Singapore flag hung from balcony on National Day.
SingaporeA friend of mine in Singapore lives on the 25th floor.
I asked, "Do you like that?"
He replied, "I love it."
I asked, "You mean the view?"
"No the breeze. We don't need the aircon."
I have lived in the UK, USA, and Singapore.
USA
In the USA rooms are larger. Near Washington DC we had large rooms and walk in closets for hanging clothes. Our main problem was noise from neighbours. The building construction was flimsy, with wooden floors meaning your footsteps were heard by the people below. Even walking normally, your steps were heard. If children ran up and down, the problem was exacerbated.
Points to consider:
View
Size of rooms
Noise from outside
Noise from neighbours and below and above
Likelihood of neighbouring land being built on
Cost of heating of aircon
Nearness of swimming pool or gym or on site
Advantages of Swimming pools
In Singapore most residents lived in the government run HDB housing blocks. An expat who has married a Singaporean may be eligible for an HDB house. You can usually find a public swimming pool nearby.
An expat with a reasonable income will be expected to rent, or buy, in the private sector, where condos such as this one have a central shared swimming pool.
Noise
You are likely to want to have your windows and patio doors open (unless you can afford to run the air conditioning all day). You will probably hear echoing from swimming pool (even parents, grandparents and the swimming instructors shouting across the pool to children learning to swim). You might also get noise from the playground, people enjoying barbecues, nearby traffic, nearby schools.
I met one family where the wife went home to her country because the buildling work noise adjacent to her block was intolerable and the water was cut off for thee days. She had children and sleepless nights from a baby and wanted to take afternoon naps. If you are at home all day, or working from home, and cannot tolerate noise, this could be a nuisance.
The short-term solution is to go out for the day.
On the other hand, if you are the sort who sleeps through a thunderstorm which wakes everybody else, and are working away a lot, you could get a good deal of low rent on a block which other people won't take.
In the early days in Singapore, we lived right in the centre. Our employers' package included a car and we had a tiny flat, a brand new block, poor outlook, with only cold water in the kitchen taps, and no windows in the brand new kitchen, just grilles. I hated it.
We then moved to a huge old-fashioned top floor flat, stifling hot with a magnificent view over Singapore in both directions with balconies both sides.
We were shown all sorts of time-wasting places. One flat had no blaconies and high horizontal slit windows so as not to overlook nearby VIP government minister housing. Another flat with no balcony and small windows reminded me of a prison cell. Despite reasonable sized rooms it was claustrophobic.
Although we had asked for a flat near a station, we were taken to see suburban house just in case we liked it. It was built against a near vertical hillside, with only just room to walk around the back and the view straight into the hillside yards from your face from the windows in dark rooms. Big and cheap, fine for a single parent or couple out travelling or entertaining every night in restaurants, leaving behind small children and a maid, not for us.
In Singapore, Australians like to live on the East coast near the beach. You can run along the shore and have sundown parties at seafood restaurants.
Singaporeans like Australia because it is a chance to buy, with freehold. In Singapore large numbers of freehold properties are only 99 years. In the second half of the term, the re-sale value of the property can drop a lot, maybe as much as half, because you can your children can live there but you have nothing to leave to your grandchildren, neither the place to live nor the financial value.
Singaporean companies run by the Chinese tend to work longer hours. The Singaporeans will work evenings and weekends and expect you to work late and work Saturdays or Sundays.
Similar work ethic to East coast America, New York and Washington, DC.
In Australia, you are more likely to leave work at 5 pm for a drink or a swim.
Success!
In Singapore we moved into a remote suburb where the local railway station was still being built. Scheduled for six months later. We got a reasonable rent, after hunting all over Singapore for something we could afford. In purely financial terms, the cost of taxis was offset by the saving in rent. I spent part of the first six months in the UK anyway. When we finally settled in, we loved out new place and the rent was fixed for two years.
TRANSPORT
Nearness to bus and train
Being on the line to work or social activities
Near the airport if you travel - but what you save on living further out could pay for a lot of taxis.
In the USA being on the route and near the stop for the yellow school bus service.
Your checklist:
First make your one must have factor. With me that is a swimming pool.
1 Location
2 Bedrooms: Number of bedrooms - visitors, study etc.
3 Facilities: gym, swimming pool, social activities.
4 Shopping - nearness to shops, shop on site.
5 Heating or aircon.
6 Cost - does the agent say it's negotiable. Maybe the householder asked a high price because there was a chance somebody would take it; also they were afraid they would get lower offers than their asking price so they raised the asking price. A huge block may have two or three units at different prices. See them all before deciding.
7 Noise. Ground floor or low floor is better in a fir or when lifts (elevators won't work). High floors are above traffic noise and give better views.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer
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