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Opinion | Cramped, mouldy, smelly: an expat’s hunt for a US$1,500 room in Singapore
- Su-Lin Tan checks out the rental scene in Singapore and discovers glossy photos on co-living websites do not always match expectations
- Landlords need to be careful not to exploit those looking for homes, and should offer transparent terms and suitable living conditions, she writes
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Su-Lin Tanin Singapore
A glossy ad of a Scandinavian-styled unit with black sinkware and a throw-draped sofa on one of Singapore’s many co-living websites is one way to tease the housing-desperate on the island state.
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While Singapore’s housing scene has calmed down after the city state reopened its borders last year, accommodation is still in short supply as locals and expats compete for rental units. Co-living rooms – shared spaces with strangers in a HDB or condominium unit or a boarding-house hotel managed by an independent operator – are also becoming more popular as tenants seek a balance between affordability and livability. Such rooms, as well as those shared with landlords, are advertised often, but even rents for these have risen.
On Tuesday, a study by the Urban Land Institute revealed that Singapore’s private home prices surpassed Hong Kong’s last year as the most expensive in the Asia-Pacific, while rents in the city state were also the region’s highest.
The institute’s 2023 APAC Home Attainability Index showed the median price for a Singapore home was US$1.2 million compared with US$1.16 million in Hong Kong, where prices dropped 15 per cent last year. Sydney houses ranked third at US$980,000.
Monthly rents in Singapore also held the top spot in the Asia-Pacific at a median of US$2,598, trailed by Sydney houses at US$1,958 and Sydney apartments at US$1,732. Hong Kong ranked fourth with rents of US$1,686.
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As a solo tenant myself, I recently looked at renting a co-living room or a shared room with a landlord.
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