I'm typing this as I sit in my tiny couch of my tiny apartment which I rent for a not-so-tiny sum.
But between paying a hefty $6,000-plus a month for mortgage, $2,500 a month for rent certainly didn't seem to be too costly.
Selling my apartment nearly two years ago was perhaps the most sensible thing I'd done.
And to be able to find a studio (albeit half the size compared to what I used to live in), I should count my lucky stars.
I found this little unit after several months of house hunting.
It's a small condo development nestled in Pasir Panjang.
At under 400 square feet, a super single bed, dining table for two, tiny couch for two are all that could fit in.
And on Jan 1, 2023 -- when everyone in the world heaved a big sigh of relief and looked forward to starting their year afresh -- so did I.
I had signed a two-year contract with the landlord of this tiny apartment -- which is just about the time I needed to recalibrate my finances and plan my next move in life.
"How the mighty have fallen" was the first thing Stanley my sex bunny said when he stepped foot into my current place.
"Adam, I mean no disrespect, but I have to remind you that this studio is the same size as my old room in my parents' house."
Carl the dense one stood at the entrance of my studio, wide eyed.
"Is that all there is?"
Indeed, that's all there is to my ultra small space.
I believe I have used up all vocabulary there is to use, to describe my cramped rented apartment though, for $2,500 to fetch a relatively decent space is what I might attempt to say is already a cramp de la creme situation.
The rental market in the last few years in Singapore was frustratingly ridiculous.
I always try to view things positively but it hadn't been easy.
Having let go of my own place -- and still wanting my own space -- meant I had to rent for the time being, especially when I had to wait for a while more to buy my next property which I aim to pay for in full.
Being in the rental market as a tenant was when I realised how greedy some (well, most) landlords can be.
After spending weeks trawling through PropertyGuru, one can't help but wonder just what on earth had made some landlords this greedy.
A simple room -- with no toilet -- at an HDB flat can fetch up to $1,500 for a mercenary landlord. And trust me, the room is in shabby condition.
Among my network of friends, I have heard at least four cases where their landlords raised rents to unreasonable levels.
Take my couple friends Betsy and Edward who had been renting a large 3-bedroom apartment in the far flungs of Yishun. The kind where you have to take a condo feeder bus just to get there.
To be fair, that development does feel like a resort. It's as if you've stepped foot into Batam.
The view of Betsy and Edward's balcony is to die for too. It faces a golf club so you get the vast greenery view which is calming.
Also making you want to die is the rent.
Before COVID hit, the couple paid some $3,500 for that unit.
But when every opportunistic landlord raised prices following the pandemic, their rent went up to $5,000.
That is just pure greed.
And it makes me extremely upset.
My partner J, who had been renting out his 3-bedroom condo for the last couple of years, had never once raised rents.
In fact, at a time when most property owners lowered their own morals and raised rents, J did the exact opposite.
J's reason is that he would rather keep his current responsible tenants and give them a friendship rate.
When J bought his place a few years ago, the owner who sold him the unit gave him a discount -- on condition that J allowed him to rent that place for around two years, at a discount.
That's because the owner was bound by rules where he had to wait for 15 months after selling his private property before he could dip into the public resale market.
I love J for that and I too, agree that there's a fine line between making rental income and abusing it to cash in on other people's misery.
To add oil to fire, it's not as if Singaporeans are the best landlords around.
No cooking, no particular race, no particular nationality -- excuse me?
While I am thankful my landlord hasn't raised the issue of raising rents -- and that he's kind enough to attend to some of my basic requests (such as fix water heaters), I feel angry for most of the tenant pool.
Today though, the rental market is cooling down.
No longer are greedy landlords able to command such high profits -- thanks to more steady supplies of new flats and dipping demand of people who want to rent.
I can only hope that when my two-year rental contract is up, my hands will no longer be tied and that I can run freely into the resale flat market to buy something which I can fully pay for, and not fork out cash to support someone else's mortgage.
Adam's stories are based on real life events and inspired by real people
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