As prices refused to fall and sellers began to raise their asking prices again, I’d been worn down enough to consider other, less central areas. We moved to look at places in Upper Bukit Timah, which CS was familiar with because he grew up around the area, and is on the whole close-ish to his parents’ place. We also allowed my mother-in-law to enter the fray, and agreed to viewing places she set up for us.
So we viewed a whole bunch of apartments:
Sherwood Condo – this is the one I remember vividly. The apartment we viewed had a beautiful living room and master bedroom, with a curving bay window that was a romantic french style rather than the ‘cheat you by including bay windows in your floor area when it is not floor’ bay windows that all the new apartments now have. The kitchen was extremely large, and the entrance to the apartment was charming. Unfortunately, it had 2 other bedrooms which were basically dungeons – small, dark, windows let in barely any light due to the design of the building. Combine that with an “unsuitable” door number, the price was just not low enough to seal the deal.
Springbloom – CS really liked this development. We viewed a ground floor flat, which was smaller than we’d liked, but still very pleasant. Unfortunately the price was definitely not what we liked, and there weren’t any other apartments on sale at that time.
Le Wood – A small development at the foot of Bt Timah Hill. If we lived there, our friends could have driven over, parked in our carpark and commenced their exercise up the hill. The 3 bedroom apartment we viewed was efficiently designed, with large bathrooms and carefully placed built-in wardrobes. But again, it was a 99-year development, so tiny the pool was a pond, there are lots of monkeys – the price didn’t make sense.
Around this time we also looked at other west coast developments like Infiniti and Botannia, which were super noisy and a little expensive respectively. I can’t believe people would want to live in a development right next to the expressway! We also put in an offer at Blue Horizon, but again we were outbid and in any case, most of the apartments in our budget were too small for our liking.
And finally…Highgate – We looked here because we visited friends who lived here. It’s a nice low-rise development, with large and good-sized squarish rooms, freehold. Quiet and right next to Bt Batok nature reserve. Downsides: long walk in from the main road, not very accessible by public transport, landscaping of pool and playground area somewhat utilitarian. The first apartment we viewed was also dark and noisy as it was right next to the pool. The second apartment had a somewhat terrible view, didn’t have a nature reserve view that we really liked in our friend’s apartment, but was otherwise a nice size and shape. We thought the asking price was too high, but decided to leave it in God’s hands… and my mother-in-law’s hands. I still don’t know how she did it, but she managed to knock a full 10% off the asking price, which made the apartment land on the affordable side of our budget, even including the cost of renovations. It was also at exactly the psf price our friend had suggested we pay, but which the crazy market didn’t seem like it would ever come down to accept. I put it down to a sole-agent situation, old woman bargaining prowress, and this being the place God wants us to have, rather than the place we desired (Heritage View). And so we signed! Just in time for my birthday that year.
Two years down, we really like our place now, even though we made some dubious renovation choices on hindsight and our tastes have now changed. The location is still ulu but I’m much more used to it now and it really does have a quiet and serene feel about it. Our apartment is also a really nice size and we have lots more space than if we had bought a newer development. In short, thanks God, for our home!
