Page 1 of 1

Relocating To Singapore

Posted: Tue, 05 Mar 2013 9:53 pm
by Misshappy
We are an English family looking at relocating to Singapore my husband, my 14 year old and my self. We would like to get our daughter into the Tanglin school, what is the housing situation withing easy reach to TTS. I like the look of Cluster Housing , any good estate agents to recommend??

Posted: Tue, 05 Mar 2013 10:35 pm
by sundaymorningstaple
Make sure your husband had a job AND an employment pass before you come here. Otherwise, you might find yourself coming up with the short end of the stick.

Posted: Tue, 05 Mar 2013 10:55 pm
by Misshappy
Thank you, my husband has a job offer and all documents must be in place prior to us arriving.

Posted: Tue, 05 Mar 2013 11:29 pm
by Mi Amigo
Misshappy, welcome to the forum and to Singapore!

Your options for where to live are actually quite wide, given that there are school bus routes to most of the island. Obviously the travel time will vary, but it's not always 100% related to distance to the school as the crow flies - the exact route, number of pickup points and and your position along it will be factors too. To give you an idea, when we first moved to Singapore, we lived off Sunset Way (Clementi), which is quite close to TTS on the map, as we didn't want our girls to have a long school bus journey. That worked out fine, but interestingly when we moved further away (to Tanjong Rhu), their journey time didn't increase by any great amount. For a while we also lived in the Upper East Coast Road area and the journey was still OK for them.

So my suggestion would be to explore possible areas first and then check with the school, or directly with KAL Transport who run the bus service, to see how their routes work out for each location.

Of course if you plan on getting a car (personally I wouldn't), then forget everything I just said about the school buses. :)

As regards searching for properties and an estate agent, you might want to start by clicking on 'Housing in Singapore' -> 'Search Singapore property' at the top of the page, as the owners of this site are in that business. I'd also suggest using the Search function directly above here and you'll find lots of discussions about housing, areas to live, etc. Then once you've had a chance to explore the options and available info, feel free to post any specific questions here and I'm sure the regulars will do their best to help.

Good luck!

Posted: Wed, 06 Mar 2013 4:26 pm
by taxico
gothere.sg

onemap.gov.sg

Posted: Thu, 07 Mar 2013 8:33 pm
by Misshappy
Thank you for all the responses every little bit helps.
Hopefully we will arrive in July, all being well .

A bit nervous don't know anything about life in Singapore !!

Trying to get as much info on accommodation mainly.

My husband would prefer a house but our budget is 9000, we have never lived in an apartment and are concerned over privacy and noise.


Anyone have teenagers at Tanglin???

Posted: Thu, 07 Mar 2013 8:47 pm
by Misshappy
custard9876_0270 - Are you new to Singapore??

Posted: Sat, 09 Mar 2013 2:26 pm
by Mi Amigo
Misshappy, I wouldn't worry about the move too much - obviously these events can be stressful but I can tell you that out of the various places we've lived over the years, moving to Singapore was by far the easiest process.

If you've had a chance to search out other posts on this topic, you'll have probably already found this piece of advice, but just in case... The general suggestion is to stay in a Serviced Apartment for at least a month after moving here (ideally paid by the employer if you can negotiate that). That will give you time to look at lots of properties and hopefully find one you like and get the tenancy agreement in place. I'd definitely recommend against making a decision on a place before you've actually seen several and had a chance to negotiate from a position of strength.

Oh, one last piece of advice - be careful about posters who register just to put one message of the kind that the custard individual asked. The moderators keep a close eye on these things and if they turn out to be genuine then no problem; however we do get a number of people whose motives are not compatible with the ethos of this site. They don't last long here, thankfully.

Posted: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 4:09 pm
by Taitaiwife
Have you checked the waiting list situation at Tanglin? For some years they have a very long waiting list (2 years+), unless your husband's company is willing to pay the exorbitant guaranteed place fee.

There are plenty of accommodation options near Tanglin. We are close by in Pasir Panjang area (district 5). There are loads of options here on condos and landed houses. Not so many options on cluster homes, and you'll find these are often the most expensive type of accommodation. We've lived in both condos and landed houses during our time here and both were fine. Condos tend to be smaller, especially the newer ones. With a house you won't usually have any facilities, although we managed to rent a swimming pool for ours. And by the way we pay WAY less than 9k for our current landed house, so deals are out there, you just have to look. Try . website.

Other areas to consider living would be Buona Vista, Holland Village, Holland Road, Dover/Clementi, Queenstown/Commonwealth (D3). I see there are quite a few new condos springing up along nearby North Buona Vista road. All depends on your preferences and needs. As previous poster mentioned, it's best to spend the first month in a Serviced Apartment so you can get a taste for the different areas before making the plunge.

Also consider transport - how will your child get to school. The school bus is a good option but check the bus routes and timings. Also consider ease of public transport i.e. MRT for hubby getting to work and for yourself. (Unless you're planning to buy a car, but the loan rules have just changed on that one so you'd better bring lots of $$$$$!)