Living in an old condo in Singapore

After living for four years in a brand-new high end condo (The Sail) at the fabulous Marina Bay, we moved to an old condo (The Beaumont) near Orchard six months ago.

(This picture of our condo comes from website PropertyGuru.)

A totally different experience. Different how? Better? Worse?

Let me begin to say that we love it here! And I will explain why:

The Beaumont is a relatively small condo with two blocks. We live in The Bowbell, which is low-rise; only 5 levels high. The other block is not really high for Singapore standards either.

We live on the third floor along this gallery.

The condo has units of very different sizes and lay-outs, partly owner-units, partly rented out apartments.

Our front door.

Ours is one of the smallest units and it was in pretty bad shape when we signed the lease.

The main problems were water and moist problems that had been going on for a long time, leaving walls drenched and covered with fungi. Left behind furniture was disintegrating from water damage. The apartment reaked of mold.

Before we moved in. On this picture it looks in better shape then it really was at that moment.

When it rains heavily, the balconies sometimes get flooded, causing the water to stream back into the apartments.

In order to prevent the apartments of flooding, high plexiglass bars are placed in front of the balcony doors. So far it works for us. Our neighbors who did not have such a bar until recently got their unit flooded after one of the latest rainfalls. Now their plexiglass bar is twice as high as ours;-).

Mould on the walls.

Furniture falling apart from water damage.

Cupboards crumbling…

Luckily the landlord did a good job fixing the root cause and the damage.
Ofcourse it remains an old apartment and humidity and mold remain points of attention, but it is all very liveable.

We were able to turn this space into a cosy place.

We enjoy our dinners and breakfasts at home!

But despite enjoying our lovely unit, we do run into trouble regularly, like leakages….

This leakage above our ceiling was very bad, but fixed fast by our landlord.

Leakages and still standing water are risks for dengue. There was an outbreak some months ago, so we have to be careful about that.

We saw this when we moved in and asked the landlord what it was. Termites? We did not receive an answer and it was stable for months. Until two months ago, when we suddenly found a whole termite colony and an eaten doorpost.

(This picture is not mine. It comes from a blogger, because I forgot to take pictures myself.) Our termite pile was 10 times as big as the one on the picture! Groce!

They left this door post hollow! Amazing! Luckily pestcontrol took care of our termites;-).

The grounds are green, which we love! When we look out our balcony windows we see areca palm trees, yellow flame trees, orioles, mynah’s, squirrels and butterflies.

View from our balcony; trees all around.

Singing oriole in the trees in front of our balcony.

The seeds of the areca palms attract many birds.

As you can see here, they eat a lot.

Yellow blossoms from yellow flame tree.

Nice, but….

…it causes a lot of flower rubbish on all of our balconies every day.

The flower debris sometimes blocks the drainage, causing the flooding, so residents complain about all the luscious green.

Therefor regularly a crew is hired to trim the trees.

Last week they were REALLY thorough, but things tend to grow back fast in this climate, so that’s ok!

Back to our condo. The premises has a side gate.

When you exit from there, standing with your back to the gate you just came through, on your right hand are the shophouses that we see from our front door. A charming row of typical historical architecture. Some are in very good shape, others seem quite neglected.

The shophouses seen from our gallery on the third level.

The same shophouses seen from street level.

A few weeks ago I paid a short visit to one of them and the owner had an artwork on the wall that I fell in love with immediately; so very cool!

WANT! Art work by Jane Perkins who makes her art works with recycled stuff, like toys, buttons and beads.

On our left hand there is a plot of land with three villas. The plot is huge: 10.000 m2! One of the villas, a black-and-white, is in good shape. The other two huge mansions are in total decay, destroyed by fires and neglect. One of them is quite famous and known as the Soong Sisters’ house. Story goes that it is haunted with ghosts and all.

Entrance gate to the plot next to ours.

The first, smallest villa is in good shape and livable.

One of the destroyed, decayed mansions.

(This picture comes from the internet and is not mine.) We see the row of shophouses, behind that the low rise Bowbell where we live, and to the right the plot with lots of green and the two decayed mansions in clear view. The third one is hidden under the trees.

Another picture from the internet. My apologies to the photographers, since I was unable to find back the sources.

Until some years ago it was possible to go in and around these mansions and several urban explorers, ghost hunters and photographers did. My friend Sabine, a fantastic photographer, went in them and took gorgeous pictures. A few were published in an article she wrote for Time Out Singapore about abandoned places in Singapore.

Nowadays, it is no longer possible nor safe to sneak in for a peak. Too bad, because I am fascinated by places like this!!
Also too bad that the owners of this land let the villas go to waste, since they were really beautiful and with historic value. A shame!

I did read that one of the mansions got conservation status some years back, so that sounds promising.
I also read that the value of this plot of land is estimated today around 400 million SGD! Amazing!

Resuming, I can say that 1. an old condo comes with inconveniences. A reasonable landlord is crucial, because there will regularly be problems and damages that need to be solved and repaired. On the other hand 2. the rental price is often lower. Also an old premises can 3. have it’s own charm, like The Beaumont does.

What do you prefer; living in an old condo/house or in a new house or condo?