Another thing which is very expensive to have in Singapore besides car is property. I cringed at the thought that we might have to move out in December because our contract would expire. It’s a headache to think about the packing and unpacking things — especially with our baby being born in November. We’ll call some reinforcements, my mom and mother-in-law that is, but still —

We’ll need to do spring cleaning in both this flat and the new one, we’ll have to replace all broken things before moving out. Not that we damaged lots of things, but even changing all light bulbs in the flat would cost around $400. Then paying the agent fee would cost at least half-month rental. Of course, we’d need to top up the deposit, because nowadays it’s impossible to rent a condo with the same price like we did two years ago. Anyways, it took months before we made this flat our home, surely it wouldn’t take less time if we moved to a new place now.

Fortunately it didn’t have to happen — yet. We finally managed an agreement with the landlord about the price. Still not the same old price, but at least it’s not far exceeding our expectation. So most likely we’ll stay. Phew!

A question though. How much is good price for a 1+1 condo nowadays in the suburbs? We’ve checked a number of property portals, and most of them list condos which are between $1,800 - $2,000 and below. Not many, but they do exist. But most agents we asked couldn’t give any results in this price range. Instead they usually show places in CBD which cost at least $5,000.

Why is that? I know, the higher the price, the more fee they would get. But isn’t it stated in the law that above $2,500 tenants don’t pay agent fee? Of course, they’d still receive payment from the owners, but even if they get some deals below that amount, it’d still mean money. I mean $2,000 per transaction is not such a bad deal, methinks, especially since they’d only need to check their listing, show the unit to the prospective tenants, sign the contract and pay the stamp duty, that’s all.

Well, we’re not really looking for fancy places in CBD. A small, humble abode in the edge of the island would be perfect for us, since we’re not planning to pay more ERP. According to this listing issued by URA, our expectation is not at all impossible. Why do some agents say the opposite?