Moving to Singapore

Posted by bbugg50 (133 days ago)

Husband and I moving to Singapore from US in the next 2 months. Need decent 1-2 bedroom apartment with minimum amenities, no children. would like to be close to restaurants etc. husband will be working in or near Raffles Place. Read all the notes re moving from HK and we loved our time in HK.Lived there 5 years before relocating back to US, lived there nearly 5 years and loving the idea of being back in Asia. Noted the negative things said about rental agents in Singapore and feeling negative about the move now, apartments in HK were all lovely and could be cheap or expensive depending on your budget. Anyone who could tell me positive things about a cheap apartment??

Find what you are after in our Singapore A-Z Directory

Posted by Ed (132 days ago)

These companies can all assist with relocation advice, property and of course, moving you http://www.asiaxpat.com/movingquote/

Posted by bbugg50 (132 days ago)

The company that my husband will be joining have all the expat stuff sorted, I just wanted to get a feel for pricing etc and maybe a local source rather than the "expat" source who see's big dollars.

Posted by stupendous (125 days ago)

depends on what your budget is - my partner and i just moved from hk - she, about a month ago, and me - a week. we are enjying it so far, but have had to deal with these brokers who are not, shall we say, the cream of the crop. we did find a nice apartment finally, unfurnished 5 stops from raffles where we both work.

near the red light district, but no issues. safe, lots of local eateries, fruit stands and other stores nearby. 22 minute commute door to door. dont knowif you heard about it, but the district called geylang is starting to become hip although its got some way to go. there are a few other expats in our building.

flat is about 950 sf - 2 beds, 2 small pools, balcony and get this a built in oven. so that's nice.

one thing to note - after 9/11, the singapore government mandated all condos to have a bomb shelter built into each flat - the premise being that if singpoare were attacked and the condo were to fall around your ears, then the bomb shelter would still be standing and offer you a reasonable chance of surviving. the newer condos - those built a year ago or newer dont have this requirement anymore, but it makes a great storage room.

we pay about 3kSGD. in town, around raffles or orchard the price for a flat like ours goes up about 50% to more than 4.5k - so it depends on what you're after and what package you're on. if you are on an expat package, then go hog wild!

if you need any more tips let me know, i am still going through the adjustment period and the moving pains so i can tell you what NOT to do. (e.g. do NOT ship alcohol here unless your company is paying for the customs duty - it is more than what is stated in the government website).

good luck.

Posted by bbugg50 (125 days ago)

Thanks for the information, sounds like I should check out the area you mention! we have no great expat package, those days are sadly over!! your place seems to be just what we are looking for. The price is about what we can afford and the commute is also about right, husband will be working near Raffles. Love the idea of a bomb shelter for storage! Cheers for the tip on not sending over the alcohol, just drink it now before the move!
Thanks again and if anything else comes to mind, let me know, how are you adjusting to not being in HK? we used to live in Penang so hoping that Singapore will be a cleaned up Penang which we loved, but HK was / is somewhere we just really enjoyed so much and miss.

Thanks