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Hi, I don't know how to load pictures here. Can I probably send it via email.

The key considerations are : * No slippery tiles for safety reasons. We need to ensure this as we got young kids and old folks * Durability. Try to take a walk pass people's house and see what are the type of types that last. There are some slightly rough tiles with some waves patterns. My sil had those and she told us that dirt like to trap on the patterns thus making it turn black and difficult to maintain. In addition, the waves will also chip off overtime. In the end, I don't know the term of tiles we had. It was not big piece. It is not hommogenous. It is suitable for driveway. Non pattern but got classic grey paveway look. Not too rough where any fall will induce a big scratch. Our tile is around maybe 12 cm by 12cm. Not too small but definitely not big. It's been 3 years. We found it very easy to maintain, non slippery and the type that don't get dirty, crack and chip off easily.

We've a unit at ballota park that is currently rented out to a very good cacausian couple. It's their 3rd year with us. It is 1442 sq ft. Last floor and edelweiss facing. We are wondering if we should sell off our unit at Ballota and buy a studio apartment in town for investment instead. Sorry to tap on this thread as might be easier to associate as it's that area. Any thoughts???

We've a unit at ballota park that is currently rented out to a very good cacausian couple. It's their 3rd year with us. It is 1442 sq ft. Last floor and edelweiss facing. We are wondering if we should sell off our unit at Ballota and buy a studio apartment in town. Sorry to tap on this thread as might be easier to associate as it's that area. Any thoughts???

Wow, we drove past yesterday and with the road connection made, the entire area looks very nice and exclusive now. Hopefully it brings greater value to our property.

We used to stay at Ballota park. Some might think that it is far east however consider the no. of major expressways around this area. ECP, PIE and TPE, you are spoilt of choices and time to city is actually fast since you are using expressways. We are now in upper serangoon area and though it is supposedly nearer to town. We find that when we drive, there are are traffic jams. So I enjoyed the driving in changi but public transport choices in North east.

The process of adding name is not as simple as it may sound. My hubby and his parents own a condo before we got married. After we got married, they wanted to add my name so that I can help to finance. I know we had to show a transfer of cash of S$250k+ to reflect that it was a legal transactions. I recalled it had to come in the form of money order? or something to that effect not just writing a cheque. In addition, after my name is added, it had to be "tenancy in common". We cannot choose the joint tenant option. As my hubby has 4 other siblings I personally think it's important to ensure that we are joint tenant. So it was several years after that paperwork was done that we got the lawyer to convert joint tenancy. We wanted to leave our current house to our son. We've 2 other daughters. When we bought the house, we wanted to include his name but we can't as he is a minor. I think we might have to either will it to him or do such paper work again when he has grown up. But it's the part where, the cash transfer must actually takes place is complicated as for those without a loan, you probably need to have that amt of $ to do this paperwork.

Hi, We did a A&A 3 years back. It was a 30+ years old 2 storey and land around 2500 sq ft. We did rather extensive A&A. Only 1 toilet on 2nd level initially and 3 bedroom. We added on another toilet that is attached to masterbedroom. Our level 2 is able to house 4 good sized bedrooms (think it is significantly bigger than those new condo master bedroom nowadays). We did extension out behind (kitchen) and the 2nd level follow suit. We also extended infront to convert into a big balcony that covers the car porch. We shifted the electrical so everything is like brand new. We know exactly what we want so we got a builder and a civil engineer? who doubles up as a architect so that save us $20K on architect fees. In total we paid $210K for the A&A works. We didn't do an atttic but our contractor told us it would cost around $20k more. Our regrets.... we felt that we should explore 2.5 storey especially on our newly extended area but I recall that our GFA is very near the cut off point for rebuilding.

Hi, Just want to hear from other forumners on your views towards the government's latest move. Do you think it will bring the prices down??? I am a owner so I hope it will go up I do see concerns from some of the friends who already had plans to buy a private property on the need to raise 10% more funds (I suppose cash) inorder to meet the 70% bank loan requirement. So they are trying to get the deal inked and potentially backdate the documents. We are trying to see how it will affect us as we originally wanted to sell our rented condo in the east. It might not be good now since it's difficult to appeal to HDB upgraders since our property is tenanted and unless they have the 30% to enter the market now. I also see the stamp duty to curb speculators. Experts, any views.

I am curious, how does the loft work in landed? Is that similar to attic??? Do you need to construct a stairs? What about windows????

Thanks to all. We need to get agent due to earlier commission agreement signed. It is legal binding. However, this time round, we cancelled the commission payable upon renewal clause on the commission agreement. So should the tenant decide to renew next time round, it is no longer binding.

I think each remote control has a code (eg. password). The shop just need to program the code to be similar with the code that can be used and I am assuming you can go to any shop that does such thing. You might want to ask around. We went to the shop that does our autogate (can't remember the cost) and saw them doing the internal code on the new remote control. Looks like a easy process.

But problem is that we had to sign some commission agreement with agent previously. So we are bound legally to use them. I am thinking if we can choose not to sign it this time round.

Hi, Our tenant is renewing the lease with us. They have been with us for 2 years. Under this arrangement, we are obliged to use back the agents and pay them the commission. Supposing our tenant want to continue to renew with us after 4th year? Do we still need to pay the agents commission??? This does sound unfair given that they did nothing. What is the correct practise in this? We want to incorporate this now.

Any experts can advise on this. We've 3 properties. No. 1 is paid by CPF and monthly contribution while no. 2 and 3 are by cash. We've intention to sell this property if the price is reasonable. When that happens, we intend to divert all our CPF monies from the sale to pay for property no. 2. We should be able to clear off the entire loan fully. Given this situation, we don't need the CPF monies to pay for instalment. I am wondering if we can then use the CPF monies (eg. monthly contribution) to pay for the instalment of property no. 3???? Are there any implications if the property is paid using CPF? Any watchouts? My spouse is not keen to pay off property 2 with CPF monies as he is concerned with the inability to get back title deed.

Some stuff to share on property tax. We've 3 properties under the following arrangement : 1) Our name 2) Our name + my parents (occupied by them) 3) Our name + his parents (rented out) Under the strict interpretation, one can only claim owner occupied rate for 1 property only. In our case, I managed to speak to the officer about property 2. It is jointly owned with my parents but they are occupying it. So due to the situation, I was able to claim 4% property tax for property 1 and 2. Meanwhile for 3, as it is a rental property, it is clear that we need to pay 10%. For folks in such situation, it's always good to consult the IRAS officer and don't pay blindly based on your own interpretation.

Yes that's true. But in situations where your alma mater disappeared or it belongs to those school where there are vacancies after phase 2C, then you might want to consider being a parent volunteer (if the school allows that) or grassroot leaders. Note that all these needs to be plan/ strategise in advance. Eg. 2-3 years for popular schools. Eg. Rosyth requires 80? hours of parent volunteer and they start 2 years before the child is due to enter P1.

Probably fair for me to comment on this. We've 1 property in changi (far east), 1 property in koon seng area (middle east) and we are staying in North East (Upper Serangoon). I stayed in marine drive for 26 years of my life (before I got married). So east coast is close to my heart. I've moved to Upp Serangoon for 2 years now. It's true that at some time of the day, traffic can be heavy. But with KPE, I suppose it is getting better since the punggol folks use KPE rather than going through Upp Serangoon. It takes us 15 mins on KPE to reach suntec city. I work in the west and it takes around 30 mins from Upp Serangoon to science park area so it's not that bad either. Without these traffic, Upp Serangoon is actually very near to town. So I actually enjoy the Upp Serangoon area and not forgetting the circle line that make it even more conveniently link now. It takes 30 mins ride from Harbor front station to hougang station. I think the eateries are comparable to katong. It's rather interesting and happening. From a school perspective, there are more primary school selection here (eg. Maris Stella, Holy Innocent, Rosyth, PLMGS, Xinmin, etc...) iso of just Tao Nan (the more prominent school), there seems to be more variety here. Transport wise is also a great plus. Besides MRT, we are also spoilt for bus choices since we are near the hougang interchange. Amenities is great with polyclinic, sports hall, swimming pool near us. So i am really enjoying the area.

Hi, We bought a inter terrace in upper serangoon area 3 years back. Land is around 2500 sq ft. We spent $210K doing A&A. We extended the back and the front into a big balcony so now we have 5 bedrooms. We got the contractor's engineer to double up as engineer to cut down on archtitect cost. We knew exactly what we wanted to do so we rather use the architect's budget for some other works.

Has price really risen so much in that area???? 3 years back we bought sunshine regency at rambai road. 893 sq ft for $500k+. Going at around $610 psf.