Housing in SG

[lucane]

Greetings,

I am an American currently living in Shanghai, but I have two older family members that are moving to Hong Kong or Singapore later this year (non-work related).

I have some general questions and would be appreciative of all constructive feedback.

1) Are there places in Singapore where they can rent a decently constructed house without breaking the bank? Preferably places under 4,000 SGD pm. And yes, I do know that housing in SG is very expensive, so 4000 SGD pm is quite low. They need not commute to work so being more isolated is not an issue as long as a supermarket is not too far away.

I am not interested in specific properties for rent, but rather just general areas of Singapore in which to look to find these types of rentals (for example: Northeast Singapore, or ABC District).

2) Same question as #1, but with condos. Once again, decent quality & lower price trump any location considerations (they need not commute).

3) I have seen ads online for villas / condos / HDB for rent in Singapore, but are the ads reliable? I know that in Shanghai most all real estate advertisements are fraudulent (pictures wrong, price wrong, property might not even exist).

Thank you for your assistance!

[GGirl]

Hi Lucane,

Welcome to the board.  Singapore has cleaned up its real estate act and introduced tough legislation as of Oct 2010 to weed out the unscrupulous agents.  No, the bait/fake type of advertisements are no longer allowed and postings that have been successfully sold/let have to be removed within certain time frame.  However, that is not to say ALL agents conform yet, but at least there are prison sentences and substantion $$$ fines which the Council of Estate Agents can enforce.

Yes, SGD4,000 pm rental for an older type bungalow/terrace house or condo is affordable in certain areas.  Suitable living areas with good leisure facilities (huge East coast park, public pools) and clean air would be Siglap, Bedok, Changi.  Consider the local wet markets too as an option to the typical supermarkets.   Good luck

[lucane]

GGirl, thanks for the great info!  It is good to hear that the real estate agents are much more trustworthy in Singapore than in Shanghai.

Are there any peculiar construction issues for property in Singapore? For example, New Zealand had a few years of poorly constructed housing, USA has its old asbestos / lead, etc.

Thanks!

[just a thought]

It isn't possible to rent residential property in Singapore unless you have some sort of work/residence visa. The landlord or agent will need to see some kind of pass. You mention that your relatives won't be working here - will they have some other residence permit?

[GGirl]

Hello OP,

I'm not really qualified to answer construction specifics, but with Singapore being such a young country and with its tight rules, was told that building safety is not an issue.  For example when I bought my last condo (20 Years + old), I was surprised that unlike UK, no structural survey was required for the mortgage.  My estate agent at the time told me banks have no issues with structures.

It's not like China and Thailand where emplty plastic bottles have been known to be thrown into cement to bulk up the volume and reduce costs.

[LootofTheFroom]

Hi Lucane,

Welcome to the board.  Singapore has cleaned up its real estate act and introduced tough legislation as of Oct 2010 to weed out the unscrupulous agents.  No, the bait/fake type of advertisements are no longer allowed and postings that have been successfully sold/let have to be removed within certain time frame.  However, that is not to say ALL agents conform yet, but at least there are prison sentences and substantion $$$ fines which the Council of Estate Agents can enforce.

Yes, SGD4,000 pm rental for an older type bungalow/terrace house or condo is affordable in certain areas.  Suitable living areas with good leisure facilities (huge East coast park, public pools) and clean air would be Siglap, Bedok, Changi.  Consider the local wet markets too as an option to the typical supermarkets.   Good luck

They can perhaps, but has the CEA actually fined anybody yet?

As for adverts. I don't think there has been a great improvement. If you look at ad for a particular condo, there will still be a lot of expired ads and a lot from agents who don't actually have the mandate to market the unit from the landlord - i.e. they have just copied another agents ad. As for removal of ads for sold/rented units. Maybe some agents do (the ones who actually got the deal), but a lot of the rest do not.  Give that adverts don't include any unit # details, I can't see a way that this could be enforced (unless the property websites forced the agents to specify, but not display the unit and could then be bothered to cross reference with the transaction lists) and of course a lot of the agents advertising don't know the unit # anyway

In addition,  plenty of adverts don't have pictures of the actual unit and some are just full of blatant lies.

[un reality world]

they may have tightened up the rules for these un educated charlatans but i doubt anyone on this board would trust an SG housing agent as far as we could throw them - phoney smiles, limp handshakes, blah blah, lie lie

[similar to]

the over paid moaning types who rent property and care little about what they do in it when renting.

[When of course]

They should love and respect any property they live in and sing "we are the worlllldddd" again and again while thanking their lucky stars that the shoebox they live in and pay $5000 a month for actually exists...

 

[localmanjames]

Hello OP,

I'm not really qualified to answer construction specifics, but with Singapore being such a young country and with its tight rules, was told that building safety is not an issue.  For example when I bought my last condo (20 Years + old), I was surprised that unlike UK, no structural survey was required for the mortgage.  My estate agent at the time told me banks have no issues with structures.

It's not like China and Thailand where emplty plastic bottles have been known to be thrown into cement to bulk up the volume and reduce costs.

Of course the URA has building codes that are enforced. Have you ever been to a HDB, the walls and floors are so delightfully thick.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_New_World_disaster
channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1178061/1/.html

[GGirl]

To LootoftheFroom et al, FYI

Unregistered 'property agent' jailed, fined
by Alvina Soh
TODAY online 04:46 AM Jan 13, 2012

SINGAPORE - A 45-year-old man has become the first person to be sentenced in court for representing himself as a property agent without being registered with the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA).

Tan Cher Peng (picture) was yesterday jailed for four months and fined S$32,000 after he pleaded guilty to five charges of contravening the Estate Agents Act and another count of forgery.

In December 2010, Tan had applied to the CEA to register as a salesperson and had made a false statement in his application.

His application was rejected when the CEA found out that he was wanted by the police and had a history of past convictions, including cheating and criminal breach of trust.

However, Tan still went on to advertise properties on an online property portal under his name, while describing himself as a marketing director of a licensed estate agent.

This, despite not having written authorisation from a licensed real estate agent before practising.

Since Jan 1 last year, all property agents must register with the CEA and possess written agreements with their companies before they are allowed to act as real estate agents.