Originally Posted by exhale

Hi Bocat,

We've been living in Nusajaya now for 3 years. We lived in Singapore for 6 years before that. We live in Leisure Farm but are building our dream villa in Ledang Heights, and 5 other projects in the area. Happy to help via e-mail/phone. We are extremely happy with the move. I've answered your questions below and you may also want to check out a recent article in EXPAT Living magazine which covers a lot of these questions and more.

http://www.expatliving.sg/article/pr...ya-august-2011

Cheers,

David

1. Schools - we have two kids aged 7 and 4. They are both in local schools in Singapore (P1 and N2). What are the options for schooling in the Nusajaya area? Our kids are the same age as yours and will be going there...

Marlborough College (from the UK - Kate Middleton attended there) is setting up an amazing school, 5 minutes from Ledang Heights. It's a 90 acre campus and opens August 2012. They are having an opend day next Saturday and I would encourage you to check it out.

2. Any particular developments that you'd recommend? The friends we visited live in Ledang Heights. Their house was lovely but I feel it would be too isolated for us. I'm a sociable bunny and I need other people around me! Its also important for us to have somewhere the kids can go out and play with other children.

It's a personal choice. I'd go for Ledang Heights or Leisure Farm if you want to build your own home. They have the largest plots and freehold land. Everywhere else requires that you buy off plan, and homes are smaller. There is quite a community out here and I'm not left bored on weekends and weekday nights! However, we are still close to many of our friends in Singapore and travel into town some evenings just as before.

3. Safety - I can't deny I feel very safe living in Singapore and it's one of the things I like about living here. I don't know much about the general safety in Malaysia/JB as all you ever hear are the negatives. Any comments on this?

I feel as safe (or more safe) here as I did in Toronto, or most any other major city in the world.

4. Shopping - are there supermarkets/shopping centres close to Nusajaya?

It's not Orchard Road but there are plenty of places to shop down the road at Jusco/Aeon Bukit Indah. There is also a new retail factory outlet going up. For serious brand name shopping I still commute into Singapore.

5. General cost of living. With the way things are going in the UK just now - I'm starting to find things in Singapore are not as expensive as I once thought (apart from cars and property!) How does the cost of living in Malaysia compare?

You can build a dream villa on your condo budget.
You can get a Malaysian car and drive it into Singapore ONLY if you are not PR.
Marlborough Tuition is on par with Singapore private schools, however the facilities are much more expansive.
For everything else, I would guess staples are about 20% less. Restaurants can be a lot cheaper, bust still good. Labour (this includes landscapers, mechanics, repairmen and even doctors) are CONSIDERABLY cheaper than in Singapore.

6. Medical - is this similar to Singapore where you have to have your own medical insurance? My hubby's company don't cover any of this sort of stuff (he gets his salary and that's it). Any recommendations for medical cover?

Medi save from CPF (if you are PR) can be used at Glen Eagles Nusajaya that is being built. The also have Columbia Hospital which is really good. You still need to have medical insurance, but I didn't need to make any changes to mine to move over to Malaysia.

Originally Posted by Harlow Lad

Hi exhale,

When you say small how small? Less than 1500 sqf? I went to their website recently the Leisure Farm development look stunning. Is it what it looks like in their website?

Originally Posted by bakedbean

Are there any hotels opened in Nusajaya or still at embryonic stage? How about the marina too? Good place to spend a few days or is it a big building site?

Originally Posted by exhale

Hi Harlow,

We've been doing it now for three years and love it! It'll be even better when the kids are going to Marlborough College here. It's 7 minutes from our new house and the border is 7 minutes the other way.

Cheers,

EXHALE.

Originally Posted by exhale

Hi Harlow,

I did not mean small by Singapore standards. Everything is much bigger over here! I meant that when you buy land, you can get plots from 10,000-50,000 sqft (and even bigger) at Ledang Heights and Leisure Farm. When you buy a bungalow at the other developments like Horizon Hills, East Ledang, the lots are less than 10,000 sqft. Of course semi detached homes are smaller - but even so they are typically 2000 sqft and up!

It comes down to your budget in the end. We opted to spend our condo budget in Singapore on a villa. For that we got "Villa EXHALE" which is a 8000 sqft balinese villa on 30,000 sqft land. Another villa we are building is "Villa Frangipani" (featured in expat living mag at the link in the previous post) which is 6,000 sqft on 15,000 sqft land. Images of these homes are on our website. Since they are custom designed homes you can build any size you want to fit most budgets. In the end, you will pay far less if you build however the premium for a finished house may be worth it because you can move in immediately!

Happy to help more via PM where I can also give you my phone details.

Cheers,

David (EXHALE)

Originally Posted by ex reg

Thanks for that although the times to me do look like the best possible especially as you travel rush hour ish and you don't include the 5 to 10 minutes between Sing and Malaysia Customs.
And another 30 minutes plus into the Business district or Orchard.
But it might be better to park and take the MRT into those places rather than risk traffic.

Originally Posted by exhale

Hi ex reg,

Yes they are about average times. When I hit the border at 7:50-8 I am through the other side under 20 minutes consistently. Every Monday morning it's busier and weekends can be twice as long but we don't tend to go into Singapore on the weekends, especially long weekends like the one that just passed. Most people that come to check out the area do so on the weekend and make the mistake of thinking that weekend traffic at the border is typical.

If you've ever driven to or from the west coast, just tack another 20 minutes onto that time when thinking about including border traffic.

My typical routine sees me leaving the house at about 7:45, heading to Bukit Timah area to drop the kids off at their school at about 8:30 and then driving downtown, usually arriving at 9 or just after. This morning I left at 7:45, drove the kids to school and dropped them off at 8:30, turned around and was back at my house in Malaysia at my home office desk at just after 9.