kelsiah

If the intention is to stay after construction, you can ask for tax remission but must undertake to stay in the house for a year after completion. The tax you pay is even much lower than ower occupier

Yes. My builder mentioned the same. The strobe light and limiter costs me additional $580. I hope we r not using the same builder by any chance

We are in the process of building a 2.5storey + basement. We wanted a basement to take advantage of the profile of the land, ie, we have a slope @ the back of land. It is a 1/2 open basement which allows us to locate the CD shelter, maid's room and work area (ironing, dry clothes etc). It's not a big basement, probably about 500sqft or so When I started looking around early 2010, incremental cost for basement was around 70K to 100K, depending on whether you need piling. We were lucky. Soil is good. So no need to micropile. Seems like costs have gone up. The other thing you need to be aware is how deep is your sewer pipe. Mine is 1.2 below ground level. So I can't have a toilet at the basement as it will be lower than the sewer pipe. The solution is to install a sewer pump which will cost another 20K. In addition to that, you need maintenance. Imagine the sluge. So We opted for a dry basement. As ours is an open basement, it is exposed to rain. Luckily to don't have to install sump pit (this is the water pump for rain water only) which will costs another 8k or so. I approached it from design and build. My contractor is not the mega type like Richbuilt, Facade etc. But I get direct access. He is fairly responsive and techincally good, which means don't expect arty farty architectural design. Based on developer standard (ie, getting to TOP w/o internal carpentry for wardrobe, $6psf for marble and $3psf for homogenous tile), I'm paying approx close to $800K for 4500psf, excluding GST. Since then, he's been giving me sound bites that cement and steel has increased by over 20%. Along the way, we got a bit vain and improve some of the finishes (for eg. increasing height of sliding window from standard 2.8m to 3.3m) which means the costs is going up.

hi, my thoughts - if architect fees are variable, ie as % of total construction costs (this can be quite a subjective definition), why would he be aligned to help you save costs? The higher the construction costs, the higher his fees, right? A moot point for discussion - should architect be remunerated on the basis of individual selection of materials? For example, choosing a marble that is S$15psf and S$20psf is an individual preference. Should an architect be remunerated on the basis of the owner choosing a S$100 tap @ Sim Siang Choon or a S$2000 tap @ Hansgrohe? I guess if one has the budget and no time at all to be involved in the project then its probably a good choice to leave everything to architect. Note that its not a bed of roses. You can leave everything but the architect is not you. So the architect will never have a full appreciation of your likes and dislikes. At the end of the day, it will still come back to you. I've left the post as open-ended - don't want to offend any architects out there. Afterall, they are professionals.

I'm also looking for something similar. Where can u get the clipsal ulti? Thanks v much

hi fellow forummers - like to know if anyone of you has good licensed plumbers to recommend. Doing rebuilding work but my contractor is doing it for the first time. The quote he sourced was quite ridiculous. CityGas has said that they can lay the main incoming supply for < $3K. But m contractor got a quote for S$7k just to lay the gas pipe internally on first floor. Have tried EMA website but it was not very friendly. Thanks very much

Nippon Paint published its prices http://www.nipponpaint.com.sg/services/pps_landed.asp so I guess you can use it as a guide

Hi, would be grateful if forummers can give some guidance on the electrical pricing for landed properties: 1) LAN points with Cat 6 2) Lighting points 3) Lighting switch 4) Water heater points 5) DB box 6) Ceiling fa 7) isolators 8) SCV points. Thanks very much

Thanks. These houses are being put up for sale, so kind of challenging.

hi, I have seen 3 new reconstructed house around the D19-20 area by Facade Holdings Pte Ltd and the architects are Lab Architects and LKS architects. Anyone has any view of their services. Much appreciated. Thanks

Had a bad experience when I approached one of the reputable builder. PM me if you want to know who