I haven’t blogged for a looong time. So it’s just right that I write a long entry about our house-hunting this year. So this is going to be quite a long read…
Because our contract for our Holland Close flat is expiring in June, we already contemplated as early as January whether we should renew the contract or not. For one thing, our housemates will be moving out already and unless the owner is willing to meet our price range, then we’d have to move and find another flat.
As we had expected, the owner (more like the agent, I think) did not bulge to our tawad. The agents that we had then, let’s call her “Agent L”, talked to us about finding a new place by June. We told her our requirements (budget, location, interiors, etc) but she was quite negative (i.e. Ay naku, wala kayong mahahanap na okay sa ganyang price range!), and I didn’t like it one bit. She kept telling us our budget is not enough and we won’t be able to find a place within that range. We didn’t believe her because we’ve done our research and we know that our price range is just reasonable for a studio or a one-bedroom flat. Plus the fact that property rates went down this year. And so, I told my husband I didn’t want to have her as our agent anymore because I don’t like dealing with negative people. I believed that the reason she didn’t like our budget was because, the lower our budget, the lower her fee would be (In Singapore, you need to pay your agent half of one month’s rental rate for a year of their services).
So who became our agent? Eian, wife of one of my paddle-side brothers here, is a property agent and so we asked her to be our agent. She’s really good because she understands what we want, what we need, and how much we can really afford. In fact, there were times during our viewings that I was about to make an offer already, but she would be my “voice of conscience” and ask me “Sure ka, Mitch, okay na sa’yo to?”. (Jun, who had higher standards than me, was away on vacation a few weeks ago, I was the only one who went with my agent for the first two viewing sessions. Thus, the low standards and low expectations hehe)
When I viewed the first few studios, I thought “Yikes, our things won’t fit in here.” I also noticed that most studios here in Singapore are in private apartments/buildings. Most of the studio units in HDBs are allocated to older people without any families. And because most studios are not in HDBs, their locations are a bit far from the MRT or bus stations. If you look at the city lay out of Singapore, you’d notice that government-owned properties (e.g. HDBs) are the ones near the MRT and bus interchanges.
Here are the units that I have shiortlisted after four sessions of viewings, which spanned two weekends:
@Tanah Merah
The first place I “shortlisted” was a studio apartment in Tanah Merah. It is actually a landed property converted into a number of studio apartments. The house has its own small elevator! Nice! It’s not an open-space studio concept—which means that there is some sort of a dividing wall that separates the living area from the bedroom. It was really cute (literally cute actually, because it was so small). I can see the potential of the place in spite of the messy unit that we viewed (there was still a tenant occupying it during our viewing). The downside is, it’s far from the MRT station. There are also no buses because it’s a road of “landed properties” which means that people staying there have cars so the government probably thought “Oh we don’t need it to be a part of the bus routes then.” How much is the rent? It’s priced at $1500 (negotiable).
And so I e-mailed the pics to my hubby (who was in Manila that time):
My hubby’s verdict: Not good enough. He said it’s too far from the MRT (which means I will end up complaining to him everyday about the walk). It’s too small and cramped. Plus, Tanah Merah is too far from the city. And there are no nearby convenience stores, etc. The $1500 is just not worth it.
@Balestier
I viewed this unit twice—first time, it was just me; then second time, I was with hubby. It’s a private building with studio units inside; walking distance to Novena MRT station. Jun and I liked it because all the fixtures and furnishings were new and of good quality. It’s priced at $1400 inclusive of PUB, Cable TV and internet. Not bad, huh. The downside is, it’s an open-concept studio and we don’t think that our stuff would fit in that space. After viewing it with Jun, we decided that if we really cannot find anything for the next two weeks, then we would make an offer already for this place. In the event that we stay at this studio, we’d have to think of some way to keep (or dispose) some of our bulky stuff).
If you are a couple (pwede ring single) and you are just starting it out here in SG, I highly recommend this to you. Most probably you don’t have your own furniture and appliances yet so this set up is just right for you. The fact that the rental price is inclusive of PUB, Cable TV and internet is really a good deal. They have different studio layouts, so you can choose which one you prefer. Took some photos of the studio unit:
@Guillemard
A little backgrounder: Our soon-to-be-ex-housemates will be moving to a 2-bedroom private apartment in a building called Guillemard View. It’s located at the “quieter” side of Geylang, adjacent to Guillemard Road. Like other private apartments, the layout was spacious. And so, when Mommy Eian told me that there is a unit up for rent in that same building, with the same layout, and is within our budget, I got really excited!
When I first viewed the Guillemard unit, I was shocked because it looked so different from what I expected. It was a bit run down, and the owners had too many furniture that they didn’t want to move out. So the “spacious layout” that I had expected, became very cramped and baduy. I told myself that maybe when Jun sees it for himself, he’d decide that the price of $1500 is worth it because of the space and the location (it was walking distance to my office) and that we’d just fix the place up.
On my second viewing of the Guillemard unit, this time with Jun, he took one look and he didn’t like it. It was not “magaan sa loob”. He always believed that once you step inside a unit, you’d know if you will like it or not once you feel that it is “magaan sa loob”. I was already panicking a bit because nothing seems to be within our requirements. I wanted to settle with the Guillemard unit (thinking that it was worth it because of the size and location).
@Marine Terrace
By this time, we have already viewed the flat at Marine Terrace, and it was out of our budget. But since we really liked the Marine Terrace unit, we made an offer for $1500 (vs owner’s price of $1800). I told Jun that it is most unlikely that the owner will give way (yes, I was being nega at this time because I was too scared we might not be able to find a flat in time for our Holland unit contract’s expiration). Our offer was $300 below the rental price! We made the offer around 6pm and we didn’t get any reply from the owner’s agent at all. We thought, maybe it wasn’t really for us, then. But lo and behold, Jun woke me up the following day with very good news: Mommy Eian called him to inform him that the owner accepted our offer. Woohoo!
Why did the owner accept our (low) offer? It must have been our charm! Haha. Actually, the other prospective tenants had higher offers than us. But the owner thought that we would be able to take care of the flat better, and it’s just the two of us so there won’t be much wear and tear. She’d rather rent it out at a cheaper price than spend a lot for the renovations/repairs when the tenants move out.
So here is our new home w.e.f. 13 Jun 2009. The pros and cons:
PROs – $1500 for 2 bedrooms; corner flat; super well-maintained as the owner is always abroad; we are the first tenants; renovated; owner seems nice; nice view of the sea and trees; near restaus and bars at East Coast; there’s a direct bus going to my workplace and Jun’s workplace; quiet neighborhood; walking distance to a food court and market; toilet and bath is in good condition—very clean, no stains, etc; near the airport; playground (for my future babies), badminton and basketball court just beside our building; CCTV cameras in the lift and other common areas (not all HDBs have this—it’s a special installation because GCT is the MP in this area; and finally, Goh Chock Tong is the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for this constituency—yay!
CONs – it’s not near an MRT station; no supermarket (like CS or NTUC) nearby; the unit is not on a high floor (it’s just on the fifth floor); travel time taking the direct bus to city (Suntec/Orchard etc) is more than 30 minutes; other CONs shall be discovered as we go along but hopefully it won’t be a lot.
So here’s a sneak peak of the next Tuloy ang Ligaya residence:
