Let's hear from a single person living alone in Singapore

[Hidy Ho]

I wonder how many on this forum are single person living alone in Singapore who are and not on expat package (loosely defined as company paying for housing). Also living alone means ... well, living alone and not in "share" situation.

How many chose smaller place (studio or 1 bd rm) or bigger place (2 bedroom or bigger) and why? Do you live close to work or in an area that you like? Do you live close to MRT or take bus?

Do you eat out most of the time?

Do you have part-time maid? Does your part-time maid also do laundry?

Anyone sends out their clothes to local or pickup laundry place? Do they charge monthly? And recommendation based on experience?

Anyone have fiber-optic internet connection? Which ISP? Happy? Any recommendation?

Thanks in advance.

[ecureilx]

I wonder how many on this forum are single person living alone in Singapore who are and not on expat package (loosely defined as company paying for housing). Also living alone means ... well, living alone and not in "share" situation.

How many chose smaller place (studio or 1 bd rm) or bigger place (2 bedroom or bigger) and why? Do you live close to work or in an area that you like? Do you live close to MRT or take bus?

Do you eat out most of the time?

Do you have part-time maid? Does your part-time maid also do laundry?

Anyone sends out their clothes to local or pickup laundry place? Do they charge monthly? And recommendation based on experience?

Anyone have fiber-optic internet connection? Which ISP? Happy? Any recommendation?

Thanks in advance.

Thats a lot to answer ..

Are you doing your high school project here ??

[nakatago]

Are you doing your high school project here ??

[carteki]

There are a number of single people living alone, but the answer to your question is based on how much you want to / can spend. A house share is not the worst thing you could do.
- Size, location accommodation - depends completely on what you can afford
- Eating out - depends on a) your salary; b) whether or not you define eating out as restaurants or food courts; c) does your accommodation allow cooking; d) do you like a diet of fried oliy food with minimal greens
- Part time maid - Yip, they do laundry, but I find it more efficient for them to do the ironing as they can't wash the clothes and iron them in the same visit (if you don't tumble dry them). Depends, but I'd say yes - why not?
- Laundry - maid above is sure to be cheaper and they clean the house too!
- Internet - depends on what your needs are re Fibre. If you need the speed then get it, if you don't, then don't (but then again one provider had a special for fibre that was cheaper than broadband!). Usually its better in SG to look at the "package" - internet & tv. Decide which tv provider you want (based on their channel options) and go with the package.

[Hidy Ho]

Carteki,

Thanks for the response ...

Still seeking more input/sharing from someone who's actually single and living alone in Singapore ...

[curiousgeorge]

Carteki,

Thanks for the response ...

Still seeking more input/sharing from someone who's actually single and living alone in Singapore ...

Why are you seeking this information?

[beppi]

I don't like to be lonely and therefore prefer to share places.
I don't like to depend on others and therefore do household stuff myself.
Money isn't the reason (well, at least not the main one).

[periclesmage]

Are you doing your high school project here ??

[poodlek]

LOL I'm stealing this one!

[the lynx]

I wonder how many on this forum are single person living alone in Singapore who are and not on expat package (loosely defined as company paying for housing). Also living alone means ... well, living alone and not in "share" situation.

I'll just make this quick and painless for you because I'm single and living alone (which sums up probably 50% of FTs here)

How many chose smaller place (studio or 1 bd rm) or bigger place (2 bedroom or bigger) and why? Do you live close to work or in an area that you like? Do you live close to MRT or take bus?

Unless you are paid very well (or have your housing done by your company), most people rather stretch their dollars here and rent a room as decent as possible without paying an arm or a leg for it. So room-sharing is common but renting a single room with other tenants/LL staying in the same unit is more popular. Where? The nearer to the city, the more expensive, so most people try to find the balance between the two.

Do you eat out most of the time?

Duh. Unless you have the time and motivation (and permission) to cook your own meals...

Do you have part-time maid? Does your part-time maid also do laundry?

If you are single and well-paid, hell, you can ask your part-time maid to do anything as long as you pay her/him.

Anyone sends out their clothes to local or pickup laundry place? Do they charge monthly? And recommendation based on experience?

Yes there are plenty of launderettes around. Hard to recommend. It is more of hit-and-miss.

Anyone have fiber-optic internet connection? Which ISP? Happy? Any recommendation?

About 80% of us definitely have. But the preference on ISP services varies from one individual to another. Also hit-and-miss stuff.

Thanks in advance.

You are most welcome. I happened to be in good mood

Edit: Just to bold up my answer haha

[zzm9980]

I wonder how many on this forum are single person living alone in Singapore who are and not on expat package (loosely defined as company paying for housing). Also living alone means ... well, living alone and not in "share" situation.

Lived alone for a while, the wife joined later. I'll answer everything anyway since I'm still mostly in a bachelor mind-set (at least the wife bitches about it ) and most of my decisions are made that way anyway.

How many chose smaller place (studio or 1 bd rm) or bigger place (2 bedroom or bigger) and why? Do you live close to work or in an area that you like? Do you live close to MRT or take bus?

I care more about the conveniences of the area, and less about the amenities of the unit, so I chose an HDB. I wanted to live near a beach, and relatively quick commute to work. My HDB is no where near MRT, but the bus ride is short and convenient to my office. (You know where that is actually). I wouldn't share a room even if I was still single, so I opt'd to rent a 3room HDB. (2bedroom). In my area, with a clear beach/"ocean" (haha) view, they cost ~2500-3000/month. A 1bedroom condo would cost probably 3k+ for the same thing, and would be a third the sq/ft'age.


Do you eat out most of the time?

Yes. It is almost universally cheaper to eat out in Singapore than it is to cook, especially for one or two people.

Do you have part-time maid? Does your part-time maid also do laundry?

Had a part time one, then when the wife moved in got a full time one. (jk, don't let her see that)

Anyone sends out their clothes to local or pickup laundry place? Do they charge monthly? And recommendation based on experience?

I took my clothes for dry-cleaning/pressing once. My bill was triple what it would have been at the most posh trendy cleaners in the Bay Area, CA. Everyone I talk to makes their maid iron.

Anyone have fiber-optic internet connection? Which ISP? Happy? Any recommendation?

Singtel. Only them. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. The fiber network here is deployed by a consortium that makes up all of the major ISPs. You'll have the same speeds (give or take) INSIDE Singapore with any of them. The dirty little secret that you're not used to being from the states is something called "International" bandwidth. That means how much speed you get for everything OUTSIDE of Singapore. (Now, keep in mind in the current day of CDNs, quite a bit is inside Singapore) Singtel gives you more. Plus, the other major ISPs rely heavily on Singtel's infrastructure for a lot of their international bandwidth and other backbones.

That said, since I know where you'll work, you also want Singtel for your cell service. Trust me.

Thanks in advance.

[zzm9980]

One more pro-tip for fiber. If you decide to rent an HDB, see if the building has an "improved elevator". (One that stops on every floor, not in-between two floors). If you don't, your building probably won't be fiber ready. Not every building will new elevators will have it, but it's most assured if you have an old elevator you definitely won't be able to get it. I suspect they run the fiber up the new elevator shaft.

And yes, my building has an old elevator... New one is supposed to be done in June, and fiber will supposedly be here in July. Every other building in the estate except the 5 with the elevator construction has had fiber for a while.

[sundaymorningstaple]

That is not true at all regarding older HDB's & Fibre. My block in Serangoon North was one of the first batch of blocks to be wired for fibre. that was 2 or 3 ?? years ago. We just started our life upgrading 3 months ago. The units are around 25 years old. The island was done in segments originally.

[Hidy Ho]

I have been using http://rollout.opennet.com.sg/ to check if a building is fiber optic ready or not.

I believe OpenNet is the joint-venture create to rollout fiber optic in Singapore ... per their website, they are ahead of schedule and scheduled be done by mid-2012.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Spot on.

In fact. When it first started, you could go there to check to see when your estate was due to be started, and to schedule when you could be home to allow them access to your unit for installation of the terminal block.