Singapore Expats

Hello!! Apologies, this is my first post so I have lots of questions! When I finally move out to Singapore I promise I'll post some more sociable messages!

The company I'm working for in the UK is sending me out to Singapore for 12months in Oct. I've looked on a few sites, including this one, and often rental prices say 'negotiable'. Can anyone offer any advice on how much realistically below the asking price you can secure an apartment / condo for; 10%, 25% 50%???! Also, if it doesn't say negotiable, can I assume everything is? Am I right in thinking the any agents fees for rent above $2500 per month is paid by the landlord? Just so you know, the company I'm working for is helping me, but is not paying all my rent (you poor thing I hear you say!!) so I def need to get the best price possible!

Thanks to the kind person who can answer these, probably quite tedious, questions!

Richard.

Dont forget the "negotiable" rent can increases, agents claiming there's a second or third bid on the place.

Yeah, the majority of times it negotiates upwards with the ruse of other buyers are interested so I really need a deposit check now! Of course they won't cash the check as they will take the check to show the other potential clients to up the amount!

Also the rents you see advertised are often not realistic, there are two types:

1. They just place daft adverts to snag a potential client, call them up and you will find miraculously all the good deals have been "taken".

2. Landlords in denial, they took the developers bait, bought the unit and are trying to rent at the over inflated prices the developer suggested to them at the off plan stage. They cannot accept they have been taken for a ride. If they are loaded then they wont budge on the rent, if they are desperate, you could get a deal, a good indicator of desperation is the "for rent OR sale" sign on the unit.


They size up properties here with a rubber tape measure, if there's a light well in the middle of the unit they take that void space as part of the sq footage. Ask them if the sq footage, is gross internal area, net internal area, or net external area, if they dont know the difference then you know you are dealing with a right muppet and walk away.


The local agents make up their own TA using lots of Singlish legalspeak and have not got a clue, so get your company lawyers to draw up a water tight TA, as tenant you have no rights.

Remember the old saying "If its too go to be true..."

18 months ago, 'negotiable' meant "this is what I am going to charge you. Take it or leave it".

Now, things have changed. Landlords are still trying for the high rents of two years ago but here in my neighborhood I know of people that have negotiated 25 percent lease reductions for a renewal.

So, its going to depend where you are looking.

Thanks for the feedback . Wow, I hadn't even thought about rents being negotiated upwards - that's a good one to know about thanks. I'm on a familiarisation at the start of Oct, so I'll see how I get on.

Can anyone answer my question about the agents fees? Anything over $2500 per month , agents fees are paid by the landlord?

My budget is ~$3000 for a modern 1 or 2 bedroom apartment / condo (part furnished). Is this reasonable for a nice place?

Richard.

Hi Richard,

yes that budget is reasonable for a two to three bedroom apartment in say Sengkang. You wouldn't get much for it right smack next to Orchard but honestly, although many Singaporeans complain Sengkang or Tampines for example are far out because the commute in total is 40 minutes, they are actually still rather accessible if you come from London for example.

we just found a place 1500sq for $2800 which was negaotiated down from $3000 and it is a 3 bedroom so don't be to freaked out by other posts you can get a good place not to far out we are in Bukit Timah

abee wrote:don't be to freaked out by other posts you can get a good place

Agreed, take some comments you may hear or read, with a large pinch of salt – some sort of weird scare mongering does occur.

Take a look around 10 or 15 properties (PM me, I can give you a very good agent I recommend, and used recently), decide a block you like, hopefully there will be a couple in that block, make an offer 20% under the asking price on one, and go from there – things will turn out Ok…

Regards

Andy.

The agent for the landlord I'm dealing with (just for a room not a flat) offered a 10% or S$100 3 month try it out discount which was pretty interesting.

I am planning to stay for 2-3 months and hopefully find a flat share. Although prices are negotiable for sure I definitely noticed in the market for rooms prices are all over the map. With the limited amount of time I had to hunt it looks like a lot of the rooms are sitting empty and there are lots of units available in the same buildings.

Just be careful when dealing with "your" agent. We recently found out that our agent took a an undisclosed extra half a month's rent in commission from the landlord. When questioned on this (a year after the fact) they stated that "The reason why Landlord was willing to pay external/co-broke agent separately & above market norm was because he expected higher rental than the market value".

Silly us thought that our agent was working on our behalf, not negotiating on the side with the landlord to keep the rent high. It would have been nice of them to mention this to us.....

Live and learn!

We know now the second time around.

PS Anyone can pm me if they want to know who not to use!