Moving to Singapore - should we move the furniture?

[sabinel]

Hello,
it is now confirmed that we will be moving to Singapore in January 2013. It is a fairly short term assignment: 2 years (we might make it 2.5 so the kids can finish the school year 2014-2015). I was wondering whether we should move our furniture or if it is not worth the hassle. I am assuming that it will take easily one or two months for the whole thing to arrive so we would need some temporary accomodation, which is not fun, especially for the kids. The company would pay for storage here. But I am not sure how easy it is to find furnished condos/houses. I looked at propertyguru and I did not see a lot. Any opinion from people who went throught the process?

As you wish. Singapore, as far as I've been told, is easy to move in and out of. Our move is fairly transient too (2 years minimum, perhaps more), we arrive in a month, and we are shipping just about everything. Some things being left behind due to bachelor-pad-style condo that funny DH has rented. Otherwise, it's all coming out - and going back again whenever we move back. I guess it's all down to what you think you can handle.
In terms of logistics, DH has moved over already, got into our condo, rented furniture for two months, and when that time is up our stuff should arrive. Anything we still need we'll buy and ship back again to UK when we leave.
Good luck!
Over to anyone with more concrete info...

Renting furniture is quite common, so you wouldn't have to wait for your stuff. But bear in mind 2 year postings are in my experience anything but. They extend, very very very often.

Hello,

We've been here a month. We brought very little. I sold most of our furniture on eBay. It had no real value (monetary or sentimental) and we didn't want lots of shipping costs. We kept a couple of special items that are being stored at my father in law's. We've bought things new here. It's actually been great - not too expensive and it's like starting over again! We air freighted our crockery, cutlery and some pots and pans - just enough to get by.

We stayed with friends for 5 days then moved straight in. Furniture deliveries happen quickly here, in our experience. I came over 2 months ago and chose a school and a condo so it was all ready for us.

You're probably already on this, but schools is a bit thing to get sorted and the intake is August and January. There are often waiting lists so good to get your name down asap.

We're loving it here. Can't imagine moving back to the UK!!

How old are your kids?

K

Most family-sized accommodation in Singapore is let unfurnished. If the company will pay for the shipping, I'd bring your furniture. The actual physical packing/shipping/ delivering at other end process isnt a lot of hassle as the shippers will do it all including customs clearance etc. As you say, the lag is the most annoying thing but there are a couple of options

• Move straight into your "permanent" address and rent furniture for a month or so
• Move into a serviced apartment and use the time to explore areas/ apartments and decide where you really want to live. I actually think this is a good idea as it gives you the opportunity to talk to people "on the ground" about which are the good complexes etc. rather than trying to do it remotely.

Dont bring antiques/fine art as the humidity doesnt do them a lot of good.

HTH

It also depends on how you feel about your things - having my things with me makes any place feel instantly like "home". I've enjoyed buying a few bits and pieces to fill spaces/provide extra storage etc, but basically brought everything from the UK. If you (or the children) take comfort from familiar things, then moving them makes a lot of sense. If not, you can start afresh through renting or buying. Bear in mind, though, that long term rental of furniture isn't really cheap, and if you buy you have to get rid of it at the end. Good luck!

Thanks everyone for the info & advice! Yes, I think we are probably going to do a mix of all that: sending the piano to storage, selling/giving the stuff we no longer want (time to part with the baby stuff...) but still moving the things that will make us feel at home.
I think renting some furniture for a while would work for us. I have done the serviced apartment thing in the past and did not like it much. The children especially wanted to be in their new home right away...
I am starting to be quite excited, although it is still a long way to go.
We haven't yet told the children (8, 6 and 2). My eldest son is likely to be upset, he loves his school in Cambridge... I have started to ask for schools in Singapore and am probably going to register them at Dover court and maybe another one, as we won't be able to visit until this autumn.
I will probably pick your brains soon on other topics especially where to live...

On the school front,just to let everyone know that things are moving fast on the TTS lists.
We were offered a place for year 4 which we declined as we wont be there this fall and many families are leaving too + many kids moving from TTS to UWC this year.
Still long for early years though.

I agree re familiar items. We are shipping things like paintings, pictures, kids' artwork folders, school reports, lego, lego and more lego, cuddly toys, vases, general knick knacks. We've bought sofas, dining table (which needed to be smaller anyway) and outdoor sofa, armchairs and table (we had none at home and have a patio here). We also got fab beds from IKEA which have drawers under and a pull out to make it a double. (Any space saving ideas necessary for us as our place here is smaller than our UK house). We've also bought a new bed for us as we needed one anyway. It is soooo comfy. We have got stuff from Scanteak, Taylor B and Ikea.

I think we will be here for the long haul. Started thinking it was 2 years but don't want to move the boys during their teenage years so will most likely be 10 years. That's a lot in storage costs lol!

That's interesting re TTS!!

K