Anyone living in Sunwah Pearl or City Gardens?

Hello Friends: I'm relocating to Saigon for a job in two months. My job is in District 1 so I am hoping to live somewhere with a short commute with a short Grab ride and occasionally would like to walk or bike to my office. Based on my budget, an apartment in D1 is too expensive and I've narrowed my choices down to Sunwah Pearl or City Garden. Anyone living in these buildings? What is the building management like for these two projects and which one has a better Grab, walk or bike commute? Thank you very much for your comments or suggestions.
-@James Liu

Hi James!

Welcome to the Vietnam forum and thanks for your well-written first post 👍

Hopefully you'll get some useful feedback, though don't be surprised if you get some unsolicited private messages from rental agents and property owners offering you unsolicited alternative ideas.

If so, you can customize your private message settings to only accept messages from forum contacts (or block messages all together, but I don't recommend that, as some people may actually want to help you, but only through a private message).

Good luck with your search for more information and hopefully you're going to have a great experience living in HCMC.

An additional note: this forum has two sub forums for that area: one for Saigon and the other one for HCMC.

You can post in whichever forum you choose, but it may be worth knowing that more people follow the new posts in the HCMC forum.

Cheers!

O.B.

@OceanBeach92107 Thank you very much.

@James Liu

Hi James Liu. Congratulations on your relocating to Vietnam!

You've piqued my curiosity. You mentioned budget concerns in your post, and that units in D1 are a bit too pricey. May I ask what rental rates you've been quoted for Sunwah Pearl and for City Garden?

There was a recent thread which you might find informative. The cost of Living in Vietnam in 2023 (link).

Other threads related to costs can be found here.

Again, congratulations and good to have you on board.

(edit; for general topics on expat life in Vietnam, here is the main Vietnam Forum page)

@Aidan in HCMC Hi Aidan. I've looked around at a few projects during my previous trips. The Hongkong Land the Marq in D1 was my top choice, but the space was rather small. I wanted a huge two bedroom or three small bedrooms, with the extra bedroom as a den/office. The two bedroom was affordable but too small and the three bedroom was beyond my budget. I can't stand the noisy alley houses and can't afford to live in a villa in District 3. 

My company's fixer suggested some projects by Vincom. Just personally hate this company so I will not look at anything by them. Thu Thiem across the bridge was an option but I decided the Gallerie gave such a weird vibe when I visited a month ago.

I'm now deciding between a three bedroom at Sunwah Pearl or at City Garden.

I've visited a lot of projects in D2 and D7. Both too far from D1. The Waterina in D2 Thang My Loi blew me away. Excellent design exterior and interior. On par with the best buildings in Taipei or Tokyo. What really turned me off was that 50% of empty units owned by some rich Hanoi ladies and 50% lived in by tenants or owners who trashed the place. I saw cigarette butts in the elevator. That was a huge disappointment.

@Aidan in HCMC I work for a Taiwanese company. They appointed agent cannot tell me the price they just tell me whether the unit I picked meets the company budget or not. Asian patriarchalism I guess.  There was an executive who married a local and was using his rent allowance to pay for his wife's mortage but the house was not under her name.

@James Liu My understanding is the owner of Garden City was as crooked as they come and the gov repossed it. It now lies abandoned awaiting conversion to a hospital or something, security gaurds do patrol when not sleeping.