Singapore Expats

We are relocating in a few months to Sing and as previous threads have discussed rents have gone past our budget of looking for a bungalow so now need to look at townhouse/semi-detached/condo. We have a special needs child (no behaviour problems but can be a bit loud at times) and were hoping she could have a bit of space (ride bike, play in pool etc without too much attention. Have also noticed t/house, semis have many levels and stairs could be a problem so are now considering condo living.
We are very conscious of not disturbing other people, are quite private and don't wish to draw attention to our daughter so condo living would be a stretch for us but cannot see any other alternative. I would appreciate any suggestions you may have for any accom you think would be good for our daughter and us. Family of 2 adults, 2 kids (13 & 9), no car and need pool budget $8,000 max (have only put this in as it seems relative to what people suggest and am not posing, this is our own money not co's).
Thank you for your thoughts in advance. Cheers!

Hi,
U are right, rent has gone up drastically in the past few months, however a lot depends on the area that u wish to live around. In the Orchard and Holland area getting a bunglow or landed house with pool for $8000 might be difficulty. But a friend of mine recently got a bargain, landed house on the west coast for $2100. So look in the local papers.
Another thing, there are lots of low rise condos in Singapore that have 20-50 apartments, fewer people , more privacy and calmer environment.
Hope this helps u,
Neeti

we have a deaf teenage boy with ADHD so as you can imagine our house gets pretty loud often. we live in a condo only 4 units share the lift on this floor so not too many neighbours and its pretty sound proof Ive checked when the TV is on (he has it very loud as there are no english subtitles here) out in the lobby. As for the common areas I think your best bet is a smaller condo block. We arent overly concerned about attention from others and Ben is now 17 so has had plenty of years experience dealing with it all as has his younger brother. Good luck with the search.

Good luck with your search. If I were in your situation I certainly would opt for a condo over a house. The pool, playground, security and convenience of condo living beats a house rental anyday if you have kids, in my opinion. I wouldn't worry about noise too much...your child won't be the only one to get loud at times and besides, most condos are well insulated with thick walls.

But if you're paying for it out of your own pocket, you should know you don't need to spend $8K. You can find a roomy 3br for half that and even less in most areas away from Holland Village and Orchard. It just depends on where you choose to live.

Good luck!

Don't completely put a bungalow out of the question, it all depends where you want to live, there are still some out there that are not too badly priced, keep an eye for them.

I sympathise with your problem of not wanting to make noise, I have a very similar situation and the thought of inflicting that type of noise on close neighbours is hard. We ended up in a semiD with a little garden, fortunately with a family of 4 next door, also with similar situation, so they understand. You won't find any that are only one level though.

We tried looking at condos, as facilities etc make life so much easier, but you have to look hard to find well sound proofed ones, they are around, we only found one, the others weren't in any way noise proof, in fact whilst looking we could hear the neighbours so it wasn't a good move.

If you need one level only then a bungalow or condo are the only way to go. Your budget should get you something pretty good in the way of a condo, depends again on where you want to live.

I don't think you'll find any affordably priced bungalows with a pool though, regardless of where you're looking.

As far as the noise in condos, though, I have to disagree. We stayed in a 3br place in Upper Bukit Timah from 2000-2003 right next to the Nature Reserve and while it wasn't soundproof, we never ever heard any noises from our neighbors, nor they from us, as far as we know. I have a friend who just vacated a place on the ground floor in the condo next to that one and he never heard a sound from his neighbors either. I suspect it's just a matter of some condos are better insulated than others.

If you require a pool and the property has the grounds you can request the landlord have one installed - they hire them for around $500 plus per month depending on the size of the pool which includes servicing.

$5K (Dec 06) for renovated 3brm corner terrace with a small pool, deck, roof top garden and garage. Its quiet and easy walking distance to supermarket, bus stop and food centre. We're in the West Coast too. Check the papers, saw semi detached today for $5.5K out our way.

It really depends on the area, if you want to be in the thick of expatville you will pay for it.