that made me besieged and paralyzed with choice.

I don't think you should underestimate the value of being able to convey what you wanted. It makes life a heck of a lot easier for the agent. The flipside of that of course is that it is difficult to be clear on what you want (and can afford) when you are fresh off the boat!

pr1ncejeffie · Post by **pr1ncejeffie** » Sat, 12 Nov 2011 1:53 pm

Hey BrooklynJenn.... I'm also from Brooklyn, lived in Sunset Park most of my life (last 3 years in Korea) and now i'm moving to Singapore. I will be in the same boat as you were and I was hoping if you can pass me along this contact number. Unfortunately most of the expats that I've been reading on this message board had at least 4k budget... I only have 1k

... so if he wants to do deal with a guy who is small potatoes then I would love for you to pass me his contact number.

Thanks,
Jeff

Post by **nakatago** » Sat, 12 Nov 2011 2:00 pm

pr1ncejeffie wrote:Hey BrooklynJenn.... I'm also from Brooklyn, lived in Sunset Park most of my life (last 3 years in Korea) and now i'm moving to Singapore. I will be in the same boat as you were and I was hoping if you can pass me along this contact number. Unfortunately most of the expats that I've been reading on this message board had at least 4k budget... I only have 1k ... so if he wants to do deal with a guy who is small potatoes then I would love for you to pass me his contact number.

Thanks,
Jeff

Get a room.

No, really. Rent a bedroom; or find 2-3 other people to share a flat with.

Brooklynjenn · Post by **Brooklynjenn** » Sat, 12 Nov 2011 4:18 pm

I think my agent is more of a big potatoes kind of agent, corporate leases and such. He drives a BMW and knows the luxury market. I can't imagine you could find a place here for $1000. My rent is three times what I paid in Brooklyn. You can barely find a place for $1000 in Brooklyn. Maybe with a couple of roommates you could find one here, but not alone. This place is more expensive than you imagine.

tommy4 · Post by **tommy4** » Wed, 30 Nov 2011 7:26 pm

Hi BorrklynJenn,
I am in the searching process for getting a condo at around 4- 4.5 K budget. Your post was very helpful. I ma in UK now, planning to start work in singapore in 2-3 weeks. I will be grateful if you could kindly pass the contact detail of the estate agent you mentioned. Unfortunately, I can'ty do a PM to you as I am a newbie. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

BillyB · Post by **BillyB** » Wed, 30 Nov 2011 7:38 pm

tommy4 wrote:Hi BorrklynJenn,
I am in the searching process for getting a condo at around 4- 4.5 K budget. Your post was very helpful. I ma in UK now, planning to start work in singapore in 2-3 weeks. I will be grateful if you could kindly pass the contact detail of the estate agent you mentioned. Unfortunately, I can'ty do a PM to you as I am a newbie. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Why don't you start by looking on the property sites rather than trusting someone who you have never met - sorry BJ no offence meant - and putting all your eggs in one basket?

tommy4 · Post by **tommy4** » Wed, 30 Nov 2011 8:43 pm

Thanks BillyB for that. I am already looking at the property sites, and as I am still in UK- I think my best bet would be via an agent. However after reading extensively through this forum, it seems it might be difficult to find a scrupulous agent. Hence I think recommended agents are worth a try. The few comments BJ had posted in this thread and elsewhere seemed extremely knowledgeable and helpful, hence worth a try with the agent BJ mentioned.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Wed, 30 Nov 2011 9:15 pm

You know... with all the crap you hear about bad agents, the last landlord's agent we had to deal with was great. Wondering if I should give her a name-check somewhere (though, considering our hosts, maybe that isn't wise...)

Just thinking aloud!

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Wed, 30 Nov 2011 9:18 pm

What you do behind you PM is your business.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Wed, 30 Nov 2011 9:22 pm

sundaymorningstaple wrote:What you do behind you PM is your business.

10-4 that

Edit to add: though it's not like I feel I 'owe her' anything never mind enough to start PMing details to strangers.... so lets forget about it lol ...

tommy4 · Post by **tommy4** » Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:16 pm

Hi applefan,
Thanks for that. As mentioned before, I am looking at the property sites. The main point is that you still need a good estate agent, and recommended ones are probably better than choosing one at random.
Thanks again.

SGReader · Post by **SGReader** » Thu, 01 Dec 2011 1:02 pm

Hello, everyone! I'm new here (both to forum and to SG). Can't wait to participate in the discussion.

At the moment, my wife and I are searching for a place and having a bit of a difficult time of it. I wonder whether our expectations are unrealistic? Our budget is in the $3-3.5k per month range. We're trying to find an apartment within a condo, at least 6-700 sq ft, usable kitchen for frequent cooking, walkable to MRT. We don't drive, so have no use for the many condo buildings we've seen that are far (1.5 km or more) from public transport.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there an area or district in which we could find success?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have.

Hidy Ho · Post by **Hidy Ho** » Thu, 01 Dec 2011 2:22 pm

Wow this is heavily CENSORED forum. I had a post removed from this thread without any notification to me as to why.

I posted that I reached out to two real estate agents (one Singaporean and one American in Singapore) with my requirement and budget of 3K and didn't hear back from either ones and thought that my budget wasn't enticing enough. I also posted asking for real estate agent recommendation via PM.

Not sure what is wrong with my post???

Post by **nakatago** » Thu, 01 Dec 2011 2:36 pm

Hidy Ho wrote:Wow this is heavily CENSORED forum. I had a post removed from this thread without any notification to me as to why.

I posted that I reached out to two real estate agents (one Singaporean and one American in Singapore) with my requirement and budget of 3K and didn't hear back from either ones and thought that my budget wasn't enticing enough. I also posted asking for real estate agent recommendation via PM.

Not sure what is wrong with my post???

DISCLAIMER: I did not personally remove your post.

That said...

Every time you make a post, there's an orange banner saying "Advertisements will be deleted!!" Thus, posts are moderated accordingly with no obligation of notification, because the banner already warned you.

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Apartment hunting in Singapore - need some advice

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