Singapore Expats

Hi all,

I am relocating to SG from Europe in one month. I am a 26 years old single male. I will be staying in a temporary housing provided by the company the first month, but afterwards, I have to find something myself.

Hence, I hope that you can help me with the following:

1) Will it possible to find a place in one month, when I am in Singapore, or should I start looking already now via the internet?

My budget is around 3.000SGD, but prefer to spend a bit less as my total salary will be around 9k. I assume that, 6k should be enough to have a ok life in SG?

2) I don't mind, that I have to commute a bid to work, as long as I live in a nice area. So what would you say is the most hip area for young people at the moment? The travel guides says "Tiong Bahru". Do you agree?

Looking forward to your reply.

Jens0497 wrote:Hi all,

I am relocating to SG from Europe in one month. I am a 26 years old single male. I will be staying in a temporary housing provided by the company the first month, but afterwards, I have to find something myself.

Hence, I hope that you can help me with the following:

1) Will it possible to find a place in one month, when I am in Singapore, or should I start looking already now via the internet?

My budget is around 3.000SGD, but prefer to spend a bit less as my total salary will be around 9k. I assume that, 6k should be enough to have a ok life in SG?

2) I don't mind, that I have to commute a bid to work, as long as I live in a nice area. So what would you say is the most hip area for young people at the moment? The travel guides says "Tiong Bahru". Do you agree?

Looking forward to your reply.

Pasir Ris is where its at!!!

Yes, easy to find a place in one month. It's a renters market at the moment, so prices are low-ish.

I think you can get an HDB of approx. 700sq ft for around $2k. Interior décor will vary widely, so best to view a few units. With Aircon, utilities and services you can probably get it all for under $2500. And yes, not a bad life on $9k, its quite up there and far higher than local average (which is fine if you live a local average life - if you want a car, restaurants very night etc then its OK)

Where will you be working?

I guess that Tiong Bahru is probably the most hip if you're looking for expensive coffee, foodie restaurants, barbers and Chinese hardware stores. Not so good for bars/clubs but not too far either. Not a bad place to look for a singleton but no MRT (Havelock road is upcoming in a few years I think). But if you're OK with busses, no problem. You'll probably see a lot of round-eyes in the area, second only to the usual expat enclaves of Newton & Sentosa.

Look around Moh Guan Terrance, Tama Ho Swee, Bukit Ho Swee. You can also look on the doorstep of Tiong Bahru in places like Telok Blangah or Tajong Pagar (Spottiswoode springs to mind).

HTH.

One more thing,

You can use the HDB interactive map to check recent rental rates in the block/nearby blocks:
http://services2.hdb.gov.sg/web/fi10/emap.html

If you're going private, I believe the URA has a similar list of rental prices.

And as mentioned, it's a renter's market SO HAGGLE! And when you move in, take pictures of every square inch and send them to your agent and landlord so there can be NO ARGUMENT when you move out. Landlords where generally expect to keep the deposit...that one scratch on a wooden floor? Yeah that's a $5000 sanding and varnishing for the whole apartment now...

curiousgeorge wrote: ... but no MRT (Havelock road is upcoming in a few years I think).

Other than the stop called Tiong Bahru A little bit of a walk from the trendy end.