Yehey, we found a place !

It has been a long battle searching for a nice place here in Singapore. We are currently staying at Holland Drive which is pretty near the "Holland Village". This place is where most expats stay and with that, the price is really high.

The situation left us troubled at times because we might end up homeless. To add to that, our agent kept on telling us that it might be hard to get a flat because of the Chinese New Year. The problem of this agent we have was that he talked nonsense sometimes and there was this instance that I was in a fiery mood and that I talked to him upfront and cut him off. That made me to decide not to deal with him always so I allowed my other housemates to talk to him most of the time.

So there was this certain flat that we were interested in just same block as ours but then it was like in a bidding process and the unit was pegged at 2000 SGD for a year contract. There was one bidder at 1950 so we bid for 1960 SGD. We were so ready with the money but then it turned out that the unit was not allowed by HDB to be rented out. Another unit located at Holland Close which was okay looking but the flat didn't feel right. Somehow the vibes was a bit negative so we did not get it. There was another unit at block 12 where it was at 2200SGD for two years and fully furnished. At first we decided not to get it but we were too close of our deadline already so we took it for 2000SGD for two years contract unfurnished but there was this prospect client and they did a bid for 2100SGD unfurnished. I was personally vocal about this bidding stuff going on in HDB so what we did we just declined and decided not to do a bidding. I am honestly disgusted about this bidding stuff in these HDB because of the fact that agents could have some sort of fishy alliances and that they will play with the clients just to raise the prices of the units. I do not know if this is legal or allowed by the Singapore authority. Anyway, I personally don't agree to join the bidding game because we had a limited budget and it might turn out just a way to raise prices. I just hope that there is a cap or some sort of legal way to prevent an unreasonable price hike of flats. Because as I have said, it might be just the case of agents conniving to make the prices high.

Anyway, we found a place already though it would have resulted in a bidding game but I insisted to our agent that we want the flat already at 1800 for a year contract and if they wanted to have it two years then we asked them to lower the price to 1750SGD simply because for two years they will not have a hassle of looking for new tenants and their income will be more stable. I actually sensed again of the bidding process as there were other people checking out the place. I just made my point up front to the agent and told him that he should help us get the place. If he would have answered and explained things that it's like this and that, I would have told him right then and there that we are cutting off any business relationship whatsoever and we will look for another agent. Somehow he felt my stand and he made the right move. So we got the unit at 1800SGD which is fully furnished and good for a year term....

So right now, my housemates and I were very happy and at last were off the stress already. House hunting in SG is really tough especially if you really want convenience which in our case we were also looking for value of our hard-earned money. Somehow, I just learned to be a bit aggressive and realized again that I have to be very patient at all times.