Cheap Serviced Apartments in Singapore: Kembangan Lodge

Cheap serviced apartment in Singapore is a rare thing but it still exists. Of course when we say cheap serviced apartment, we mean relatively cheap serviced apartment.  Because although these apartments are much cheaper compared to what a normal serviced apartment would be, they are still expensive. This is because, Singapore is one of the most expensive place in terms of accommodation.

Serviced apartments are great for individuals who are temporarily staying in Singapore as well as those who wants a longer than standard holiday stay in Singapore. Budget serviced apartments are also a breather for students studying at university or private schools in Singapore.

If you are looking for a budget serviced apartment to stay in Singapore, one alternative is Kembangan Lodge, a serviced apartment managed by Santa Grand Hotels. This serviced apartment offers fully furnished, studio-type apartments for short term accommodation in Singapore. If  affordable, no frills, comfortable, safe, short-term stay in Singapore for business or leisure is what you are looking for, this apartments may be for you.

Cheap Serviced Apartments in Singapore with no frills

This budget serviced apartment comes with 3 apartment types: small units, medium units and large units. The units are designed to be used by maximum 2 person and is ideal for 1 person stay. The price to stay in these apartment is S$1,800 - 2,300 per month, which is very cheap compared to average accommodation prices in Singapore. These prices includes the utilities, which would cost 120 - 300+ SGD per month depending on your air-con usage.

Location is also quite convenient. Kembangan Lodge is just next to Kembangan MRT station of the east-west line from where the city center is 6-7 MRT stations away. You can go to go anywhere in Singapore within minutes by using public transportation trains. There is also a taxi waiting area outside the MRT station so you to get a taxi anytime without having to book and pay a surcharge.

The lodge is operated by Santa Grand Hotels, a chain of hotels in Singapore. They operate many hotels in Singapore by the name of Santa Grand Hotel and they also operate a well-known central budget hotel named Victoria Hotel. 

Click here for a list of serviced apartments : List of Serviced Apartments in Singapore.

Or all you may need is a cheap hotel in Singapore:

Victoria Hotel offers a central and budget hotel in Singapore	Shoebox of a room but very clean accomodation in Singapore	... or just another comfortable hotel

Direction of Singapore private property prices in 2012

Since the USA, China and Europe started to print huge amounts of money in 2009, as most of the assets, Singapore property prices have been inflated to record high levels. Last time the prices went to these new peaks, things did not end up nicely (see Asian Financial Crisis) but as long as West and China continue to keep interest rates low, the huge amount of resources will probably continue to be misallocated to this unproductive investment and prices would go up or stay stable. Or will they?

As some people continue to say "this zero interest rate party cannot last forever", it is again and again lasting without any end in sight and many people who have been prudent before are jumping to property party. 

Now many ask the same questions which cannot be answered easily? Will property prices in Singapore fall or rise? Will there be another property cooling measure?  These questions are important since almost everyone on the island whether they own a property to stay in or to rent out or flip in the future, are professional or amateur property investors and many basically channel their retirement savings, CPF ordinary accounts, to the monthly mortgage payments. Analysts Alaric Yeo and Elaine Chow from HSR Research & Consultancy, expect residential property prices in Singapore to remain largely flat with marginal and gradual growth, barring more Government intervention:

The record supply in the pipeline could help alleviate any pent-up demand in the OCR sub-market, thereby preventing spikes in property prices. In the mid to long term, strengthening global economies would also boost investor sentiment, leading to a gradual recovery of CCR and RCR prices. 
The authorities have said they will continue to monitor the residential market closely to ensure stability and sustainable growth. As such, based on the URA flash estimates for Q2 2012, We do not expect the imposition of more cooling measures yet.Source : Home prices at record high, seen peaking

Singapore’s biggest decline in home sales in 2 1/2 years,  may also slow gains that pushed property prices to a record high, easing concerns of further government curbs, according to Bloomberg. But many experts local media consult, who earn their money from selling property or advise to property buyers and dependent on positive sentiment, naturally dismiss any indication of a property sales and price decline.

To me, Singapore looks like USA in 2004 - 2005. Like there there is a zero interest rate inflated property prices and sales and anyone who tries to put a potentially painful end to the party are laughed at. In fact, Singapore property market looks sadly as a textbook case of the damage, artificially low interest rates can do to the resources of a country. Huge amount of money is flowing into 4 walls and unit sizes are shrinking to unpractical quite fast and still, 1 million SGD + became the new mass market property type!

Disclaimer

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.

Android based phone sales are booming in Singapore in 2012

I have started to observe an interesting and important shift in Singapore in terms of smart phone usage. I have a habit to count the number of iPhones and other smart phones in MRT train rides and up until recently, it looked like Singapore is dominated by Apple. It was like 4-5 iPhones to 1 Samsung. But recently, I frequently end up with opposite results. Today for example, I have counted 5 Samsung smart phones (most of them are these fantastic Samsung Galaxy S III) to 1 iPhone on the feeder bus and 4 Samsung smart phones to 2 iPhones in the MRT train car.

So when I have read the news that Singaporeans no longer obsessed with iPhone, I was not surprised:
70% of M1's new customers in 2Q12 chose Androids. Telcos provide lower handset subsidy on Androids versus iPhones due to the cheaper retail price of Androids. According to DBS Group Research, this is likely to benefits SingTel and StarHub.

"In mid- August, we expect StarHub to beat market expectations by 12 % and report 2Q12 earnings of S$95m (23% y-o-y and 8% q-o-q). We like to highlight that the upcoming launch of iPhone5 (rumored to be in September end) could reverse the trend just like how the iPhone 4S did last year," said DBS.
Source : Singaporeans no longer obsessed with iPhone

Singapore consumers queuing for Samsung Galaxy S3 in front of M1 shop in Paragon - Source : CNet Asia

Recently, there were long queues during the day 1 of Samsung Galaxy S III Sale In Singapore all 3 operators in the country offers the smart phone for prices starting from 198 SGD depending on the subscription plan.

Android is a Linux-based operating system for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. It is developed by the Open Handset Alliance, led by Google.

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Samsung Galaxy S III/S3 GT-I9300 Factory Unlocked Phone International Version (Pebble Blue)	[Ultimate Clear Plus] Samsung Galaxy S3 Rearth Ringbo Screen Protector	Hyperion Samsung Galaxy SIII 2 x Battery + Charger

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Cheap promotional flight tickets By AirAsia and Jetstar

Malaysian success story, low cost carrier Air Asia has been the World's Best Low-Cost Airline at the 2012 World Airline Awards held at Farnborough Air Show. The airline, once a heavily-indebted 2 plane airline, was bought by former Time Warner executive Tony Fernandes for just 0.26 cents has been one of the most successful low cost airlines of the world. This is the 4th time Air Asia tops the list of best low cost airlines.

And to celebrate this award, Air Asia has launched World’s Best Ever Sale promotion. You can buy cheap flights between July 16th – July 22th 2012 to fly from Singapore’s Changi Airport Terminal 1 to destinations like Jakarta, Bangkok, Bali, Langkawi, Phuket, Kuala Lumpur and Penang starting from 36 SGD for the travel periods Jan 4th – May 22nd 2013. Although time frame may look too long, one of the cheapest ways to have a great and cheap holiday in Singapore is to buy tickets for a distant weekend by promotional prices.

Australian low-cost airline Jetstar Airways has been awarded the third place in the list of World's Best Low-Cost Airlines. Jetstar is also running a promotion named Gotta Fly Sale! Where sale fares start from $18! Sales will end by 24 July 2012 (12:00). One way, all-inclusive Economy Starter fares with carry on baggage only from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Phuket, Penang, Denpasar, Hanoi, Surabaya, Phnom Penh, etc. starts from $18 and are for periods in the remaining months of 2012.

AirAsia is the best Low-Cost Airline, again.

AirAsiaX, the long haul budget arm of Air Asia, was 4th best low cost airline and Jetstar Asia, Asian offshoot of Qantas Jetstar Airways headquartered in Singapore, was 7th in the list.  The World's Best Low-Cost Airlines in 2012 were:

1 - AirAsia
2 - Virgin America
3 - Jetstar Airways
4 - AirAsiaX
5 - EasyJet
6 - WestJet
7 - Jetstar Asia
8 - Southwest Airlines
9 - Azul Airlines
10 - Indigo Airlines

Singapore's signature seafood dishes

Black Pepper Crab
Black Pepper Crab is one of the most popular ways to prepare crab in Singapore and since I value it more than chilli crab, it tops my list of Singapore's signature seafood dishes :) It is prepared by using hard-shell crabs and many attributes the creation of this infamous dish to Long Beach Seafood Restaurant, and date to 1959. It has became a favorite among Singaporeans in 1980s and then became one of the most famous food to try in Singapore for visitors.

Here is how the dish is prepared:

"Hard-shell crabs are deep fried in very hot oil first, till the shell becomes red on both sides. Butter, garlic, ginger and chilli are then stir-fried into a thick, fragrant paste before adding oyster sauce, soya sauce and pepper. The crab is then added into the sauce and fried for a few minutes, and then served with garnish."[1]

So black pepper crab or chilli crab? Both are great dishes but as a long time resident here I observe that the black pepper crab is preffered over chilli crab by many locals and tourists. One of the most important reasonf for this is because of its drier. This is important since you need to eat crab by hand and drier black pepper crab feels less dirty in your hands compared to wetter chilli crab. But in my opinion, the fragrant pepperish taste of black pepper crab is better than chilli crab.

Chilli Crab
Despite its name chilli crab, prepared by stir-frying mud crabs  in a semi-thick, sweet and savoury tomato and chilli based sauce, is not a very spicy dish. As CCNGo says in  World's 50 most delicious foods article, you cannot visit Singapore without trying this spicy, sloppy, meaty specialty:

"While there are dozens of ways to prepare crab (with black pepper, salted egg yolk, cheese-baked, et cetera) chili crab remains the local bestseller. Spicy chili-tomato gravy tends to splatter, which is why you need to mop everything up with mini mantou buns."

Here is how the dish is prepared:

Belacan, onions, vinegar, tomato puree and tomato paste are first cooked into a thick paste. Then, starch, light soy sauce and the crab are added to the paste. The crab is cooked over high heat till the shell turns red. Beaten eggs are added last and stirred lightly to create the ‘egg ribbons’ that the dish is known for. It is commonly served with toasted mantou (Chinese buns) or plain white rice. [2]

Sambal Stingray
While most tourist will end up trying the crab dishes above, many will not realize the existence of this "must-try" delicacy. Chinese for centuries named stingray as "mo gui yu" or devil's fish in Chinese and threw them off their fishing boats when they were caught accidentally. On the other hand, Malay fisherman ate this fish curry and coconut masala. Then one day, Chinese street hawkers discovered the dish and modified it by grilling the stingray over banana leaves and served it with sambal and a chilli, onion and lime dip.

Sambal Stingray can be very spicy so if you do not have tolerance to spicy food, make sure that it is served less spicy. Make sure to turn the other, less meaty side once the thick upper wing is consumed. There is still some meat there you can enjoy.

BBQ Sotong (Squid)

Cereal Butter Prawn

Salt and Pepper Lobster

Ginger & Spring onion Lala

Fish Head Curry

Otak-Otak
Actually Malaysia, especially Johor is famous for this dish made of  fish meat and spices and even Singaporeans go to Johor to buy the famous bulk. You can find it in south Malaysia, Singapore and some parts of Indonesia. Otak means brains in Indonesian and Malay, and the name of the dish is derived from the idea that the dish somewhat resembles brains, being grey, soft and almost squishy. Otak-Otak is one of the most popular classic Nyonya dishes in Southeast Asia.

[1] - Black pepper crab
[2] - Chilli crab
[3] - Singapore Food Festival

Number of Singapore EP applications up in 2011

Although Singapore Employment Pass criteria became stricter in 2011 compared to 2010, number of Singapore EP applications between H2 (i.e. July to December) 2010 and H2 2011 has increased by 22.5% according to the Singapore company registration specialists, Rikvin:

"Inclusive of renewals, Singapore EP application numbers has increased by 25.7% year-on-year (y-o-y) between 2010 and 2011. Over the same period, the number of fresh Singapore EP applications alone has increased by 13.7%. On the other hand, the number of Singapore EP applications increased by only 5.2% between January and June 2010 (H1 2010) and H1 2011."
Source : Singapore Work Visa Applications Have Increased Y-O-Y Between 2010 and 2011: Rikvin

How? The reason is largely external according to Rikvin’s Head of Operations, Mr. Satish Bakhda. Many highly qualified professionals with salaries well above the minimum salary requirements for work visas are increasingly applying jobs in Singapore due to the difficult employment environment in their countries in Europe and USA.

Further analysis shows that the higher requirements mandated by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) are far from draconian and are part of a larger national strategy to 1) raise the quality of foreign manpower inflows and Singapore’s human capital as a whole and 2) implement fairer and more inclusive employment practices for Singapore workers. 

Nevertheless, Singapore remains as one of the most open and attractive economies in the world to talented professionals. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has most recently ranked Singapore’s employment framework as one of the most flexible worldwide and its labor-employee relations as well as employment opportunities offerings as the second best worldwide
Source : Singapore Work Visa Applications Have Increased Y-O-Y Between 2010 and 2011: Rikvin

Singapore Employment Pass is a work visa issued to white collar foreign employees which enables them to work in Singapore. Unlike S-Pass, Employment Pass is not subject to any quota system which limits the number of Employment Passes that can be employed in a company. There were around 142,000 Employment Pass holders as of December 2010. These foreign professionals are directly competing for the jobs with locals and many Singaporeans openly express their intake should be slowed.

Share transportation in Singapore

As many of the residents in Singapore, I commute to work by MRT trains and buses. The public transportation in Singapore is quite developed but it has started to become less convenient in the past few years. Since COE prices are ultra high, a family car is not an option and taxis are too expensive and rare to find to use for everyday commute between work and home.

But luckily there are other options which may be useful for many. For example, a popular mode of share transportation, bus pool is getting popular in Singapore. According to Estatebuzz, their latest bus pooling services has been a runaway success and in just 4 months, they have introduced 6 13-seater buses to ferry office workers from their houses to the city. And their 6th bus,  which has started running on June 5th 2012, a non-Shenton Way/Raffles Place bus!  The bus currently goes from Choa Chu Kang to Buona Vista, Science Park I and II and then on to Mapletree Business City on Pasir Panjang Road. Their 5th bus is from Woodlands to Beach Road, Suntec and Raffles Place and 4th is running this morning from Choa Chu Kang to Beach Road, Suntec and Shenton Way.


You can check the shared transportation services offered by the company in this web site sharetransport.sg. The service was launched in March 2012 and offers an alternative transportation option for commuters. With these buses you can have a more direct route than public buses, avoid sardine box mode of transformation in the rush hours and pay much less than taxis. Each passenger pays S$ 95 to S$110 per month or $4.5 to $5 per day. 


"It's popular because the buses are customized according to the passengers on board. We pick passengers up at the places that they live and drop them off at their work buildings." says Moh Hon Meng, Chief Executive of Estatebuzz:


Mr. Moh said he may start an evening service soon and expects to run about 50 buses in all by the end of this year. Finance Manager Vejaya Letchumi, 52, takes the service from Choa Chu Kang to her Beach Road office. Her journey time is now about 30 minutes, down from an hour or so when she takes a public bus or the MRT.
She said: "Now I can get to work on time. The MRT has occasional delays, while the buses are crowded and get cought in traffic. This option takes the most direct route and can avoid areas with traffic jam."


And on the bonus side you can sit and you will not have to commute face to face with a stranger in trains packed like sardine boxes.

Share transport in Singapore by bus pooling - Source : sharetransport.sg

You can easily use the service by signing in sharetransport.sg. You can either try to use and existing route or enter transportation requests (from where to where, what time, etc.). If the service can match you with 12 other people with similar transportation requirements, a new route can be opened. Here you can see the existing routes and schedules.

The service also offer carpooling like Limo/Taxi Charter sharing, cost-share car pool, ad hoc taxi pool. 

See also:

Car sharing in Singapore	Rent a Supercar in Singapore

Singapore condo for rent: price trends 2012

How much does Singapore condo rent? If you try to find an answer to this questions among condo for rent in Singapore type of advertisements, you will see the asking prices for condominium flats, which are greatly inflated by greedy property agents and landlords. But there is a place where quarterly median rental transactions are published: Urban Redevelopment Authority's Rentals for Private Residential Developments web service. Here, you can download a PDF file for the latest quarter and see the median square feet or square meter cost of Singapore condominium and private apartment units in various projects and postal districts. This is more accurate since they are compiled based on real transaction prices not almost unreal asking prices.

The report is compiled for each non-landed residential project (condominium or apartment) with at least 10 rental contracts signed in that quarter. There are 3 figures published : median, 25th percentile and 75 percentile. You can interpret the numbers as below:


For example, recently completed luxury condominium project Caribbean At Keppel Bay at District 4 has following numbers $56.92 per sqm (25 percentile), $60.86 per sqm (median) and $66.67 per sqm (75 percentile) for Q1 2012. This means;

• Half of the condo units rented here were priced below $60.86 per sqm and half of them were above $60.86 per sqm (so $60.86 per sqm is mean price).
• 25 percent or 1 in every 4 rental condominium units were cheaper than $56.92 per sqm (25 percentile).
• 75 percent or 3 in every 4  rental condominium units  were cheaper than $ 66.67  per sqm (75 percentile).

So, median rental price for a 100 sqm flat is around 6,086 Singapore Dollars per month. But actually, you should also know that as the unit size increases, the square feet price decreases so a large unit of 2,00 sqm will probably cost less than 2 x $6,086 per month while a 50 sqm unit will cost more than  $6,086 / 2 per month. Unit rental prices also greatly vary by the specifics of the units like pool facing, high floor, etc.


Rent in Singapore, especially private flat rental, has been in a non-stop increase trend for a long time and has increased  30 percent since the second quarter of 2009. Based on URAs data, currently median rent looks like 3.73 SGD per square feet. The good news is that, for the potential tenants of course, the prices have gone down first time in 2 years in the first quarter of 2012 and fell compared to Q4 2011.


Below grap shows the rent trend and the fall in the final quarter:

Singapore non-landed residential property rental prices (S$ per sqf)

In the first 3 months of 2012, the cheapest projects in terms of $ per square feet per month were Loyang Valley, Cashew heights Condominium, Seletaris, Kum Hing Court, The Dairy Farm and Ballota Park Condo. But note that, this are unit prices and tend to be lower in projects which has big units. Loyang Valley for example is composed of large units and absolute price wise may not be the cheapest.

The cheapest districts in terms of $ per square feet per month were 27, 17, 13, 23 and 21.

Cheapest projects and postal districts in terms of $ per square feet per month

In the first 3 months of 2012, the most expensive projects in terms of $ per square feet per month rent were The Clift, Vida, Per At Robertson, Visioncrest and Icon. And not surprisingly the most expensive districts in terms of $ per square feet per month rent were 1, 2, 9, 7 and 8.

Most expensive projects and postal districts in terms of $ per square feet per month

URA's web service is a good place to do reality check against the asking prices. I have checked several condominium project's asking prices in property guru against the numbers published here. One of them had more than 20 units advertised and non were cheaper than 1.5 times 75 percentile (do not forget, 75 percentile number means 75 percent of the units were cheaper than this number!). So either property guru advertisements here were all for the top 25 percent units and the rest were advertised somewhere else or there is a great room for bargaining.

In fact based on my experience, condo units for rent in popular expat districts of 1 to 10, tend to have huge difference between asking prices and real contract prices. Here are the places where property agents pray on clueless newbies most, so it is not surprising. As you get more experience here and realize that you do not  lose so much time and fun by not living in city center, you move to outer regions and in these places, asking prices and real contract price differences do match.

So the lesson is that you should not be clueless and do a reality check against asking prices. And also consider to rent outside central region right away. Many expats I know were thrown into Singapore city center by property agents as if they cannot leave somewhere else on this only 25 x 65 km island and then moved out from there for huge savings. Some even moved to HDBs. You or your company can effort a rent does not mean you should just pay it where there is really very little ROI.

Singapore’s Home Sales fall for a second month

Latest property sales figures from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) have shown sales of 1,371 private homes in June 2012, a 19 percent decline month-on-month (m/m) from the 1,702 of in May 2012. Many analysts interviewed by Singapore’s state media naturally painted a bright picture and told that the drop in sales are attributed more to limited number of property launches during June 2012 rather than a downward trend. And the prices (of course) should stay stable with some 1-2 per cent gain in 2012 according to these property experts:

Conditions in the private property market are still ripe for moderate price growth despite slower sales in the last few months which hit an all-time low for the year in June. 

OrangeTee noted that the weaker numbers did not come as a surprise, given that developers held back many launches in June due to the holiday season, aside from the uncertain global economic conditions. But it said that buyers’ appetite for properties, especially in the Outside Central Region (OCR) remains fairly healthy.  

Png Poh Soon, Head of Research at Knight Frank Singapore, commented that developers continue to be competitive on their bids for well-located sites under the Government Land Sales (GLS) Programme.  So far this year, demand for private homes has been robust, with more than 12,000 units sold in 1H2012, added the consultancy.

Source : Private home prices poised to rise despite lacklustre sales

But with June 2012 numbers, we now have the total sales of private residential property sales in Q2 2012 and they signal a different picture than these analysts draw:

“Singapore’s private residential property sales dropped 17 percent to 5,572 units in the three months ended June 30 from the previous quarter, according to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority yesterday. That’s the biggest quarterly decrease since the three months ended December 2009.” 

“It’s an indication that things are slowing down,” Carolyn Goh, a spokeswoman at PropNex Realty, a Singapore-based real estate brokerage with 4,000 agents, said in an interview yesterday. “It looks like further cooling measures are unwarranted but it also depends on how the market responds in the second half.”

Source : Singapore’s Home Sales Drop May Curb Price Gains: Southeast Asia

The numbers came just with the news that Singapore’s economy unexpectedly contracted 9.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter in Q2 2012:

Singapore's trade-driven economy contracted by 1.1 percent in the second quarter from the previous three-month period as debt woes dampened European demand, a government estimate showed Friday. 

The unexpected contraction, down from 9.4 percent growth in the preceding quarter, was largely due to an output drop in the biomedical manufacturing industry, the trade ministry said in a statement.

Source : Eurozone woes hit Singapore GDP in Q2

Singapore Public Holidays 2013 Calendar

There are 11 major public holidays in Singapore every year and with a holiday for the important religious festival of each religion here, they reflect the cultural diversity of the population in Singapore.Some of these holidays, like Chinese New Year and Muslim festivals like Hari Raya Haji do not have fixed dates in modern calendar since they follow lunar calendars.

In 2013, there will be five long weekends to look forward when public holidays fall on either a Friday or Monday.

Singapore 2013 Holidays
Here is the list of public holidays in Singapore in 2013:

New Year's Day
1 January 2013
The first day of the modern Gregorian calendar is celebrated as a holiday in Singapore as it is celebrated in many countries.

New Year's Day of 2013 will be on Tuesday and with a day of on December 31st 2012, it can be converted to a 4 days weekend.

Chinese New Year
10-11 February 2013
Chinese New Year is the most important traditional Chinese holiday in Chinese culture. The festival begins on the first day of the first month so its day vary year to year, going approximately a week+ earlier every year compared to the previous year.

Chinese New Year in 2013 falls to Sunday and Monday, forming another long weekend holiday option.

Good Friday
29 March 2013
Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorates the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The date varies since this is the Friday before Easter Sunday; which is the first Sunday after the first Paschal Full Moon following the official vernal equinox.

Good Friday in 2013 will fall to Friday and form yet another long weekend.

Labour Day
1 May 2013
This is the globally celebrated Labor Day.

Vesak Day
24 May 2013
Vesak is a holy day is informally called "Buddha's Birthday" but it encompasses the birth, enlightenment (nirvāna), and passing away (Parinirvāna) of Gautama Buddha. It is a religious holiday by Buddhists in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and the South East Asian countries. Date of this holiday varies every year because it is celebrated according to the Chinese calendar.


Vesak Day in 2013 will fall to Friday and form yet another long weekend.


Hari Raya Puasa
8 August 2013
Eid ul-Fitr is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. The date of this holiday varies according to the Islamic calendar.

National Day
9 August 2013
National Day celebrates the independence of Singapore and is commemoration of Singapore's independence from Malaysia in 1965.

Hari Raya Haji
15 October 2013
Eid al-Adha, "Festival of Sacrifice" or "Greater Eid" is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Isma'il) as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a sheep to sacrifice instead. The date of this holiday varies according to the Islamic calendar.

Deepavali
3 November 2013
Deepavali is a Hindu holiday and celebrates the return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after defeating the demon king Ravana and vanquishing of the demon Naraka by Lord Krishna. The date varies according to Hindu Calendar.

Christmas Day
25 December 2013
Christmas Day is a Christian holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.