Black-and-white houses exude character, but are not for faint-hearted

Singapore

DISTINCTIVE homes in lush settings for the elite few, Singapore's 500 black-and-white bungalows present a different facet of a city where everything works with clockwork efficiency and money can seemingly fix any inconvenience.

But money does not always work if you want to live in one of these colonial black-and-white houses. And they are certainly not for the faint- hearted, either.