Singapore Expats

Hi,

We are an australian family leaving in Europe (France), 2 adults and 2 Kids (4 and 8). I work in Software sales and I am being offered a position in Singapore to manage the region.
We believe we need a terrace type house with a small outdoor area, and we are thinking of sending our kids to the Australian School.

Does it all seems realistic and how much do you think would be necessary to live on?

I am being offered 144K $Sing. + 20% bonus at year end.

Does it seem enough or not to live on the basis mentioned above, any feedback welcome on the pitfalls and the cost of living in Singapore.

Thanks a lot.
Jo

Hi JoPas,

I have never lived in Singapore but I think you will find that sum more than enough, since as anything from 2K and above per month is a good income.
Try asking somebody like Eric From the Netherlands, Sunday Morning Staple or Strong Eagle who have lived there years and have good knowledge.

Plavt.

You will live very well, don't worry.

What I would check is the finer details of your contract, see if the company will pay for a trip home once a year, or health insurance, do you get a car?

These are not unreasonable things to ask for - then see if you can get me a job - I used to sell for IBM in the UK & would like to get back into it.

School fees will sting you over 30k per year for your children. If you are going to try and bargain for anything at all, that would be a good place to start.

A terraced house could cost anything from $2k to 8k a month depending on where you want to be. I would really recommend that you think about living in a condo, which will be cheaper and with better facilities. Some ground floor places have thir own gardens. It is also a great place for the kids to meet friends.

You can live on that amount, but it will be up to you as to how much of it you save, of course. It would be very possible to spend it all - then again, lots of people live on far less and save too... sorry, I know that's very ambiguous!

Come! You'll love it.

Agree with K1w1 on the housing, do consider condos or cluster type housing with facilities which can be much better option, lots have a small terrace/garden, and almost all have a lovely communal pool, which is more than most small houses have. Believe me, the kids would like the pool better than the garden in the heat here. You would have more choice as well. If you want close to town then prices will be higher. Of course nothing is too far away here, depends what you are used to in commuting really.

Daily cost of living can be quite high here, meat etc is a lot higher than back in Aus, but then I don't know what you are used to in Europe as a comparison.

As K1wi mentioned all International Schools, including the Aussie school, are quite pricey, they are a bit like private school costs back home.
Are you getting a package? If so, school fees are definitely one thing to put on the list! The other is health insurance. It can be costly getting sick here, and with two kids you never know.

Having said all of that we are here with two kids just a little older (5 & 10) and they love it here and so do we!

Oh, and another couple of advantages come to mind. If you are going home to visit the relatives...then you can halve you flight times compared to Europe. Although you may not be able to hop countries quite as easily as in Europe you will have all of Asia at your doorstep and only a quick (and cheap) flight away.

Thanks a lot for the feedback...

We are not getting an "expat package" which means that they are only giving us a set amount of money and we have to do everything with that.Accomodation, schooling, health care, transport, savings, trips home and so on...

Having said that we would really love to come and leave cold and dark old europe, but we fear that if the package isn't right our life would be miserable there...

By the way what are your views on cars, needed, or not ? I was told that you can do without, but you need to have a taxi budget (around S$ 750/month), is that right ?

And regarding health insurance, any idea on costs or where I can get a quote?

thanks
Jo

You can definately do withut a car here, and if you use trains and buses to get to work, your taxi budget could be half that for weekend trips and grocery shopping etc. It costs about 15-20 dollars to get from one end of the island to the other, so the average run to work would be around $10 in a cab (and about $1.50-$2 on a bus or train). A taxi would probably not be much faster during rush hour either - I find that anyway as the taxi drives the same route as the bus, so it only saves me about 10 minutes.

I would think about getting housing close-ish to the Aussie school (if you decide to go there). They are in a strange location, so the daily commute could be a real pain with littlies and no car. Without throwing a spanner in the works, there are other schools that might be easier to get to (but then, you'd have to weigh up those locations which could be far more expensive as they are fairly central.) The Aussie school district is 12, I think (don't quote me - double check that!), so I would suggest having a look at the property prices on the property section of this website to use it as a guage.

If you (assuming you are the income-earner) are working in a central location, then public transport from your house will be important. There will be very few places that will have no public transport whatsoever.

Hi Jo

We are an Australian family about to make the move to Singapore too. We are also on a local package about the same as yours. We have targetted EtonHouse as a school for our kids (aged 5 and 7). The headmaster is Australian. We couldn't get a place at AIS. We are heading over in August.

Send me a message if you want to 'compare notes'!