We feel like those tools on house hunters international when house shopping here.
The typical jargon and the accompanying Singaporean translation:
"I want to be close to transit (the MRT, but NOT buses), shops (mega sino-malls), restaurants (mega sino-malls), cafes (mega sino-malls), night life (outdoor extensions of mega sino-malls), and walkable areas (stupid foreigner, we don't walk here!). We also need a 2 br/2 ba for visitors (you will never get visitors and this room will go unused) and possibly a study (that will be $6000 and the rooms are shoeboxes).
Me watching HGTV: eye roll.
I hear myself saying these things and hate myself, but I just can't help it. It's what you really want here! Aim for the sky right? As you can probably tell from my droll commentary, they don't have a lot of what we are looking for, and what they do have resides in huge malls. The closest area that meets our needs is orchard road. That's also, not-so-coincidentally, where all the westerners live! In fact, I'm typing this from a Noodle shop in a sino-mall on orchard road now!
I have come to appreciate these malls. They mean industrial strength aircon.
So house hunting has been fun! And about what we expected. Still cheaper than NYC!
One of our requirements is a swimming pool. Check. All of them have that. Sometimes on roofs!
Next is 2 bedrooms. We need one extra for me to work in and for you people to stay in when you come visit! (This is me begging) We are serious that we want visitors. I know our European and Asian friends will come through. What about you Americans!? Here is the typical size of your room:
Don't worry, we will get more than just a single bed.
The masters are usually nice. One of our requirements is lots of light. In New York this is a premium. Here it is avoided to keep air conditioning costs down! We want it, regardless. Most have it!
Another requirement is outdoor space. Do they ever have tons of that here!!
Sometimes roof space:
Sometimes deck space:
Almost always balconies!
Some oddities about Singaporean apartments:
Not all kitchens have ovens.
Kitchens are to be segregated from everything else. Open concept? What's that? Who wants smelly wok smoke in their living room!? This place even stored their kitchen in a cabinet:
Dishwasher? What's that? Is that those built in drying racks you westerners have in your apartments?
You want, at a minimum, a partially furnished apartment here. Unfurnished means no fridge. No curtains. No appliances at all.
Every furnished or partially furnished place comes standard with a washer, but most don't come with a dryer. Why would you need that? Just hang your clothes up outside! When you DO get a dryer, it's usually one of those combo washer/dryers.
In one unit they offered an "external dryer" for use in the communal spaces by white people. Coin operated. What a sad sight.
Sometimes they put the washer outside. Why not?
BOMB SHELTERS! Every apartment built before the last few years was required to have a bomb shelter inside the apartment. Western translation: junk closet! As our broker cleverly put it, "so your things are safe while you are not!" I don't have a good photo of a bomb shelter for some reason but you can see it in the corner of the kitchen here. They are huge and great for storage.
Built-in closets. They know foreigners love places to put crap. Actually, who doesn't love that!?
Despite the quirks, I know we will find something that meets our needs here! This trip was too early for putting an offer in on a place, but the next time we will be able to! We're looking forward house hunting again in September and finding our new apartment in our new home (Singapore) away from home (Hong Kong) away from home (New York). I prefer one with a view. A view like this would be nice:
More to come!
