Average Expat Rental in Singapore

Average rent an expat would pay in Singapore rose to 2,830 USD per month in 2010 for a two bedroom (2+1) unfurnished property. This makes Singapore the fifth most expensive city in the world and the third most expensive city in Asia for expatriate accomodation. This information is published in the latest accommodation reports by consultancy firm ECA international.

The rebound in the monthly rentals is 15% in USD terms but this is also due to value appreciation of Singapore Dollars against USD. In terms of Singapore Dollars the increase compared to 2009 is 9%.

Ranking for the first 5 is below:

1. Tokyo - US$4,352
2. Moscow  - US$3,500
3. Hong Kong - US$2,830
4. London - US$2,824
5. Singapore - US$2,810

The Cosmopolitan Singapore

According to The Telegraph:

The cheapest rental property surveyed was in Karachi, where a two-bedroom apartment is on average 17 times cheaper than in Tokyo. 

The report focused on the neighbourhoods and types of accommodation typically favoured by expatriates. 

It found that luxury residential rents in Hong Kong surpassed Tokyo, with a three-bedroom apartment in the Chinese city's exclusive Peak neighbourhood costing an average $16,700 (£10,411) a month, about 30 per cent more than its Tokyo equivalent.

 Do not get scared if this makes you think that you will need to pay around 3580 SGD per month to a 2+1 flat. As the newspaper said this is the average price (half of the surveyed properties are below this price) and these properties are type of properties (condominiums in Singapore) favoured by expatriates (western foreigners). You can easily rent a decent 2+1 HDB for about 1800 - 2000 SGD per month and for around 2500 SGD per month you can rent a 3+1 HDB flat in a new building. In fact the only significant difference of these new HDB flats compared to expat choice condominium flats is that they are not in a condominium. Even a central business district flat in the brand new Pinnacle @ Duxton is around 3000 SGD per month and it is significantly cheaper as you get far away from the city.

A brand new HDB complex - Pinnacle @ Duxton

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Webinar - Guide to Relocating to Singapore

For anyone interested in relocating to Singapore,  Contact Singapore has a webinar named "101 Guide to Relocating to Singapore" on March 1st 2011 at 20:00 (GMT+8:00) Singapore time. If you are not familiar with Contact Singapore, it is an alliance of the Singapore Economic Development Board and Ministry of Manpower which aims to attract global talent to work, invest and live in Singapore. Contact Singapore has offices in Asia, Europe and North America.

A 101 Guide to Relocating to Singapore webinar is advertised as below (if you missed the webinar you can still watch it from webinar archieves of Contact Singapore):

Relocating to another country can sometimes be daunting, but it does not have to be. Contact Singapore, an organisation with the Government of Singapore, would like to make the transition a smoother one for you. We welcome you to register for our webinar to learn more about life in our cosmopolitan city-state. The webinar will provide a broad overview on topics such as accommodation, education, healthcare, opportunities for spouses, and much more, that will ease your move to Singapore. Sign-up for the webinar today and hear engaging presentations by experts, including a foreign talent who recently moved to Singapore with his family. Take this opportunity to ask them questions in an interactive Q&A session.

Related Article: Expat living- Singapore expat explorer survey 

Jobs in Singapore - Best time to search and find job

It seems that the best time to look for a job in Singapore is around 1 month after Chinese new year. There are many asserted reasons for this. One very acceptable reason is that this time is the end of Christmas - Chinese New Year holiday era and people wait for their year end bonus, enjoy these holiday periods and then find new jobs here or abroad which creates a lot of vacancies.

So job hunting season is slowly starting by end February, if you want to find a job in Singapore you will need to attack from every angle. An obvious option is online search in Singapore job sites. You have many options here but I have experienced that I am only called with respect to my Monster SG CV (I am Singapore PR but this was also the situation when I was an EP holder). The rest of the web sites did not create any meeting for me. So monster.com.sg is the best job site in Singapore for me :) Still I have CV in JobStreet and although I think it is worthless for me I sometimes buy The Staits Times on Saturday and apply to some jobs advertised there.

When I first came to Singapore, a friend told me that only 8% of jobs are found online in this country. Adding this to the inherent difficulty of finding a job online as a senior employee, I need to find creative ways to increase my chances. One of them is advised by another friend, who has recently found a job in Singapore. What he did was after he has applied to a more senior position then his qualifications, he has called the advertising HR consultant immediately and asked him if he would have a chance for the position. When HR Consultant replies as "no, this is a position for a more senior fellow" he asks the consultant about any available position for his qualifications. This made him connected to some HR consultant and one of these guys eventually found him a job.

Keeping this method in mind, I still use (or will use) the following portals for online job search:

Monster SG: This Singapore branch of the global partal is a very good place to start. Although you can apply many of the jobs without an account (most advertised an email address to send resume) I highly recommend you to open up an account and regularly login. It seems like your login frequency effects your ranking on employee search list for job advertisers and after every login you can get mails from HR consultants for job offerings.

Job Street: The old beast of job search. I like their specialized searches like "Jobs in Public Services", "$100K++ Jobs", "Jobs for Fresh Grads/Students" and "Jobs looking for more Applicants". But the same old jobs are pushed up again and again until evey folloeing they which makes it difficult to locate new job advertisements. I did not have any job offers from this site, all came from Monster.sg but I must admit as a Singapore PR it has been only 1 month looking for a job. It seems like majority of the jobs in this site require only  "Singaporeans and Singapore PR need to apply".

LinkedIn Groups - Yes, linkedin groups like Contact Singapore, Singapore ITC Jobs, Singapore Global, etc. provides plenty of job advertisements to apply. You can also see the profile of the poster and build connection with him/her.

SingaporeExpats - They usually advertise jobs from other sites but this is a good place to look at from time to time.

Jobs at Singapore - This site is backed by Contact Singapore, an alliance between Singapore Economic Development Board and Ministry of Manpower whose purpose is to attract foreign talent to Singapore. So I guess they are more open to foreigners than jobsDB or JobStreet whose advertisements tend to request "Singaporeans and Singapore PRs".

Jobs Central: This site looks promising. I will give it a try.

You can also pay to increase your chance. JobStreet for example has PriorityApplication. Normally job seekers with higher qualifications are ranked at the top of the employer’s list. But each employer receives more than 100 applications for each position they advertise on JobStreet.com, so getting noticed is difficult and being at the top is crucial to a successful application. JobStreet.com has this  PriorityApplication to move all of your job applications automatically to the top of the list and highlight them. Of course with a price. For 38 Singapore Dollars your job applications for executive, entry level & non-executive jobs are highlighted and for 50 Singapore Dollars all your applications are highlighted.

See also High paying jobs in Singapore : Top 100 and Singapore IT salaries articles.

Ajisen Beef Ramen Lunch

This is something I have missed for a long time. Ajisen Ramen is a Japan based-chain of fast-food restaurants selling Japanese ramen noodle soup dishes and they are very well established in Singapore. Unfortunately they do not have any stores in Europe so I have been away from my favorite beef ramen for a long time.

Ajisen Beef Ramen Lunch Set

Ramen is a Japanese noodle dish. It is prepared by chinese noodles (wheat noodles) served in a meat or fish ball broth. It is often flavored with soy sauce or miso (a traditional Japanese seasoning). A set like this costs 15 SGD, expensive in Singapore standards but the taste deserves the amount :)  

Abbreviations used in Singapore

When you first come to Singapore, you will be suprised and confused with the occasional use of abbreviations. There are in fact many abbreviations used in daily life and getting used to them is a cruicial part of getting used to Singapore.

Look at the road sign below. All abbreviations (except Tuas)!

PIE - Not a pie, this is Pan Island Expressway. Usually heard from taxi drivers in this question: "ECP or PIE?". ECP stands for East Coast Parkway. The taxi uncle here asks your preference of express way to your destination. Learn which is shorter and/or cheaper. This question was just asked to me 2 days ago for a ride from Dhoby Ghaut to Dakota. My answer was "Nichole Highway!". If you are a foreigner expect this question time to time for a couple of km more ride even if you do not need to take any to arrive to your destination.

KJE is for Kranji Expressway, NTU is for Nanyang Technological University and NIE - National Institute of Education.

Major cities of interest in Malaysia are also abbreviated. JB for example is not for the famouse Scotch whisky J&B and it is definitely not for Justin Bieber (who the fuck is Justin Bieber?!?). This is almost always used for Malaysian city, Johor Bahru. KL is also occasionaly used, which is for Kuala Lumpur. In fact you can hardly hear the names of these cities in daily life, they are almost always reffered as JB and KL.

There are also some which can make you look at the other person with empty eyes. Take Teh-O, tea with sugar only. When a vendor asks this he/she wants to know that you want tea without milk. Otherwise just Teh means tea with milk and sugar. Same goes for coffee, kopi-o means coffee only, coffee without milk but with sugar.

And there are funny/fixtious like SENTOSA - "So Expensive and Nothing TO See Actually!" Not an abbreviation used in Singapore but an abbreviation describes the thoughts of many people about overrated Sentosa :)

For a comprehensive list of abbreviations used in Singapore refer to this wikipedia article: List of Singapore abbreviations.

Raffles' Landing Site

This statue of Sir Stamford Thomas Raffles (1781 - 1826) marks that part of the Singapore river bank where he was said to have first landed on 29 January 1819.

Raffles an agent of the British East India Company, ventured to Singapore hoping to establish a free port and a halfway point for traders along the China-India trade routes. After signing the preliminary treaty with Temenggong Abdul Rahman, the official treaty with Sultan Hussein of Johore-Riau was signed on 6 February 1819, giving the British right to establish a trading port on the island.

The Dutch protested as Singapore was then part of the Dutch Johor-Riau Empire. The dispute was resolved with the signing of the 1824 Anglo-Dutch Treaty, where the British acquired Malacca, Penang and Singapore, while Dutch gained Bencoolen (present day Bengkulu) and the rest of Indonesia. In August 1824, another Treaty of Friendship and Alliance was signed, giving the British the governance of Singapore.

From the 19th Century, Singapore's success as the "Great Emporium of the East" owed much to its free port status and strategic location. The Singapore River became the main artery of the trade, where port, trading and warehouse facilities developed along the river banks.

In 1867, Singapore became a British Crown Colony after the transfer of The Straits Settlements from the British Administration in India to the Colonial Office in London. It remained so until 1959 when Singapore achieved self government.

Marina Bay Sands SkyPark - 360 degree view of Singapore

Marina Bay Sands SkyPark offers the third best panoramic view of Singapore cityscape ( see Top 5 best rooftop views in Singapore ) and paying a visit to this man-made marvel was a top item in my to do list once I arrived back to Singapore. Today, about 2 weeks after my arrival and just several days after visiting the skybridge of Pinnacle@Duxton I had a chance to visit the Sands Singapore Skypark (See the link to how to get to marina bay sands).

Sands Skypark sits on the top of the three 55-storey Marina Bay Sands Hotel towers and offers a 360 degree view of the Singapore city from 200 meters hight. The Skypark is 340 meters long, longer than the Eiffel Tower laid on one side. It is 1.2 hectares.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel Towers from Marina Square.
Sands Skypark connects their roofs

I had walked there from Bugis Junction but it is only 10 minutes walk away from Promenade MRT Station on the Circle Line. The enrtance fee is 20 Singapore Dollars per adult and 17 SGD per senior. A fast climbing lift from the entrance takes you up to the skybridge in less then 15 seconds.

The Sands SkyPark Public Observation Deck, is open to the public from 10 am-10 pm on Mondays to Thursdays and 10am-11pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Sun Aura on Sands SkyPark Observation Deck

Sands SkyPark Entrance

The view from Sands Skypark is just fantastic but is also a little depressive as well if you live in Singapore. You can easily see the west, east, north and south ends of Singapore and once more realize how tiny is the island. Unlike Pinnacle@Duxton skybridge, whose east view is blocked by Singapore CBD, there is virtually nothing blocking the observation on the Sands Skypark. But I must admit, the Pinnacle@Duxton provides a better bird's eye view of central Singapore so pay a visit to there even if you have been on the Sands Skypark.

There is a nice SkyBar on the deck but the best seats with the view are almost always occupied and the bar was very crowded when I was there so I did not give a try to a very expensive beer.

Singapore Flyer, Kallang River from Sands SkyPark

Singapore East Coast from Sands SkyePark

Marina Bay Sands Infinity Pool
(Singapore CBD on the right hand side)

Singapore Central Business District from Sands SkyPark

Sands SkyPark Observation Deck (Restaurant on the right hand side)

Marina Bay Sand SkyPark Observation Deck

20 SGD ticket provides you one time access to the marina bay sands observation deck and a view of Infinity Pool but the access to the pool is restricted to the Marina Bay Sands hotel guests (and their guests). It is not allowed to use tripod on the skypark and opening up an umbrella is also not allowed. The observation deck is also closed when the whether is bad.

Gardens by the Bay, three distinctive waterfront gardens – Bay South, Bay East and Bay Central spanning a total of 101 hectares, are still under construction. When they are completed, they will be in the heart of Singapore’s new downtown Marina Bay, encircling the Marina Reservoir like a green necklace.

Gardens by Bay waterfront gardens under construction

Related Articles: Top 5 best rooftop views in Singapore and Pinnacle@Duxton skybridge

Singapore Property Market Beyond 2011

When you want to predict the future of a market, the best and most reliable tool is fundamental analysis. Since prices are determined by supply and demand in a free market, predicting the future of demand and supply will give you a better picture of the trends in a market.
Where will the property prices in Singapore head to in 2011? Will they fall? Or will they go up? There are some good articles out there asking and answering the correct questions: Will the supply of properties exceed the demand or visa versa in Singapore?
In his article The key is to look at demand and supply Ku Swee Yong, founder of real estate agency International Property Advisor advises us to look at what really matters: supply and demand:
None of the above data sets matters as much as rentals, vacancies and real physical demand and supply. Forecasting future rentals and vacancies depends on our view of future demand — physical demand from home users, as opposed to demand based on buy-sell transactions.
Projecting future demand is about as easy as reading tea leaves and cloud patterns. However, we have a lot more certainty when it comes to predicting supply. We can be especially confident about supply that is coming in the next three years as many of the “under construction” condominiums can be completed within 36 months. 

In Potential oversupply to hit prices article, Singapore Property Blog also discusses this issue in detail. Much of the price increase today can be attributed to multiple demand feeding circumstances, fast increase of the population, record low interest rates, shrinking family size in Singapore, increasing family income, high earning foreigner influx, etc.  They look at the supply side and conclude that there is a significant supply of new homes in the next 4-5 years while the government restricts foreigner intake by tightening Singapore PR issuance. Although the official population target for Singapore is 6.5 million, 1.5 million over the current population, nobody really knows to what extend the immigration will be tightened. So demand is really hard to predict but it is obvious that it will not be strong as the demand between 2009-2010. For further discussion also refer to their article The hazy mix of cooling measures excess liquidity and real demand.

Room for rent in Singapore

If you are looking for a room for rent in Singapore, as of the first months of 2011, it is a little bit hard to find one. Just taking a look at the advertisement boards on major bus stops can tell you why. Here, you can see more "rooms wanted" advertisements for landlords than "rooms for rent" advertisements for tenants.

You can also see this trend in the prices. An HDB common room for rent nowadays can ask 600 - 700 SGD per month while a master room asking price is somewhere between 750 - 900 SGD per month. Central and condo rooms are above 1000 SGD.

Singapore rental portal, Rent in Singapore, provides current Singapore rental market rates based on the average asking prices advertised in their web site. Here you can also see that prices are up. Since the whole units are pricy, demand for room rentals are high and although pricy rental prices tend to increase supply, it increases demand faster.

Where can you find room rental advertisements for Singapore? There are many options, here I list some online advertisement portals for room rentals.

Notice : If you are looking for cheap short term rentals rooms and apartments in Singapore, you can check out our article here.

• Easy Roommate Singapore, which claims to have 10,000 rooms for rent & roommates in Singapore is a very good place to start to look for a room for rent in Singapore. Searching for room is free and you can also place an advertisement to request a room to rent.
  
  
• Singapore Expats have a specialized Singapore Classifieds section for room rentals. Here is a good place to find rooms without agent or owner.
  
  
• Gumtree Singapore has a classified section for "common/master room for rent, apartment share, house share in Singapore".  Owners and main tenants also advertise here but most of the advertisers are agents.
  
  
• Rent in Singapore is a web page which claims to be the number 1 rental portal in Singapore. This web site has a good range of rental advertisements with descriptive pictures of the properties, location maps and icons to show whether the there is an agent involved or not, property is closed to MRT, etc.
  
  
• sg-house.com is a large property buy/sell portal for Singapore and it has clearly seperated sections for room rentals, whole flat HDB rentals and condo rentals as well as short term accomodation. One problem with this web page is that since it is popular a single agent can flood the entire first 1-2 pages with his advertisements and makes it difficult to search the page.

Be careful about room rentals in HDBs, especially if you are a tourist looking for a room for short term rental. It is illegal to rent HDB rooms to foreigners without proper work permits or long term social visit passes. See Short term HDB rental article for details.

See also our recent article on Room for rent in Singapore.

Terms of use

This blog article is to provide general information only and should not be treated as an invitation to buy or sell any property or as sales material.  Users of this report should consider this report as a one of the many factors in making their investment decision. Users should make reference to other sources of information and specific investment advice to obtain a more objective view of the property market. Asia Singapore shall not be responsible for losses suffered.