Ask The Experts: Rental

Question:

I am relocating to Singapore for a minimum of three years. My HR department referred me to their relocation company but it does work visas and moving logistics, not real estate. They referred me to the Classifieds and listing portals to find a home, but I don’t know where to start.

Answer:

Relocating to a new country is never easy. Research shows that the primary reason overseas assignments fail has to do with family issues. Usually it is the result of the family failing to acclimate. 

Most human resource departments have neither the bandwidth nor the perspective to manage relocation so the responsibility rests with you. The good news is that technology is making it more efficient and manageable to find a trusted real estate advocate, familiarize your family with Singapore, and find a home that meets your requirements.

Best of all, these resources are free. All you need is Internet access.

Having lived and worked in Central Europe and all over Asia, I think of relocation in four phases: Familiarize, Engage, Act, and Review. We have designed SRX.com.sg to support and guide you through this process.

Familiarize

Singapore is extremely well-organized. As such, it is easy to represent your options. Your starting point is Expats, which you can find on the navigation bar at SRX Property’s homepage or go directly to srx.com.sg/singapore-expats. Also, stay current on expat property information by following facebook.com/SingaporeExpatsRentals.

There, download SRX Relocation Guide in English or in Simplified Chinese. This guide is a quick reference guide to living in Singapore and provides you with information on housing options, schools, transportation, amenities, and the different geographic locales within Singapore. A long-term expat wrote the guide, and she gives you the inside scoop.

Once you have an overview of Singapore from the guide, you can start browsing homes for sale or rent using SRX.com.sg’s powerful search engine. This engine is unique in that you can employ keyword or location-based search. Since you are unfamiliar with the names of homes or their postal codes, we recommend that you start with a location, like your new place of work, a school, and MRT train station, or another landmark you know in Singapore.  

Indeed, we make it easy for you to search multiple locations in one go. Say you want to look for a home along the North-South MRT Line. Merely select Sale or Rent and then the MRT from the drop down menu. Tick the desired stations, say Orchard, Newton, and Novena.

When you do this, the homes closest to those stations will appear. Click on the listings to familiarize yourself with the different project names and agents specializing in those areas. If you want more details, click on the project page or adjust your search filter to look at different price ranges, property types, number of bedrooms, etc. You can also calculate the sale or rental X-Value for the unit, which is a computer estimate of the home’s value.

Engage

Once you have a good feel for location, property criteria, and price, you are ready to engage in the buying or renting process. I recommend two steps.

First, engage a trusted agent. If you are buying, this is essential as you need local advice to improve your chances of meeting your investment objectives. If you are renting, you need an advocate to protect your interests when living in someone’s home in a foreign country.

On the agent front, there are several good pieces of news. First, as a buyer or renter, you typically pay no commission. Second, there are several ways you can identify a good agent on SRX.com.sg to interview. For example, you can click on a listing agent’s cv and review their past transactions, current listings, and testimonials.   Another way to select an agent is to look for those agents with a pink Expert Analyzer logo. These agents are trained in SRX Analyzer which is like a Bloomberg terminal but for property. The analyzer contains proprietary information and analytics to help agents identify anomalies and opportunities in the market. These agents tend to manage clients with multiple properties and have the most advance tools to put you in the right home at the right price.

After engaging an agent, download SRX Home Search for IOS or Android compatible devices. This device will allow you to exchange and review listings with your Singapore agent from anywhere in the world, for free. It works like WeChat or WhatsApp but it is specially designed for house-hunting. It has all the listing capabilities of a portal but it allows you to tag listings with new photos and comments. Also, it has pricing tools like X-Value.

Act

While you are still abroad, your agent can help you shortlist homes and sort out moving issues like enrolling your children in schools. At some point, though, you will want to visit the properties. Work with your agent to schedule all the home visits so that you can fly in, get picked up, and knock out the shortlist with as little hassle as possible. That way, the house-hunting is a positive, exciting one that lays a solid foundation for your family’s new life in Singapore.

Review 

There are two aspects to reviewing. One is to make the decision on which home to buy or rent and two is to monitor that decision in the years to come.

SRX Analzyer has two cool features for ranking shortlists and running offer-negotiation scenarios that can help you with your decision. This tool comes in handy if you are negotiating from abroad.

• Guide to living in Singapore - SRX.com.sg/singapore-expats
• Expat property information -  facebook.com/SingaporeExpatsRentals
• Browse homes for sale or rent - SRX.com.sg
• Price Home - SRX.com.sg/xvalue-pricing 
• Engage real estate agents - SRX.com.sg/srx-agents
• Exchange and review listings from anywhere in the world - SRX.com.sg/home-search
• Identify opportunities in the market - SRX.com.sg/srx-agents
• Monitor your home’s value - SRX.com.sg/property-tracker