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.