As I write this editorial piece, I am just closing in on the first full month of moving into my new apartment. It’s a lovely two-bedroom condominium in Joo Chiat, located just beyond the bustle of the hip cafes that have come to dominate the neighbourhood.
My apartment is also a rental. And I’ve been renting for the past three years.
I’d like to think that I am unique – especially since I moved out of my parents’ place a year before the pandemic – but in truth, I am one of the growing band of millennials who are finding their own independence on their own terms, starting with leasing a room or unit to move in to.
In a society where we often hear frugality and practicality being preached as core tenets of everyday living, that younger working adults are eagerly moving out seems to defy that logic. Even when I made my intentions to move out on my own, I met with the same replies.
“Why spend so much money renting, when you can save and buy?”
“I’m not kicking you out ah, girl. Why do you want to rent?”
“Don’t be so influenced by the Western idea of moving out!”
Still, I was unfazed. At that time, I was a 30-year-old who had been working for about seven years. I had a partner, and we had no intentions to get married so that rendered the idea of applying for a BTO out of the picture. My partner and I had floated the idea of relocating to Europe due to the nature of his company, so we didn’t like the idea of being tied down here with a piece of property. Compounding this, should we move to Europe, my visa might complicate my search for a job, which would make taking out a bank loan for a property in Singapore even trickier.
And on a personal level, I craved independence and autonomy. I had come from a middle-income family, where food was ready the minute I returned home from work, and aside from providing my parents with a monthly stipend for household groceries and utilities, I had no idea of what living as an adult really meant.
For clarity’s sake, my parents never spoiled us. We had to work for what we wanted, and nothing was handed to us on a diamond-encrusted gold platter. Moving out on my own was not some delusionally glamorous interpretation of “hustle life” (as if worrying about balancing your budgets each month was glamorous). What it is, is a learning journey.
I saw this in several of my friends who moved out after marriage and had to very quickly learn – whether it be the easy or tough way – how things in the big wide world worked.
I wanted to learn to balance my own household budget. I wanted to be able to map out each week’s meals for my partner and me. I wanted the feeling of being fully in control of my own independence. So when I am finally ready to start our next chapter – whether it’s relocation, starting a family, or both – it’s one less learning curve to conquer.
The short answer: Very.
Firstly, there was the uphill battle of getting my parents on my side. Time helped whittle down their resistance, so much so that my parents finally gave me their blessings after almost 10 months of conversing over it.
In all honesty, I can understand where they are coming from. Between my moving out and my brother’s then-pending wedding, I can empathise with the anxiety that they must have felt over their two children leaving the coop.
To allay this, I still make it a point to have dinner with them at least twice a week. It’s no different from when I was living with them – work kept me till late for most of the week, so we rarely had the chance for family meals anyway.
But in the wake of my moving out, we never take mealtimes for granted, simply because it’s precious hours. We come together over a lovely meal my mum makes, reflecting on our work and life, and keeping each other updated about everything.
Sometimes, heated debates happen, but we know that time is too precious to devolve into a silly argument.
There was also the whole learning curve of knowing what I needed to do to move out. Sure, my foreigner partner has lived in Singapore for almost a decade and has had experience in renting, but there was so much we had to learn together.
I had to learn to decipher property listings. Cosy? More like a lack of space. Nostalgic? Synonym for “old and needs renovation work”. I had to learn what to look out for in a viewing, such as closing the doors and windows of the bedroom to gauge if the amount of noise from the nearby road would affect your sleep. I had to learn to ask the right questions, anticipate potential problems, and figure out what type of apartment would suit us best.
Even the whole process of confirming a unit was fresh for me. Stamp duties, agent commissions, mail forwarding, security deposits, having to do my own plastering on cracked walls, buying furniture… the costs just kept piling up.
I knew that moving out meant being economical on other things, but in my naivety, I completely underestimated just how expensive everything would tally up.
Thankfully, I had a partner to look to for support. We adjusted our lifestyle habits, cutting back on certain nice-to-have indulgences and treats to really save on cash.
This meant more home-cooked meals (which I don’t mind because I love cooking), getting creative with simpler ingredients, relooking at what investments we had, re-prioritising our spending habits based on which payments are going to needs versus wants.
Sometimes, it wasn’t even about throwing cash at problems with the apartment, but investing time into making it look good. Take, for example, the fact that the apartment we had showed moderate wear and tear on the walls. We could pay for a contractor to do touch-ups and repaint it, but we decided to save some cash and don painter’s overalls to give the wall a fresh coat of paint.
Now, that wall is our proudest feature in the whole house, because there’s a story.
It wasn’t easy. No one ever said being independent would be easy. That’s the whole point – your freedom will be hard-fought, but it will also be worth it in the end.
With all that said, 2022 has really been a trying year for tenants who find themselves back on the hunt for a new apartment after their leases have expired. Due to many reasons – including delays in houses being delivered to homeowners to the increase in expatriates being based out of Singapore as opposed to Hong Kong – what limited units are available are suddenly in high demand.
As the property market remains hot, renting in 2022 has brought about a new set of challenges. Agents that I’ve spoken to expect this to continue well until the end of 2023.
For starters, there’s the issue of existing rent prices skyrocketing. In renegotiating my lease before it ended, this writer’s last landlord had requested to adjust the price with a 50% hike in the monthly rental.
Naturally, we had to give up our unit and look for another alternative within our price range, and I would be lying if I said it was heartbreaking to do so.
Once again, we found ourselves back on the market and looking for a unit. Here are a few things I’ve learned this year:
Firstly, things move fast. Like, “listing goes up in the morning and gets taken down by the evening” fast. When available apartments are in low availability, it sometimes feels like a scene from The Hunger Games when you’re looking for a good unit.
In some cases, there’s also a dirty tactic that a few agents resort to. It involves them receiving a message of interest in a listing from a potential tenant. What they would do is to take the listing down and relist it an hour later with a higher asking price. Given that they are working on behalf of the landlord and would earn a higher commission for a higher rental price, it serves their client and themselves to jack up the price.
Is it legal? Yes. Is it ugly? Also, yes.
Secondly, there’s also the case of other tenants coming in and throwing money at landlords. This drives up the average price of the units within the area, and it also means that other landlords will be expecting that they find similar cash-rich tenants.
As a tenant, there’s not much we can do in these scenarios other than cross your toes and fingers. Extenuating circumstances are things that we rarely have control over, but it helps that you do your homework on the area’s listings to get a better sense of what you should be expecting. You can also trust that landlords are doing the same, and adjusting their asking prices accordingly.
Thirdly, having a housing agent may not seem important, but it did help. However, this help comes at a cost, because you’ll have to bear the commission of your agent who is helping you hunt for an apartment.
You could do it yourself, but an agent can help in sourcing for units that have not yet been listed or negotiating with other agents to hold a unit in escrow for you until you sign the tenancy agreement. Several friends of mine who have never used an agent in their lives have had to engage one this year just to help them secure a new apartment to rent.
Most agents who are working on behalf of the tenants work in a tiered system for their commission. For a year-long rental period, they would require half a month of the rental price as their commission. Sign for a two-year lease, and the commission goes up to a full month’s worth of rent. This could change from agent to agent, but I spoke to three agents in my search and they all reported the same commission structure.
If you’re getting an agent to help, then it matters greatly that you provide them with a list of what you’re looking for in writing. Highlight what are must-have characteristics – such as areas you are interested in, your budget range, and what features of the unit that you absolutely cannot live without – so that when they are looking on your behalf, they are paying attention to these things. You could follow with a list of optional amenities, but be realistic about it. The longer your list of compulsory things gets, the tougher it’ll be for them to find your dream unit.
Lastly, prepare to readjust your expectations of apartments. You might be used to a certain level of amenities, a certain look and feel that new condominiums offer, and an area that keeps you close to the CBD. As prices go up, you will have to learn to let some of these things go.
Take it as a process of learning to keep an open mind. Things might look terrible in comparison to your previous apartment, but they can also change drastically when a new coat of paint is applied or when you update the room with a new rug.
Take this writer as your living proof that renting in 2022 is still doable.
I am sitting in my apartment that I moved into a month ago, writing this. The walls have since been repainted in airy shades of white and grey to open the space. The rooms are decorated with things I sourced from IKEA, vintage stores, and a fair amount of scrolling through Shopee. Slowly but surely, things started coming together in their own time.
I promise you: the feeling of home will find you once again.