Tiong Bahru, I love you!
I was writing to my mother in law, telling her about the area and I thought I would blog about it cos I really do love the place so much.
Disclaimer: I’m writing about this because I really love my new place, which also means that I love the area more than any other in Singapore, so if you love your place and think you would be offended, then don’t read ok? I’m not dissing any other area, just my own feelings on MY blog. Hor.
The Tiong Bahru area is one of the most
quaint in Singapore, and I think we are really the envy of many to have gotten
a flat here. Heck, I would be envious of anyone living here had I been living somewhere else. It is considerably bigger than other 3-roomed flats. These flats
were amongst the first of government (public) housing to be built, thus
the size.
We are about 88sqm, compared to other 3-room flats that range
between 59-72sqm. Our old flat in Ghim Moh was 59sqm. It was really
tiny. And the best thing is that if there are any bills that are categorised by flat type, we pay the same rate as any other 3-room flat 
Maybe for Max it’s just a nice area to live in but to me, it’s really really special. My Ah Ma used to live 10 minutes
away at Henderson Crescent, and every other weekend when I was a child we
would visit her. And we’d
always pass these flats and I would always look in and wonder what they
were like inside. The way they are built is very special. It looks to
me that alot more thought went into how the people living here would
actually live, rather than how many people can squeeze into a long
block without any character, like how most flats are now.
Our main door doesn’t open to face another door or a busy corridor, and we’ve got so much greenery and palm trees and nice areas to walk in. It’s really like going back in time.
Every day I come home, I feel so lucky to have found this
flat. For those of you who do not know, we found it in the classifieds, after seeing maybe about 10 other
units (very tiring) and 2 agents - they couldn’t find what we wanted,
and we were fated to have seen the advertisement. Also, because we
didn’t go through an agent, we managed to save some money on agent’s
fees! I think it was 5% of the purchase price. Which was $283,000. 5%
of which would have been significant!
By the way, for those of you who are not in the life situation of buying a flat, just so you know, the price is pretty good for a flat like this
because of the size and because we’re very centrally located. We could
have gotten a unit in other areas at maybe half the price but the
travelling to work or on weekends would have killed us.
This is a website that a very creative property agent has done up. Most
agents just drop flyers in our letterboxes but this one has done an
entire website dedicated to this area in which we call home.
http://www.tiongbahruestate.com/ it’s quite interesting.
The famous Tiong Bahru market where it’s exceptionally clean (even the wet market), and the porridge at Stall 163 (that’s the name) is fantastic. I hear the lor mee is good too but I’m not a lor mee fan.
Oh I love Tiong Bahru 
And you know what? For those of you who haven’t been here before, please do make the time. You’ll really feel like you’re in a different time. And by the way, I think the photos don’t do this place justice
