Amber / Costa

[LavSam]

Hi All

We are looking to rent a 3 bed unit near Amber Road / other option is further east - Around Costa Del Sol.
We quite like the Amber road area with proximity to amenities and a 35 minute bus ride for my partners work.
But the rental is really high.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks...

[snowqueen]

We live at Costa and before my husband got his scooter he used to get the Bus Plus service which picks up right from the condo and goes straight to the CBD . Think takes about 45 mins and is $5 each way. This bus services all 3 condos on Bayshore Road with a couple more pick ups on the way.

Also, there is a shuttle bus that takes you to the MRT for $1.20 - may have increased, been a while since I've used it.

We would love to live nearer the Marine Parade area but the rentals are so much higher for the space you get.

[LavSam]

We are finding a similar situation as well, the rentals are lot higher and the space u get is smaller, or the condo is older..
just a question...dont u miss being close to public transport or how about groceries???[quote][/quote]

[lukeduke]

Could you share what type of rents a 3 bedroom is going for?...There seems to be a lot of places on he market....maybe rents will become more negotiable?

[LavSam]

HI,

A fairly new condo 3 bedroom ranges starts at 5. Anything that is more than 15 years old is also around 4500 - 4800 which makes u think u would rather pay extra 500$ and go for a newer one! but there is no end to increasing your budget

[snowqueen]

We are finding a similar situation as well, the rentals are lot higher and the space u get is smaller, or the condo is older..
just a question...dont u miss being close to public transport or how about groceries???

We've lived in this condo since we moved here over 3 years ago so don't know any different - we've managed to get on just fine. It only costs $4 in a cab to Bedok MRT station, or you could get the shuttle bus which after the MRT, then goes on to Siglap and Fair Price at Marine Parade. The main road (Upper East Coast Road) is only a 5 min walk away which has bus services going all over the country and are pretty regular.

In terms of groceries, I would either taxi, bus or shuttle to Marine Parade then get a cab back with my shopping. I did invest in one of those granny trollies but for a while I often used the big blue Ikea bags.

I now have a car so grocery shopping isn't much of an issue but Costa and Bayshore Park both have shops onsite which pretty much cater for most things you would need from meat to wash powder.

I love my sea view apartment so it's worth the sacrifice of not being right next to a major shopping mall. There's also the East Coast hawker centre very close by and Siglap has shops/supermarket, restaurant and bars so it's not like you are in the middle of nowhere.

[aargon]

Landlords here must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Our LL wantesto jack up the rent from 4k to 5k - I kindly told him my income hadnt risen 25% for me to be able to afford that sort of a hike.

Unfortunately we've been looking for about 3 weeks now and may end up paying 5k for something that was 4K two years ago.

Might actually considering buying a condo because that will be 200K of rent I've paid over 4 yrs.

If I borrow maybe 1.5M (@1.5 % interest) and buy a 2M condo, thats a saving of 40k a year. Then I if i leave, I can always die laughing like most LL here, renting at prices even Tokyo would be proud of!!!

sh*t....