908091 Singapore real estate condo apartment house for rent published by Asiahomes Internet,

8111 Singapore real estate condo apartment house for rent/sale is published by Asiahomes Internet, affordable S$13.50/40 words/90 days for Singapore Owners/Realtors, targeted at expatriates relocating to Singapore. Email your advertisements to judy@asiahomes.com

Ref: 8111
Subdivision Listings - Photos
Condo: The Estoril
For Rent: 3+1 2100sf $5,000 renovated.
For Sale: 3+1 2100sf $1.6 million. Facing green, away from expressway.
3 Case studies:
*The poor "after rent" service from the Landlord.
*Landlords making realtors go on wild goose chase.
*Poor after rent service.

Contact David +65 9668 6468, email david@asiahomes.com

Date of Report: August 11, 1999
Updated from previous article in Subdivision Listings Ref. No. 804211

The Estoril

95 & 97 Holland Road.
15 years old.
No. of units: 44

3-bedroom: 194 sq m 3 baths attached.
Penthouse: 415 & 419 sq m.
Living/dining - depending on whether the Owner has upgraded to parquet or marble flooring. Quite a big maid's room. Semi-circular living area with a big balcony.

Facilities: Swimming pool, wading pool, BBQ pits, playground, covered car park, 24-hour security.

Click thumbnails if you wish to view bigger photos.

Low rise low density condo. Residents appear to be driving big cars. Flyover is opposite the building, on the left.	August 11, 1999. Photo-Ads of a UNIT FOR SALE: 3+1, 2100sf $1.9million for sale. Contact david@asiahomes.com call +65 9668 6468, 254 2728, 254 3326.	Pool and play- ground.	All Caucasians love the green tree views seen from the balcony and the living room (left) in this high floor unit.
Unit for sale. Living & dining areas have been replaced with marble flooring. Big balcony on top right, Powder room and main door on bottom right. Little girl (1.5 years old) did knock her head on an inward space below the window of the living area (foreground).	Living & dining area. The kitchen is on the left and contains an ice-making fridge.	Bedrooms have light yellow wooden strips and master bedroom faces inwards.	Master bdrm bath with bidet. Other 2 bedrooms have attached bathrooms.

Advantages:

3-minute walk to Holland Village, an expatriate wives' lunching and meeting place, 3-minute taxi ride to the Tanglin Mall, Orchard Road. Short 2-minute walk under flyover to bus-stops, with several bus services to Orchard Road and to Raffles Place in less than 15 minutes. No problem getting taxis along Holland Road.
Low density is a plus factor for many Caucasian tenants.
Luxuriant green trees and vegetation gives a feeling of being in a tropical jungle but there are few if any mosquitoes. Europeans just love this sort of forest ambience.
Spacious bedrooms. All 3 bedrooms have attached bathrooms.
The powder room from the entry foyer shares one of the attached bathrooms of one bedroom.
Suits expatriates who want to be near Orchard Road.
Big balconies to enjoy the lush green foliage (for units facing away from the expressway)..
Big playground and cycling area for small children.

Disadvantages:

Not many expatriates have moved in as at August 11, 1999 due to the fact that expatriate wives prefer newer condos with its new baths and kitchen. Many Owners have not bothered to remodelled the entire apartment. A 15-year old condo can never compete with the new kids on the block. However facilities have been upgraded and the condo has a tropical garden ambience.
Some expats complain that the kitchen is dark, especially on ground floor units.
The building of a flyover in the last 2 years and over 10,000 brand new condos completed in 1997-1999 in this vicinity resulted in an exodus of expatriates. Many expats do not like to live facing a flyover. Rents have dropped to $4500-$5000 for the 3-bedroom.
No other facilities like gym and tennis court.
Not within walking distance to the Commonwealth subway although there are many bus services to downtown.

Characterised by tranquil tropical forest resort ambience and attached baths for 3 spacious bedrooms. Brand new condos do not have such spaciousness although they have sex appeal to expatriate wives.

Internet Advertisements of Owners/Realtors, visit
http://www.asiahomes.com/text_ads_1.htm

2 Case studies:

Case Study No.1 - Renting "as it is".

The Australian couple rented a brand new UE Square 2 bedroom at $2800 "as it is". However, in moving in, the couple wanted shower rods and other minor repairs to be done. As the Landlord cannot communicate in English, the Asia USA Realtor had to draft a letter of complaint as follows:

April 20, 1998
To: Landlady
From: David Sing, Asia USA Realty
For and on behalf of the Tenant as the Tenant cannot communicate with you in Mandarin.
Ref: Meeting with Tenant of UE Square #NN-XX on Sunday, April 19, 1998 9 a.m.

1. Compensation for Damages caused by the curtain contractor.

Your curtain contractor did not bring his ladder to install the curtains as would be expected of a professional. While using the green chair of the Tenant, he fell and hit the Tenant's video set and the precious stone made chess set from Kenya, Africa. The Tenant wants compensation for the damages caused:

The chair was cracked and since it was a set of 6 from Australia, none could be found in Singapore. A replacement chair needed to be bought in Australia.
The pawns in the chess set had their ears split off. This set survived many international trips and the 3-year old niece in Australia but now 2 pawns were damaged by an adult i.e. your curtain contractor. The replacement pieces needed to be purchased from Africa.

2. Incompetent curtain contractor. The day curtains provided in the living room were too long as they were from another unit and deemed to be old curtains for the new apartment. The curtains have a scalloped lower edge which enhances its beauty. These day curtains are of excellent quality seldom provided by most Singapore landlords as they cost more. However, your curtain contractor refused to do a proper trimming of the upper end and just sew up the scalloped edges.

The Tenant wants a scalloped edge.

The black-out curtain for the guest room was not installed. The Tenant requested one to be done as the bright daylight of the morning wakes up the guest. Unit was facing the East and the morning sun. Most Landlords install only one set of curtains and if the unit faces East or West, the sunlight shines through the pastel-coloured curtains. Sunblocking curtains may not look classy as they look like plastic curtains. Some Caucasians positively hate them but they are effective in blacking out the sunlight.

The 2 blinds in the bathroom of the master bedroom are too short but your contractor said that there were no other lengths available. The Tenant disagrees and want the proper length as there is no privacy during bath-time as office workers from the Shell Tower can become peeping toms and this is causing considerable distress to the wife. The gap between the lower edge of the blinds and the window ledge was about 4 inches, but the unit was facing the office block. The wife was worried about telescopes being used by peeping toms at the office!

Shower rail and curtains wanted by the Tenant for the bathroom as the floor gets flooded with water and becomes slippery and dangerous.

3. Damage to paint outside the apartment, at the door bell area. The Tenant wants you to know that the damage is caused by your door bell contractor.

The problem has been festering for few weeks. Please resolve the problems and pay for damages before the Tenant's patience disappears. They cannot wait for another week and I hope you will attend to their minor requests promptly, within 2 days. I can help get a professional curtain maker and buy the curtain rods if you need my help. Thank you.

First-time expat Tenants to note when renting brand new apartments - ask for shower rods for the bathrooms. Actually, installation of the rods and curtains would have saved the wooden door from being damaged by water splashing from the shower, but the Landlady did not agree to spending $200 as the apartment was rented "as it is" at a cheap rent of $2800 for a 2-bedroom of 1200sf in prime area. The Australians said that in Australia, it was the Landlord who would be responsible for the installation of the shower rods. They were worried about slipping on the wet flooring. The Landlord did provide a thicker curtain but not other things.

Case Study No.2 - Antagonising Realtors.

Example 1.

Asia USA Realtors usually accommodate "urgent" requests from the Landlords to get tenants for their new condos. However we encountered 2 typical cases which should not be emulated by other Owners if they want their units to be rented out fast.

An Owner, Jessie rang to say that she would be relocating to Malaysia with her husband in one month's time and therefore it was imperative we helped her rent her Costa Rhu unit fast. She was present at first viewing but subsequently decided that we should collect keys from her "office". The keys were not there and she made us wait for one hour. She could not make it and wanted us to re-schedule our appointments to suit her. We could not do so and while in Costa Rhu, she phoned to say she could be available within few minutes. "Once bitten, twice shy" and we avoided her like wild fire.

Owners may feel the thrill of Agents wanting direct contact to avoid co-brokerage (sharing of 50% of the commission), but do not treat Agents like dirt. They will avoid you doing business with you.

Example 2.

The Owner was proud that he had the pick of the apples - a choice 4-bedroom Costa Rhu unit fronting the river with no "sharp" buildings (The Millenia, The Plaza Hotel and the Suntec City Buildings) cutting into the view of the apartment, facing North (i.e. no afternoon sun which many Buyers of Costa Rhu forgot when they looked at the waterfrontage). That would be bad feng shui. He forgot his unit ends with the number "4". As he could not travel frequently just to show the apartment to prospective tenants, he had a system whereby realtors went to his house to get the keys to the apartment. The realtors had to sign for the keys.

Our agent got the keys from the maid but he did not sign the "acknowledgement of receipt of key form." He got a big blasting off from the Owner who phoned him. Another agent did the same and got another big scolding.

First-time Buyers to note that they do not invest in units ending with the floor or house number "4"; it is difficult to sell and it is not a preferred buy, no matter how good the feng-shui. Also avoid "T" junction e.g. the Charonia Block of Costa Rhu has some units facing the "T").
Avoid low floors and facing West too for income-producing units as they are not preferred units.

First-time Landlords to note that in the year 1999/2000, there are 10 times more condos than prospective tenants, it will be best not to antagonise realtors. Treat them as partners, not as slaves and they will give your unit top priority when they have clients or when the realtor with clients contact them.

Expatriate surfers, visit http://www.asiahomes.com for other rental condos.
Contact david@asiahomes.com,+65 9668 6468, 254 2728.

8111 Singapore real estate condo apartment house for rent/sale is published by Asiahomes Internet, affordable S$13.50/40 words/90 days for Singapore Owners/Realtors, targeted at expatriates relocating to Singapore. Email your advertisements to judy@as