finally, my living-out-of-a-suitcase days will be over...

Tomorrow’s the big day when we finally move into the apartment. The apartment is known as Chancery Court, and is located at Chancery Lane, about 8 minutes from the nearest MRT station, which is Newton. It is a very central location. Although I didn’t know this beforehand, it is by sheer coincidence that Chancery Lane apparently is some upper class, hoity-toity street. The long and windy street comprises mainly bungalows and high-end apartments, not unlike what we see at Bukit Tunku / Damansara Heights / Sri Perdana in KL.

We originally wanted an apartment located by the East Coast because of the lifestyle there- outdoors, beach, roller-blading, tennis, running, cycling, etc. After viewing a particular apartment (which had a sea-view and numerous tennis courts, including 2 practice walls, swimming pool, squash courts and other facilities), we were suitably impressed and made an offer to rent, but the landlord decided against renting to us. Dammit! All the strip tease with no action…

We persisted and instructed our agent to locate another (similar sized) unit within the same area, and found one, but in the space of a mere 3 days, the asking rent was 15% more. Property prices in Singapore are already expensive as it is, but apparently the last 7 months saw a further escalation of prices, partly due to a number of factors, including the en-bloc “craze”, the integrated resorts (“I.Rs”), Singapore hosting the upcoming Formula 1, etc. Click this link to get an idea of the property boom in Singapore.

Because the asking rent was 1) not within our budget and 2) there is no way we’ll pay the additional 15% for an apartment (facilities and the beach notwithstanding), that is located far away from the city (half an hour's drive at least), when, voila at the same time our agent informed us that she has managed to locate another property- the one at Chancery Lane, for the price that was within our budget. Pros- very central, cosy, breezy, excellent view of the city, and similar “feel” to our apartment back in Damansara Heights. Cons- Zero facilties (i.e. no pool, courts, gyms etc), although having Cold Storage downstairs means that we can buy our groceries anytime before 10pm. Weary of having to view more apartments and fearful of being unable to find a decent one within our budget, we promptly accepted it and signed a one year lease.

Jeanne has hired professional movers to pack, unpack and transport the items and belongings to the apartment. They will arrive tomorrow.

The weekend will be busy. We’ll hire a car and drive to Jeanne’s friends’ houses, in the East Coast and Yio Chu Kang to transport our items we have left there, back to the apartment.