Despite being shabby, walk-up apartments in Geylang have turned into a lucrative source of income for property agents, who use them to house foreign workers, reported the media.
The apartments, which are often dirty and overcrowded, are much sought after in recent years due to their relatively cheap rents.
Notably, a person staying at a shared unit will have to fork out $220 per month, down from the $300 in purpose-built dormitories with recreational facilities and coffee shops.
Local residents said a network of agents rent hundreds of private apartments and shophouses around the area, which belong to individual property owners.
Most of the shophouses are over 50 years old and were previously occupied by Singaporean families.
The owners lease their properties to agents who sublet them to employers in search for cheap accommodation for their foreign workers.
However, the units in Geylang are poorly maintained. Their living conditions came under scrutiny following last Saturday’s early morning fire in one of the said units, which resulted in the death of four foreign workers.
Still, demand for such apartments soared over the past five years. In fact, monthly rent stood at just $180 per person two years ago, said workers.
Property owners and residents estimate agents earn $2,000 or more in profit per month by subletting the rooms. To earn more, these agents add illegal partitions to accommodate more workers beyond the legal limit of eight.
Although residents have repeatedly complained to the authorities about the overcrowded apartments, things have not improved, said Geylang grassroots leaders.
“Sometimes, raids are conducted and the foreign workers are sent away… But after a while, they return,” noted Lee Hong Ping, a grassroots leader in Geylang for the last eight years.
Image source: Sengkang; Wikimedia Commons
Muneerah Bee, Senior Journalist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email muneerah@propertyguru.com.sg
