Living Cost

Hey Tarun -

I am also considering moving to Singapore and have been looking at the cost of living. You might want to give people a bit more information so that you can get a more specific answer.

Here are a few suggestions to help clarify:

01 - Are you only looking at houses or are you open to condos or HDBs?  Which districts are you specifically interested in?  Price can vary drastically from what I have seen.

02/03 - Who is the education for? Yourself or kids?

04 - Groceries or eating out?

05 - What do you mean by security expenses? I believe Singapore is a very safe place to live - you may not need this category.

08/09 - Cars are ridiculously expensive. You should be able to get by quite easily with public transit.

Hope that helps. I'll be interested to read the replies since I am also curious about how to live reasonably in Singapore.

Cheers
outernational

hi am from singapore but lived in turkey for the last 12 years. moved to ny last summer.

Hi,

I can give you some input, but most of the items really depend on your preferences. There is a lot of variety of everything available in Singapore!

tarunhshah wrote:

01 Rent for furnished / unfurnished houses

Rooms (sub-let) cost S$600 - 1200.
Basic HDB flats cost from S$2000/month upwards
Condos cost roughly double of this.
There's not much difference in price for furnished/unfurnished and the quality of the furniture usually reflects that.

tarunhshah wrote:

02 Education and cost of it

tarunhshah wrote:

03 medium of education

Local schools are cheap (a few hundred S$/year) but have access restictions for foreign kids (ask at the school!). International schools are S$10000 and more (some much more) per year.
Medium of education is English.

tarunhshah wrote:

04 Vegetarian food

Chinese and Indian vegetarian food is widely available, others less so.

tarunhshah wrote:

05 Security

Singapore is one of the safest places on earth.

tarunhshah wrote:

06 Social / night life

It does exist and is pretty decent in my opinion. Others disagree. Alcohol is heavily taxed and expensive.

tarunhshah wrote:

07 normal costof living - Food , grocery , internet , mobile cost

This depends very much on your lifestyle and how flexible you are to accept local ways. Some survive on S$600/month, other complain at S$6000. Grocery prices are in general similar to Europe (except things imported from Europe, which of course cost a lot more here).

tarunhshah wrote:

08 public transport

Probably best in the world. And cheap.

tarunhshah wrote:

09 is car is necessary thing to have

No. And at S$100000 for the cheapest car, plus certificate for 10 years at S$40000, you probably don't want one!

hi there,

below rought idea for you.. all on per month basis..Singapore Dollars.

01 Rent for furnished / unfurnished houses ($3000)
02 Education and cost of it ($300)
03 medium of education (Degree)
04 Vegetarian food ($500)
05 Security (Good)
06 Social / night life (Weekly: $400)
07 normal costof living - Food , grocery , internet , mobile cost ($500)
08 public transport (Good)
09 is car is necessary thing to have (Yes, if you want to have action.. $1500)

thanks joetan