Where to live in Singapore

[Lee54]

Moving to Singapore in a couple of months with my wife and baby. My wife would like to be close to the Botanical gardens so she can see some greenery! I have visited various areas but not Holland Village. I understand that it is a popular expat area and now well served by the MRT. What are the advs and disadvs of living there and which condos would be recommended?

[JR8]

Moving to Singapore in a couple of months with my wife and baby. My wife would like to be close to the Botanical gardens so she can see some greenery! I have visited various areas but not Holland Village. I understand that it is a popular expat area and now well served by the MRT. What are the advs and disadvs of living there and which condos would be recommended?

It is something of an expat 'comfort zone' ghetto, and hence expensive.

The more usual way to decide on an area is to consider your likely budget (deduced as an acceptable % of your gross), lifestyle wishes (size of home, amenities), plus where you will be working, and then take it from there.

[Brooklynjenn]

We live about halfway between Holland Village and the Botanical Gardens. We both really like the area. The advantages are the bus service is great, and there is a close MRT on the same line as our kids' school. There are good restaurants we can walk to both in Holland Village and Dempsey Hill. Our condo is great, and there are tons of expat kids nearby, which makes for easy play dates after school. (mine are 4 and 6) The disadvantages for me are that both supermarkets that are close to us are a 15 minute walk, which makes running out for that one thing you forgot a haul. Also, it can sometimes be difficult to get a taxi, due to the traffic flow from 4-6, when they forbid u-turns at the closest intersection to us. That means to enter our condo the taxi has to go way out of their way to turn back to our condo. From 4-6 it is easier to hail a cab on the street, which can be a pain with two small children. If you had a car this would be a non-issue. Overall we are quite happy here, the taxi thing is a small inconvenience for all of the good things the area has to offer. It is hard to recommend a condo without a price range and other requirements, as there are a lot of different types of condos here.

[Barnsley]

Moving to Singapore in a couple of months with my wife and baby. My wife would like to be close to the Botanical gardens so she can see some greenery! I have visited various areas but not Holland Village. I understand that it is a popular expat area and now well served by the MRT. What are the advs and disadvs of living there and which condos would be recommended?

It is something of an expat 'comfort zone' ghetto, and hence expensive.

The more usual way to decide on an area is to consider your likely budget (deduced as an acceptable % of your gross), lifestyle wishes (size of home, amenities), plus where you will be working, and then take it from there.

Not that I was looking for one but where do the expats go in Holland Village, was there on Saturday night, went to Walla Walla around 11ish and it looked to me like everyone in there was a local kid under 25 years of age.

[Lee54]

Thanks everyone. Budget is say S$7,000-7,500 per month if that helps in terms of recommendations

[nutnut]

What size of apartment do you want? 2/3/4 bedrooms, 1000/1500/2000 sqft? have you looked at the condos on this site and other such sites like . and iproperty? there are plenty of 3 bed for $7K a month in Singapore, it's a very decent lifestyle for that amount of money, you can live for $4-$6K in East Coast very easily, HV, not sure about.

Really, it's a bit thumb in the air if you can't be more specific, some people with a baby may be happy with a studio, some want 4 bedrooms, as they need a study and a spare room for visitors....

Best thing to do is come over and look, condos are different as soon as you enter the different units and it's all down to personal taste too.

Sorry for the general and unspecific answer, you left me no choice...

[JR8]

+1 to Nut.
You took the words out of my mouth, that I didn't have time to say in response earlier.

p.s. But then you added some helpful stuff too

[nutnut]

I always try and help the OP, I refrain from guessing, one man's fish is another man's scrotum y'ken!

[JR8]

I always try and help the OP, I refrain from guessing, one man's fish is another man's scrotum y'ken!

Ah had a wey pet, I've just been and poodered me sac and it's reet lush noo yah nor.

[nutnut]

I am terribly sorry, I didn't catch a word of that old bean. Could you kindly speak English?