Singapore Expats

There seems to be loads Partially Furn and Furn and not much Unfurn. We'd like to move our furniture over to Singapore but wonder if that gives us far less options to rent? Looking to rent min 2 bedroom up to $4K pm. Any advice greatly appreciated.

No major problem from my experience (we are renting already 2nd unfurnished apartment)

But see also this thread:
http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/ftopic89207.htm

Thank you Moderator.
What does everyone else think?

Hi Hughes11,

We are in an unfurnished place. There are a lot around, and everything is negotiable when renting here. We didn't like one of the built in robes (was just ugly and deteriorating) so we asked that they remove it. Which was no issue.

Just remember that apartments/condos here are much smaller than a lot of westerners are used to. You don't need to bring the 8 seat dining table with huge wooden chairs that gets used at christmas and easter. Bring only the basics. Anything else you need is a short ikea shop away.

elspike wrote:Hi Hughes11,

We are in an unfurnished place. There are a lot around, and everything is negotiable when renting here. We didn't like one of the built in robes (was just ugly and deteriorating) so we asked that they remove it. Which was no issue.

Just remember that apartments/condos here are much smaller than a lot of westerners are used to. You don't need to bring the 8 seat dining table with huge wooden chairs that gets used at christmas and easter. Bring only the basics. Anything else you need is a short ikea shop away.

Thanks Elspike. Only have a 1 bed flat of furn so we should fit. I'll take the chance and move it over.

Cheers

partially furnished is a bit better, because it usually means white goods which you might want anyway

Many landlords here will remove their furniture if you want them to. If you find a place you really like but it's furnished, just ask them to take their stuff out - the worst they can do is say no.

It's also common for places here to be rented out as "partially furnished", which really means whitegoods only. So you can still bring most of your things without the hassle of storage.

Actually, most LLs here will NOT remove furniture. Storage costs in Singapore are high, so why should they lost part of their rental income because of storage costs? Most will tell you to store it in the spare bedroom if you have one.

My LL has been pretty good. I wanted a bigger refrigerator so they came and took away the old one. We didn't like / want the sofa or dinning table and the LL agreed we could dispose of them (I have that in writing of course!) plus our apartment has a storage room where we have put anything else we don't want to use. Just depends on the LL I guess.

We had a similar experience. The landlords were fine to get rid of furniture and removed two beds for us. Friends of ours have done the same. There's definitely nothing to be lost by asking.