Singapore Expats

Just to share my recent experience on the flat hunting becoz I am pissed off by those greedy landlords and agents (still saying market is going up....WTF). Pls note that the rental market is going down and there are plenty of supplies in the market. First of all, identify areas and condos you would like to stay, then send mass sms to agents/landlords saying "Hi. Tenants here. Looking for fully furnished X bedroom unit at condo x. 2 prof. 1 from country A and 1 from country B. Working in X and X industries. 1 year personal lease. Highest rent offer is Xk. Bring cheque to view. Pls confirm our highest rent offer with the landlord before arranging viewing. Mr. X". Your highest rent offer can be the asking price in the newspaper minus 20%. This can screen those landlords who are not interested in your highest rent offer out and save your time in viewing relevant units. And you cost is only a sms and a few second to send the sms. You can tailor-make your sms to suit your case.

And you should have sufficient time to do your hunting (roughly 1.5-2 mths time) becoz time is very important for you to find a good deal. But those hungry landlord would usually like you to move in asap. It doesn't really matter because even your current lease has not expired yet and you have to pay double rent for the first 1mth, you might be still be better off becoz you save the money from 2nd to 12th mth. for me I am lucky coz my previous landlord allows (after negotiation) me to move out earlier then the lease expiry date. For my case, after a 3 wks hunting, I found a place at 3.7K while the asking price in the newspaper is 4.5K. Hope the above is useful to you.

Arrived on a Friday morning, had offer agreed on apartment by 6pm Sunday

I read an interesting research report from a European investment bank. It detailed the projected demand and supply of housing units here in Singapore.

The bottom line is that in the recent go-go years too many construction projects were started. WAY too many. They are reaching completion over the next couple of years, and demand has not increased to match supply.

I also have a property agent friend (well, he thinks he is a friend), and he confirms that sales have slowed dramatically, and rents are down in the last 6mo.

Things are getting better. It'll be a great place to invest in property again in a year or so.

Hi thread starter and all forum members,

Would like to share my experience with all of you out there.

I have been looking for a HDB unit since 2 years ago, and until now i am currently still renting a room at Hougang area with a monthly rental of S$550 excluding untilities and not allow any cooking. Thus my monthly expenses could easily mount up to S$2,000 per month (as my wife is not working, just gotten her PR).

As i have just started work not long ago, around 13 months, my CPF ordinary account is less than S$10K. I am really mad at the HDB system that i wrote an email to Mr. Lee Hsien Loong on early May 2008 (too bad, his secretary replied me, as i have already presume, he would be too busy to reply to a common citizen like me), and recently another email to Mr. Mah Bow Tan, pleading with him to help me make an appeal to HDB as i couldn't get a HDB unit, and have been moving from place to place (landlord increase rental abruptly or unreasonable landlord). He tried appeal to HDB once for me, however, i think he himself gave up on HDB with their reply as follows:

HDB given me 3 options, which all 3 turns out to be nonsensical answers. They have replied to me and left me with the following 3 options:

(1) BTO : Getting a BTO flat, and there's no guarantee that i can, coz of the queueing system, gotta have a computer to generate your queue number basing on certain criteria, and after getting a number, if you are lucky, you will get a HDB unit, maybe in 4-5 years time;

(2) Buying from Open market: Guess what that idiotic guy (Head of HDB Sales Operation) from HDB replied to me, i would be able to find a HDB unit that is close to valuation or even at valuation --> This really piss me off....Think HDB personnel never conduct any market survey or perhaps don't bother. I really don't know what the F%^$ he was thinking about to have replied me this. If you are the owner, would you sell at valuation price only, guess HDB people doesn't have the luxury to surf the internet and make any reference to property webby (or perhaps they don't care)

(3) Lastly they replied me with a SORRY, saying that it would not be fair for them to release a miserable unit to me, as it would not be fair for others in the queue.

I got so flare up and replied to Mah Bow Tan, and cc a copy to the respective Sales Head, and this is what i wrote:

Are the HDB able to find a HDB unit that is closed to valuation or at valuation price, if they are able to, then perhaps, i would have buy from them immediately. Have the HDB ever conduct market research at all, are they too contented with their job, that they would just perform the normally office routine without conducting any market research and survey? And only after this, i got a phone call from HDB sales department, saying that they could offer me their help by helping me look for ....not a HDB unit, but an agent. What in the heck do i need an agent for??? There's alot of agents everywhere, be it newspaper or internet. I asked the phone operator, does your agent differ from others outside the market, unfortunately, she replied with a "NO". But there's really no way that i could reject her kind intention. Therefore i gladly took the offer that she gave. And before she hang up, she said that she would get the respective agent to call me ASAP, and i told her, it would definitely be a high mountain for the agent to climbe to have picked up my case.

And sadly, it has been 2 weeks, and no one called me. I don't know at this point of time, i should be feeling sad or happy. It seems that Singapore is not a land for the poor.

@KneejerkBobby: I read an even better article with statistics....showing that even within the past 2 years, the new rental contracts signed off were nothing but normal numbers...no hikes and peaks and whatever they wanted us to believe. Bottomline: there haven't been arriving so many expats as they told everybody and most of the increase was built up just artificially...just like the US bank and financial systems....will it crash as bad...anytime soon??

I know a friend too which was quoted 4.5K for a unit and edned up paying 3.3K for it. So beware of greedy landloard anddishonest agents.

I agree with the above statements. Was looking for a unit to rent in april/may. Rent prices were C.R.A.Z.Y. Everyone was saying don't even bother looking for something under this or that price. When I was giving my budget, people went "Forget it. You won't find anything".
But I did, and in a central location.

It's quite important to take your time, like said before. If you have exactly in mind what you want, and at what price, stick to it and don't waste time on crazy prices/agents/landlords.

Another thing, not to bitch or anything, but you don't really need an agent to find a place to stay in SG. And a lot of landlords actually prefer to cut the middleman too...