(P.S. I found this post in my saved drafts and so published it about 2 1/2 yrs over due; but I do think it was worth including).
Day 2 in Singapore of our Orientation Tour. Jonathan and I were both awake for the day at 4 am. It was the day of our Driving Tour of Singapore and also an afternoon of condo viewings.
The housing agent had sent us a list of the condos we would be viewing the night before. We pulled out our laptops and looked each condo up. I really liked the look of the one that was on a 10 acre property, but we quickly realized that all of the condo were in exactly the same area: Holland Village. It was way farther away from Jonathan's work than we wanted to be, and didn't seem to meet any of the requirements that we had specified. So we freaked out for an hour or so, found a list of a whole bunch of places we would rather see and were about to send an email asking them to rebook us, when Jonathan suggested that maybe we should just go down and eat breakfast first. It was a good idea!
We had paid $20 each extra to have the daily full-breakfast included with our room. It was money well spent. If you aren't familiar with eating in Asia, and have this option at your hotel, do it! They had a large spread of Western and Eastern dishes. It helped me figure out common Eastern dishes that I liked and weren't allergic to. It was the one meal a day that I knew I would actually eat my fill and I didn't have to make any decisions or try to decipher what meals were.
After breakfast we decided that there was probably a good reason for how they had booked the condo viewings even if it wasn't in the area we wanted. I mean they hadn't given us any choice. They hadn't asked us to preview the list. They had literally sent it to us at the last minute for the next day.
Our driver met us out front of the hotel. She was an expat from Australia. She was very helpful giving tips on how to adjust, like explaining the different types of places to buy food, where it's expensive and cheaper to shop for clothes or household goods.. She pointed out IKEA. She explained how the leasing structure for cars here includes everything except gas and tolls - which means it's more affordable than we thought. She told us lots about kids activities and how to get signed up.
Our tour was helpful and it awesome to get out of the city core, but we were expecting more of an all inclusive tour of the whole island, and what we got was a tour of Holland Village and the city centre.
Holland Village is very popular with expats, and a very nice area, with lots of park land, and tons of choices for restaurants and shopping and activities for the kids. But it wasn't where we wanted to be. It's quite far to Jonathan's office and didn't seem handy for getting out to museums and everywhere.
We had about an hour between our Driving Tour and our Condo viewing so we grabbed a bite at the Hawker Centre, and then then were ready for the afternoon. I was little concerned when we pulled up to our first viewing. First impression was that all I could see was laundry. The visitor parking put us looking at the Yard's of the building and each one had drying racks out. 2 mths later, I understand what I was looking at but at the time I felt a little ill. It was not what I was expecting for about $4000/month. It got better from there. Inside was quite spacious, bright, windows overlooked green space. I could see how we could live here, and the pool was fine, but basic. We saw about 6 condo (varying sizes, all basically within our price range, but on different size properties. They were all in the same neighbourhood. On a map we could see they were all walking distance of each other. We were disappointed that they were all in the same area, but it did help us to see the variety of condos and amenities available for the same price. We did learn a lot of interesting and helpful things though. And determined that we were more concerned about being on a large property with lots of amenities and less concerned about the inside space, although no road noise and a nice view was pretty important.
- I needed to make it clear to the Agent that I wanted to wander around the grounds of each site. Not just look at the pool out the window. I wanted to see the playground and judge whether a 7 year old would actually still be able to play on it. See how close we would be to unenclosed pools when walking by. Hear how loud traffic was outside.
- Square footage isn't always comparable. For the same price as a new tiny condo, you can get a much much square footage in an older building. The Patio is included in your square footage. Where 2 condos with the same square footage, but where one has a huge patio, that one's indoor space is seriously minimized.
- The Yard (tiny patio off the kitchen) is basically the Laundry Room, and considered the Helper's space.
- Number of Bedrooms is open to interpretation. Some people include the Non-air-conditioned Helper's room (some people call that a Storage Closet) in the count. Some people include a den as a bedroom, and of course some don't.
- Furnished vs Partially Furnished. Partially furnished only includes appliances (fridge, stove, washer, dryer).
- Washer and dryer. Sometimes the washer and dryer is actually a 2 in 1 unit. Be aware they take forever to dry.
- Googling the condo building can tell you a lot. You can find floor plans for units and the websites will list the amenities, because you Agent may not highlight them.