Singapore Expats

Has anybody had experience bidding on a black and white Bungaloo? Any tips?

The previous bids section is interesting reading and probably the best source of intel. In the old days you didn't have to bid....

The (few) times I bid, it went way beyond what a reasonable person would be willing to pay for the property. The B&Ws went from relatively cheap (under the old, fixed-price scheme they were always much cheaper than comparable privately owned houses) to very expensive. Smart move for the government, which gets the proceeds, but bad for people who want to live in green surroundings and don't have a Golden Goose.

Back when the reverted housing (former British military housing - black & whites) were handled by UDMC they were cheap and bare bones. I lived in a black &white for 15 years in seletar airbase. Used to only pay $400/month. After UDMC stopped and they were taken over by Pidemco/Premas International the rent quadrupled in 2 years when they started putting the up for bidding the prices went out the roof.

What's worse is that the current bid managers seem to reject bids if they come in cheap or a single bidder wins.

It's an interesting Process but you will still get more house for your money than on the private market even with the bidding system. If u go onto the Spio.sla.gov.sg web site u can see what's currently available and what the viewing/bidding dates are. It also has the list of rules around the bidding process. One thing we have learnt is if u really want somewhere you are going to have to be prepared to pay up, sadly we have been pipped at the post twice, clearly what we think is paying up is not quite enough,

freech wrote:It's an interesting Process but you will still get more house for your money than on the private market even with the bidding system. If u go onto the Spio.sla.gov.sg web site u can see what's currently available and what the viewing/bidding dates are. It also has the list of rules around the bidding process. One thing we have learnt is if u really want somewhere you are going to have to be prepared to pay up, sadly we have been pipped at the post twice, clearly what we think is paying up is not quite enough,

How accurate is the "guide rent" on that site? I see some decent looking places under $3k/month (which seems really low), and some really nice places for over $20k/month (which seems slightly high).

I think the low side is a bit low, but I do know that the high side does exist but boy are those places huge.