Every day, 1,000 of my brain cells apparently die and are gone forever. So I thought I’d better get some details about our epic househunt down before I forget them all.
CS proposed in December 2008, and our wedding was set for September 2009. So we started house hunting more or less from January 2009. The property market had stalled after shooting up to the skies in 2007 and most of 2008, so we started looking for value in private apartments. Our criteria: affordability, location, space.
We first started looking in the Bishan area.
Bishan Loft - a 5 year old Executive Condominium that was my first choice for a long time. Close to Bishan MRT, close to a group of my friends, the bigger 3-4 bedroom units had a nice layout. Light and bright rooms, a possible walk-in wardrobe if we convert one of the smaller rooms, only 5 years old so not too much renovation needed aside from the fairly small and dark kitchens. We must have viewed 20+ units at Bishan Loft, and nearly put an offer down on a unit in March 2009 that would have sold for $100K more a short 6 months later when the market revived crazily again. We passed finally, because it was on the higher end of our budget for a condo that though it was only 5 years old, was starting to moult – the carpark floor had pits, the swimming pool had the feel of a public swimming pool, and we didn’t have family in close proximity to seal us there. I would have liked living in Bishan, and Bishan Loft would have been a fine place to live in.
Braddell View – We viewed 2 units in Braddell View, a 30 year old huge HUDC compound that is half private and half government owned still. It was like stepping back in time, into a Singaporean kampong enclave with proper sanitation. Lots of green, some lovely walkups, many huge units. Beautiful place to bring up children and have them run free. Facilities were rundown, but that wouldn’t be why you bought a place at Braddell View. At least 15 min walk to the MRT next to football field, even if all the agents claim it is only a 5 min walk. We passed on it because we don’t have kids, and concluded that you can only buy there to live forever because of the tricky land lease situation the estate is in – not fully private, so difficult 2-step process to enbloc; 60+ years left on the lease, so banks will not lend to interested buyers should we want to sell in the future.
Rafflesia – We saw one unit here in April, which was really asking quite a lot for a tiny apartment and tinier compound facilities. I am not a Rafflesian, so had no difficulties saying ‘Next, please’ to this.
Seasons View – This is not so close to Bishan MRT anymore, but we were running out of Bishan options. This was closer to Marymount MRT, like Rafflesia. We viewed one unit here, which unfortunately had a terribly small master bedroom. We would have viewed more units at Seasons View, but the agent never called us back.
Springbloom – From Bishan and Marymount, we moved up the circle line to Lorong Chuan. Springbloom is a 10 year old condo right opposite the then newly opened Lorong Chuan station. The inside of the unit we viewed didn’t impress us terribly, but the grounds are large and lovely.
Chiltern Park – Next door to Springbloom is another 10-year old development Chiltern Park, with slightly kitschy “anglo-Saxon” names such as Windsor Tower. The towers were fairly low rise, and while the unit we viewed needed far too much renovation and was far too large for us, we were interested in seeing more units in this condo. Unfortunately again, not many units came up for sale during our window, and we ultimately decided against Lorong Chuan because it was not close to either CS’s parents or mine.
From here, we moved westwards!
