Singapore Expats

Hi, is there anyone who can give me some advise. We are moving to Singapore mid June and was wondering .....

- Should we bring our own fridge, washing machine and dryer
- Do Australian appliances work in Singapore eg: TV
- do landlord negotiate rent if we use our own appliances and will they remove there current furniture in apartment

We are staying to temp housing for a month till our container arrives and will hopefully find an apartment to rent. I have seen on the website for rental that some if not most apartments come furnished (or are the picture to just make the apartment more appealing to us). We are getting mixed messages from everyone about this.
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Yes, they do work. Except the plug doesn't fit, so you'll have to either get adaptors, or change the plugs to the local ones.

One whether you should bring those over here, unless you have some super snazzy appliances that are custom made and irreplaceable, I say to leave them in Australia. Shipping them here would probably cost you more than getting new ones, unless your shipping is paid for by your employer.

As for rental, I don't think the landlord will be very happy if you used your own (major) appliances. And no, they probably won't reduce the rent and won't remove them as they do not have anywhere to put them if they are removed.

As for the apartment being furnished, I tend to notice that apartments for rent that have websites are generally furnished, and thus more expensive. Once you come here, you'll probably get a better idea of the market aside from those available online.

Yes everything will work just fine. Free to air TV here is crap, so you will likely get cable and the set top boxes have a wide variety of outputs (RF, HDMI, Components etc.)

DL is right, your landlord is very unlikely to reduce the rent for bringing your own. You might even find yourself being charged for removal and storage!! In my experience, I found most places (condo's) come partially furnished - which means whitegoods only.

However if you aren't paying for your own relo, think carefully about it. Quality brands such as Fisher & Paykel that you can buy relatively cheap in Australia are premium appliances in Singapore. Unless you get a brand new condo, you are likely to be furnished with cheap, no featured, well worn whitegoods that will chew through your power bill.

Also, who knows how hygenic the last tenant was? I certainly wouldn't wan to to wash my clothes in the remnanats of some famlilies nappies or dog blanket!

Another thing to be mindful of is that the rental market is negotiable. Things you might have felt uncomfortable asking for back home are kosher in Singapore. Its perfectly fine for example to ask for a new coat of paint - something I would never have done for in Oz. How much are you willing to spend on a condo? If its a fair amount, then you would be in a good position to negotiate with the landlord for brand new applicances anyway.

We didn't bring our washing machine and regret it...

We moved to Sinagpore from Australia earlier this year and we literally brought everything except for whitegoods.

From all the apartments we looked at they all came with whitegoods (eg: fridge, washer, dryver, microwave, dishwasher). That is what was considered furnished.

If your employer is paying to bring your furniture over, then i agree with the earlier post that you just need to either buy lots of adapators (which is what we have done) or get the plugs refitted.

If you are paying for shipping yourself you have to weigh the cost of storage and buying new goods, against the cost of shipping evrything over.

The quality of the whitegoods is usually a reflection of the quality of the apartment. But definitely feel free to ask the landlord for new items as part of your lease negotiation. They won't be offended - though they may not agree. Always worth a try here

We arrived in 2004 and have since left. We brought our washer and dryer as they were a larger size (Kleenmaid). We got an electrician in to change the plug or put in the correct outlet. The condo we moved into had a very small washer that was moved out as well as the trashy furniture. . .what the LL did with, was his problem!! We didn't bring our refrigerator and glad we didn't as most apt. won't hold the larger ones that we tend to have in OZ. We brought all our little kitchen appliances, the microwave and the TV. We had the plugs changed in order to use them without any problem. We were not being moved by the company, we paid for it, so that didn't come into the equation.
I guess its really your choice and how attached you are to your things.

thanks to everyone who replied...we are here and just trying to settle in.

Welcome to Singapore.

Hope you enjoy your stay here.