Problems With Living In Singapore Condominiums- Not As Glamorous As One Think It Is.

 

After buying a brand new condominium and waiting for the construction to reach Temporary Occupation Permit stage typically requires 3-4 years for an average 600 unit size development. Of course, many residents could not contain their excitement upon receiving their keys and moving in after renovating their dream home. But this is where the nightmare will start. 

1. Dealing with hardcore smoker neighbours staying above or below your unit smoking every 2 hours at Balcony

Many condo residents were sold by their property agent the idea of Alfresco dinning by utilising the balcony space. Hence they have planned for dinning tables to be shifted to the balcony area in order to free up inner space and a bigger allowance for the living room.  Alfresco is a style of dining that is casual and often offer a party-like ambience and looks cool. 

However, some condo residents are in for a rude shock when they discover that at lunch or dinner time, they often have to breathe in cancer causing harmful second hand smoke coming from their neighbours staying directly at the unit above them or under them. The effect of the second hand smoke is so bad that any units within a radius of 2 floors (approximately 6m) from that chain smoker unit will have second hand smoke drifting into their balcony.

Hence it is a fallacy to believe that upgrading from HDB to a EC or private condominium will mean the end of the 2nd hand smoke issue. This second hand smoke issue will never go away unless one purchases a landed property. Hence I am always amused when I hear property agents marketing Alfresco dinning to their prospective buyers at showflat. 

2. Lack of good talents who wants to volunteer to join the Management Committee after the end of the 1st year
During the 1st year, the developer will run the condo along with the appointed Management Agent. However, by the end of the 1st AGM, the MCST is supposed to elect its own Management Committee ("MC") members. Most of the good residents will not want to volunteer. In the Singapore SAF full time national service context, these are "extra duties" which snaps up valuable time especially for residents who are still working.  There is also no remuneration for being in the MC to look after the estate. One will also have to deal with countless complaints (where some are utterly unreasonable) and fellow residents demanding to be served by the MC in all their requests. Hence most residents do not want to take up such thankless job. 

Those who joined will have a few types, namely, (i) truly altruism folks (this group is a rare breed), (ii) power crazy folks, (iii) resident associated with the People's Association or government grassroot and (iv) residents who need to get their children into the primary school of their choice- type (iv) is actually a subset of type (iii) as the objective is to form the "Neighbourhood Committee" to promote grassroot outreach into the condo.

3. Carparking Woes

This is the most frequent issue in all condominiums. If there are insufficient carpark lots, this will create a problem. If there are ample carpark lots, this will also still be a problem and headache. The insufficient carpark lot scenario think everyone understands why it is a problem. So let me elaborate on why a condo with ample carpark lots will also be a big problem. 

In most condominium, carparking house rule will stipulate that every owner will be entitled to 1 carpark lot. Then there will be units without cars and units with multiple car ownership. Those with multiple cars will assert that since there are ample lots, they can park unlimited cars in the condo to save on thousand of dollars of annual season parking. The other non-car owner group will be unhappy and demanded that this is unfair as maintenance such as carparking surface epoxy paintings and carpark barriers maintenance is unfairly borne by them hence they will demand second car parking charges. 

Once the root of all evil (money) surfaced, then World War 3 will begin in the Condo estate. Hence if during the 1st AGM, the carparking and registration rule is not converted into by-law, some of the owners with multiple cars will start to "play around with the Ënglish" in order to argue the best case scenario for themselves.

Parting thoughts:

I am not sure whether the Singapore dream of "upgrading" to a condominium is really considered an upgrade in the first place considering the numerous woes of communal living in a private estate. The price of private properties have been quite resilient throughout this major recession unlike the 2008 property market crash. Still, many Singaporeans have been rushing to snap up a unit and will probably spend the next 25-30 years working tirelessly to support their banker. 

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