Housing / Living expenses

[new2sing]

Hi,

I will soon be moving to Singapore for a temporary assignment of six months (perhaps longer).

My company is intending to provide me with S$5100 for rent/living expenses.

Is that considered good and enough to live in decent quarters and cover utilities?

Should I be satisfied or request more?

[not bad]

Our rent is S$4500 and we have a 3 bedroom condo in town near Orchard. You should be able to find nice accomodation for what you are alloted without too much trouble. Our combined utilities bill runs around S$320 per month - yours will mainly depend on how much you use the air con. (The combined utilities includes electric, gas and water - NOT cable, phone and internet.) Our combined cable and internet charge is S$90 per month and we have 2 handphones and no land-line and the bills per month for the phones usually come in about S$100 or so.

Will you have any type of transportation allowance? That can be quite helpful even if you do not want to buy a car because using public transit can cost S$150-S$200 per month - this will also vary a bit depending on how often you use taxis vs. MRT or busses.

[new2sing]

Hi not bad,

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate the info.

No, no extra transportation allotment, but I am single. So I will probably only need a 1 or 2 bedroom place. Hopefully that will reduce rent costs and cover the transportation incurrence.

Any idea if 6 month leases are available in Singapore?

[Guest]

You'll have a hard time finding landlords renting out for six months only.

I'd advice you to look into sharing a flat with someone, ie just renting a room. That will leave you with mre money to spend on travels etc.

1-2 bedrooms are probably from 1000 and upwards - depending on location and standard...

[not bad]

The standard lease is generally 2 years with a 1 year diplomatic clause (which means if your company sends you elsewhere after a year you can break the lease without penalty). If you are only going to be here for 6 months, I would recommend a Serviced Apartment. They are fully furnished and have housekeeping services as well. I can't imagine you would want to ship your own furniture, etc. over for only 6 months. There are lots of them around, although I don't know what they cost exactly. We stayed in one for 5-6 weeks while looking for our own place and waiting for our sea container to arrive. Great World City has nice Serviced Apartments as well as Fraser Suites and there are many more - try an internet search on it. Good luck with everything!

[wageslave]

Serviced apartments should suit you fine. I'm currently at Treetops (www.treetops.com.sg) (orange grove road) temporarily while I find a permanent place. For a 1 room apt, the rack rates states 7K, but i'm sure you can get it for less than 5, or 4, especially that you're a long stay guest.