The real estate market in Singapore has been RED HOT for the second year now and stories of new record sale prices of flats have been figuring prominently in the news lately.
Our lease on our current place is running out and we now have to find a place very soon. The landlord has sent word that he won't be able to renew us as he wants to cash in and sell the flat while the resale market is so bouyant. And so I must bid adieu to this unit that has been home for 5 years now.
But ack! A look at the classified ads these days for rental condos around the island is just cause for hyper-ventilation.
Why?
Cos there are NO MORE 2-room condo units going for less than $2,000 rent a month! Egads! Even condos located at the far corners of the suburbs -- those that require at least 40 mins of travel to the city via public transpo -- are now asking for at least $2,300 rent! Rents in similar-sized condos on the fringes of Orchard Road (where we now stay) are now almost always asking for at least $3k. Grabe.
How the tide has turned.
When I started working here in 2000, my first apartment was a huge 3-bedroom, 3 T/B condo right smack in the Orchard Road area for only $2,200 a month. (Right now, the same unit would fetch $3,800-$5,000 easily.) Asking price for most 2-br condos outside of the ritzy enclaves of Singapore would ask for $1,200 -$1,800 per month. Many kabayans who started work here around that time would almost always share one of these condo units with other friends for an easy $500-$800 share a month. It was a real sweet renters' market then. But not anymore. The circle has turned and landlords have the upper-hand now.
How now, how now, how now?
The questions foremost in my mind are: Should I just buy a tent and pitch it at the East Coast park (thus escaping this high-rent problem)? And if so, will Carrefour have the best prices for good tents?
haha. Kidding. (My attempt at comic relief, sorry.)
Seriously, should we go with the flow and just accept high rents in stride or should we bite the hot bullet and finally buy a house (convert rent to mortgage, turn expense into equity but be 'chained' to a 25-year loan in the process). Mind you, prices of condos have already gone up by 22% so far and if we do buy now, we will be doing so at a time when prices are already so high.
This needs serious thinking.
Rent or mortgage? Rent or mortgage? Rent or mortgage?
Hmm.
While that thought is flipping around in my mind, I live nowadays riding this roller coaster of emotions that go from excitement to dread when thoughts of house-hunting come to the fore. To release tension, I go to Carrefour to check out prices of tents. For the moment, a tent is my plan B.
