Category: Home & Living

Let’s face it, a billionaire unloading $28 million on a penthouse is child’s play. But when a relatively high-profile billionare, like actress Vicki Zhao’s husband Huang Youlong, buys a penthouse in one of the most prime locations in Singapore DURING the Covid-19 lockdown, it’s bound to raise a few eyebrows, especially since there are some…

Even as we fight Covid-19, dengue fever remains one of the biggest health threats in Singapore, and it’s one that social distancing and staying home won’t solve. In Q1 2020, the National Environment Agency (NEA) reported 4,773 dengue cases and 7 deaths due to dengue infection. All 7 deaths occured within dengue clusters identified by…

Some home insurances are better than others, too. As you navigate adulthood you’ll soon realise that insurance, such as hospitalisation plans, is necessary. Even pet insurance is now a thing. But the most underrated plan ever? Home insurance. This is because it’s often overshadowed by its cousin, the fire insurance plan. While fire insurance is…

It has been a month since I moved into my first property: a four-room BTO flat that I had balloted for two years earlier. The experience, from balloting to renovation, has been an eye-opening one. My husband and I learnt a lot about owning and maintaining a home. With the February 2020 BTO launch coming…

Two weeks ago, we published an article about a renovation job that went awry. Many readers came forward to share their own experiences, so we figured we’d share some cautionary tales for the rest of you. Reading these stories made me realise that most renovation regrets come from — apart from shoddy work by the…

Do you know that feeling when you first put the downpayment in your HDB? That you’re giving away your whole life’s savings on a piece of paper? Yeah, those are rookie numbers. At least for caterer Neo Garden. Why? Because while some of us take years and years to pay off HDB loans, some of…

I recently moved into my four-room BTO flat in Tampines. It’s freaking awesome, but it took a stressful renovation to get here. Don’t get me wrong, the final product is almost exactly how I pictured it and the pipes and cabinets are intact. But damn, I was racked with anxiety and paranoid for two months…

Parents generally sacrifice a lot for their children, but how much are they really giving up for their kids to be near their schools?  In Birdbox fashion, many parents blindly move to residential areas near primary schools, for the sake of their kids. But they sometimes forget such a move could have negative consequences later:…

Before there was such a thing as BTO flats, blocks of HDB flats were built BEFORE they were sold. Sometime in the 1990s, there was a massive oversupply of flats in Woodlands and Yishun. In response to the oversupply, HDB combined the many of the unsold units into jumbo flats, effectively halving the number of…

Getting your first property and not sure how many rooms you want to spring for? Check out this handy guide that will help you decide how much space you really need! Finding the perfect balance between price and space Here are HDB’s specifications of 3, 4 and 5 room flats, as well as their average…