Singapore Expats

Ok so i may have to move to Singapore form Dubai which is a bit of a shame since i have only been in Dubai not even a year.I'll try to be as honest as i can regarding salary and stuff but seeing as though i havent even been offered the transfer yet its all based on my current salary in the UAE.

Im currently earning the following: (have converted from dirhams to sing dollars)


basic 124000 SGD (looking for 160k to account for tax)
car allowance 15000 SGD
housing 61000 SGD
move fee 21000 SGD
school 30000



Nothing is finalised yet but may have to move and am trying to research the areas etc as much before hand in case it becomes a

reality and see what i should be requesting in terms of salary, allowances etc and see how it compares to my current salary.

Am wondering if this is enough to live life somewhat comfortably in Singapore and /or whether the housing/kids/car allowance is

enough.


Will be working, i think possibly Marina Boulevard.
Have looked at areas to live, bank accounts, cars and stuff and the COE stuff is a bit crazy but seems do able on the allowance i

get as above, but my main concern is the school fee's and housing, ideally schooling would need to be one with a british

curriculum and housing, ideally would be somehwhere with a family community and/or shopping /supermarket nearby for the wife so

when im away she can shop.

Areas i have researched into are

1)East Coast
2)Holland Area or Holland village
3)Novena Area


So the two main concerns are school and where i live, ideally need a 3 bed as i have 2 kids and 1 lovely wife.
Ideally would be great if where i lived was close to the school and/or supermarket.

Any help would be apreciated.

ANY HELP?

Dubaiguy wrote:basic 124000 SGD (looking for 160k to account for tax)
car allowance 15000 SGD
housing 61000 SGD
move fee 21000 SGD
school 30000

Am wondering if this is enough to live life somewhat comfortably in Singapore and /or whether the housing/kids/car allowance is enough

enough is usually never enough, but i dare say if that's what you're gonna get paid in singapore, it's more then enough for a comfortable life.

as singapore's quite small you shouldn't worry too much about distances between places...

appreciated.

And the areas of living, i think ideally id want a managed sevice apartment for the first 6 months but not sure... any recommendations, there's allot to choose from?

A lot of this has been covered before in previous posts which is why you're probably not getting a lot of responses. Do a search and you'll find a lot of answers to budget questions.

Personally I'd see if you could bump up your car allowance (leasing a family vehicle $1500++ a month) and also the schooling - depending if you are going to send them to an International School. If you are looking at a serviced apt you'll need to bump up your housing allowance quite a bit - do a search and call for quotes.

(*edit* I meant that as in search of serviced apts and call them for quotes. Also, depends on the school age of the children. If they are nursery you'll be fine but older it'll be $20k+ per child for int'l school.)

if you're after a british education, then you'll probably stumble across Tanglin School. $30,000 will only be enough to cover fees for one of your kids.

Dubaiguy,

I'm an aussie, just relocated from Dubai to Singapore 2 months ago. Hopefully i can give some direct comparrisons to help.

If you can get a Dubai salary in Singapore you're doing well. seriously. Especially if you signed up for the Dubai job less than a year ago when salaries were at their peak. I was on a similar salary to yours in Dubai and have taken a huge pay cut here (not by choice, but i guess you know whats happening in Dubai and why we had to leave).

The main difference here to Dubai is that here the locals are educated, hard working people that don't "need" expats to run things like Dubai did. So therefore the expat salaries are not as large as in Dubai. But as a result, you can live for a lot less as everybody earns less. There is no need for you to buy a car (depending on the ages of the kids of course) the public transport system is world class and it's easier to get the MRT to work than drive if you work in town.

As for where to live, there aren't any bad areas, where were you living in Dubai? I was in Dubai Marina and now live near Geylang at Paya Lebar (supposedly a "bad" area) and the condo i'm in here is easily better than anything like JBR (i wasn't living in JBR, but it's a good example of Dubais low quality housing standard). Novena and the east coast are nicer than Jumeirah or the greens, so you don't have to stay in the "nicest" areas in Singapore for it to be comparable to life in Dubai. I'd say find a school for the kids first, then pick an area to live thats near the school and walking distance (less than 1km) to an MRT station. There are no Bur Dubai or Sharja style areas in Singapore that you need to avoid, it's all reasonably nice especially when compared to Dubai. There's also no traffic to worry about here, you can live anywhere on the island and drive to town in half an hour (or 45 minutes by public transport) less if you live in some of the places you named above.

If you can get the salary listed in your post you will live very well here, don't let money be the deciding factor. I can't really help with the schools as i have no kids. for the accomodation, look on this website under the "condo directory", and on gumtree.sg. i'm sure there are more, but they're two i know of.

As for living, food and groceries are cheaper here, rent is significantly cheaper, cars are atleast double the price here, beer is the same price (it's ridiculous, atleast in Dubai they had a reason for ripping us off!).

you can email me at "[email protected]" if you have any specific questions, but keep in mind i've only been here for 2 months so i don't know it all.

Good luck.

oh yeah, and if you do move here, i've got a tele and a stereo in Dubai that needs squeezing into someones container. . . nudge nudge wink wink .