Negotiating our move to Singapore

[sylduv]

We are in the process of negotiating moving allowance to Singapore. We definitely prefer moving into a house in a safe district. We will be 4; me, my wife and our 2 Shitzu. What would be a reasonable request for allowance?

[februus]

We are in the process of negotiating moving allowance to Singapore. We definitely prefer moving into a house in a safe district. We will be 4; me, my wife and our 2 Shitzu. What would be a reasonable request for allowance?

Depends entirely on your situation and what you mean by moving allowance. If you are talking about literally costs to move you should consider the following (and probably more):

Sea freight of personal effects
Application costs for EP/DP
You will typically need to put down 2 months rent as deposit and pay monthly in advance
Agent fee's (if liable)
Deposits for utilities (depending upon status and supplier)
Deposit to open a bank account (typically up to S$3000)


And the biggest chunk of that depends exactly how you want to do it. i.e. if you want a penthouse in the city compared to HDB in the suburbs.

If you are working for a reasonable company, they should be offering something sensible. i'd personally focus on negotiating an orientation visit before you accept to get an idea of these things and if you would like it rather than the allowance for somewhere i have never been.

my company did this for me with a housing agent and it really did allow me to make an informed decision.....

[sylduv]

Thanks for your answer. I was referring to my housing allowance. The rest is taken care by my company.

[poodlek]

We are in the process of negotiating moving allowance to Singapore. We definitely prefer moving into a house in a safe district. We will be 4; me, my wife and our 2 Shitzu. What would be a reasonable request for allowance?

If you have two dogs, I don't believe you will be allowed to live in HDB (to my knowledge they allow one only per household), so that may significantly increase the cost of rent for you. Also the cost for import, shipping and quarantine is significant (of course this depends on which country you're coming from). For my pets I paid about $1700CAD each to bring them from Canada.

[Strong Eagle]

Thanks for your answer. I was referring to my housing allowance. The rest is taken care by my company.

How long is a piece of string? What are you living in now? If you have 5000 square feet sitting on an acre of land, you can expect to pay S$12,000 and way up for such a property.

If you're content to live in a semi-detached (aka, duplex), which is one of the most common forms of non condo living in Singapore, you can expect to pay a low end of S$5000 for a non updated place, fairly far away from the CBD, and as much as S$12,000 and more for a well updated place.

If you're talking condos, again what are your expectations? New condos, in the luxury vein sell for between S$850 and S$1600 per square foot. Got that? You would need to shell out at least a million to get into the small units, much more for the larger units. Rentals are correspondingly high.

It's like everywhere else: location and condition. You can rent a decent place, an apartment, away from CBD, with air con, and maybe lots of space for perhaps as little as S$3 to S$4k per month. It will be old, not updated, but maybe quite comfortable. Or, you could rent at a place like the Caribbean, close to CBD, very large complex, and expect to pay S$6000 upwards, mostly upwards.

But if you are expecting 3000 square feet, updated kitchens with granite counter tops, pretty bathrooms with marbled tops and a 10 button bidet, really start thinking of S$10K as the low end.

[Strong Eagle]

PS: Everywhere is safe.

[carolynW]

I heard some HDBs are not so safe... also our bikes did get stolen from our home! apparently stealing bikes is a big thing here... the police came over with bike registration stickers.

[februus]

I heard some HDBs are not so safe... also our bikes did get stolen from our home! apparently stealing bikes is a big thing here... the police came over with bike registration stickers.

what did you put the stickers on?

[durain]

how much are they offering?

and like strong eagle said, everywhere is safe. there's no one area where white man cant go without getting mugged.