Singapore Expats

Hello,

I'm currently residing in Sydney (Australia), and I've been offered a new role by my current company, for which I would have to relocate to Singapore. I would be earning the following:
* Base salary: $11k/month (13 months per year)
* Position allowance: $2k/month

My company's office is in Toa Payoh. I'd like to live somewhere within easy commuting distance, ideally 20 minutes or less away. Walking to work would be great, but I don't mind taking some sort of public transport.
I won't get a car.

I'm coming over on my own, and am 28 years young.

Basically, I'm looking for suggestions from you kind people as to where I could possibly live, and how much I would be looking at spending on rent.

Very much appreciated in advance!

Hope it is enough - I moving from Melbourne for a bit less and I have a wife and son! Doing it mainly for the experience. As a single 28 year old you should have a blast.

Get a copy of the papers on Saturday/Wednesday from the library.

From my research I think shared houses are fairly common too, although not applicable for me.

U got a good working location!! Toa Payoh is a good location, near the city and also easy to travel to other parts of Singapore. So don't worry about getting a car. There are not many private apartments in Singapore,but you can rent government flats.

Position allowance of 2000$! Am i right to think this is your rental allowance, if so it's too low, I'd squeeze for a minimum 2500 and expect it to rise when the economy picks up, that's for private condo's. HDB which is government apartments vary from around 1500 to 2000 if i'm not wrong.

There are not many if any one bedroom apartments, and studio apartments in the city are around 3000 up.

The guy moving from Melbourne with 2 kids, is looking at 2500 and 3000$ for the average 2 bedroom 3 bedroom i suspect 3000 and up.


Maybe someone else on the forum may have a better feel of the market, I maybe 6 months out of touch and know rentals have dropped, quite a lot. so you may also be lucky.


Otherwise you can always share a condo!

ksl wrote:Position allowance of 2000$! Am i right to think this is your rental allowance, if so it's too low

I don't think it's a rental allowance, I think it's just a bit of an extra salary on top of my base salary (though I'm not entirely sure why it's split that way).
Either way, as I would be taking home about $12k a month after taxes (base+position allowance), I should probably be able to spend significantly more than $2k per month on rent.

Thanks for your feeback!

you can certainly afford to look at nice condos. Toa Payoh is a nice area to live in, so you should be able to find something up there. That would save you time commuting. If you get an expensive condo and really live it up, you still won't spend your full $12k a month. This should be a great chance for you to spend that extra money travelling!

If you prefer to be closer to the beach, you could check out east coast! That's where I'm staying, and I love the easy access to east coast park.

Hey, i am from Melbourne and i live in Toa Payoh. We live in a private condo and its very convenient. Very close to MRT, supermarket and buses. My husband works in Novena and he still walks it everyday.

In terms of prices, it can be between $3-4k a month in the condo that i live in. I know there are plenty of empty condos here, saw alot of removalists in the last few weeks.

Its called Trellis Towers and there is another one across from here called Orlander (i think).

Thanks Smayrhofer!
Would the commute from the East Coast area to Toa Payoh be fairly straightforward?

Amiee40, thanks for the suggestions! I won't be moving till June/July next year, so hopefully there will still be plenty of availability by then. What sort of size unit would $3-4k a month get me in your condo (or similar)?

The commute depends on your exact location... 40 minutes?

But if you are worried about commuting time, you are way better off getting something close to work. You'll spend a lot more days at work than hanging out at east coast park.

Well, we have a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom plus maid's area place, furnished with basic furniture and whitegoods and we are paying $3800. My husband did the negotiations with the landlord and he is not very good, so i know we are paying a bit more. He only had a week to get it organised so can't complain.

If you get a reasonable housing allowance, you should be fine.