S'pore voted best place to live in for expats

molly · Jul 25, 2008

S'pore voted best place to live in for expats
By Jessica Cheam

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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Singapore's safe, tax-efficient environment makes it 'an ideal location for expats to grow and protect their savings and investments'. -- ST PHOTO:

SINGAPORE has emerged the best place to live in the world in a survey of more than 2,000 expatriates by HSBC Bank.

The city-state also ranked first for quality of accommodation and second for luxury living.

Its closest competitor, Hong Kong, was ranked fifth overall, and first for an expat's ability to earn and save.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States came in as joint second best overall destinations, with Belgium ranking fourth.

HSBC's Expat Explorer Survey - a first for the bank - interviewed 2,155 expatriates across four continents to rank destinations based on living standards, the ability to earn and save, a country's popularity, and the level of luxury experienced.

The survey, released on Thursday, comes after human resources consultancy Mercer ranked the Republic the fifth most expensive Asian city for expatriates - up a notch from a previous survey.

ECA International, also a human resources consultancy, ranked Singapore as the best place for Asian expatriates to live worldwide earlier this year. And in a separate survey, found that Singapore has become a more expensive place for expatriates to live, but it is still cheaper than Hong Kong.

The Republic jumped 17 places to land at the 114th spot in a global survey of the costliest cities for expatriates, on the back of higher inflation and a stronger Singdollar in the past year.

But despite rising living costs, especially in housing, Singapore remains competitive compared to its Asian neighbours such as Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong, and other global financial centres like London and Zurich, said Mercer.

HSBC's head of consumer banking in Singapore, Ms Wendy Lim, said there are about 300,000 expats living in Singapore.

Singapore's safe, tax-efficient environment makes it 'an ideal location for expats to grow and protect their savings and investments', she said.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/Singapore/STIStory_260889.html?vgnmr=1

yinyang · Jul 25, 2008

Many wannabe expats here know this tiny red dot is not exactly a hardship posting:p

po2wq · Jul 25, 2008

yinyang said:
Many wannabe expats here know this tiny red dot is not exactly a hardship posting:p

dose posted by their companies r here 4 holiday ... dun believe me? ... can ask around ... :cool:

molly · Jul 25, 2008

yinyang said:
Many wannabe expats here know this tiny red dot is not exactly a hardship posting:p

Expats here are lucky.. private housing and car provided, competitive salary, I can't see why they don't vote Singapore as the best :wink:

eatshitndie · Jul 25, 2008

stepping on sinkies and ravaging eager spgs contribute to about 80% of the satisfaction.

cantor · Jul 25, 2008

The survey results must be taken with a pinch of salt:

(1) Only the expats currently in Singapore are being interviewed (I am not sure whether this is true);

(2) Some expats may not have travelled to other countries to make a comparison. Even if they do, they may not have travelled enough to gain the real experience of concluding this way.

suteerak1099 · Jul 25, 2008

sg voted best place to live in for expats? i truly wonder how much of it is really true? cos i've also heard quite a fair bit of expats wanting out, due to the rising costs.

check out his article:

Singapore ranked fifth most expensive city in Asia
Channel NewsAsia - Friday, July 25

SINGAPORE: Singapore is now the fifth most expensive city in Asia, according to Mercer Worldwide Cost of Living Survey.
ADVERTISEMENT

Singapore’s rise in rankings is partly due to the appreciation of the Singapore dollar against the US dollar.

Other contributing factors include its high quality of living and continued strength as a regional hub.

Tokyo is the costliest Asian city, followed by Seoul, Hong Kong and Osaka.

In world standings, Singapore is in 13th position, one notch higher than in 2007.

Moscow was ranked the most expensive city both in Europe and globally for the third year running.

Mercer’s survey covered 143 countries across six continents. — CNA/de

suteerak1099 · Jul 25, 2008

cantor said:
The survey results must be taken with a pinch of salt:

(1) Only the expats currently in Singapore are being interviewed (I am not sure whether this is true);

(2) Some expats may not have travelled to other countries to make a comparison. Even if they do, they may not have travelled enough to gain the real experience of concluding this way.

well, 1 thing's pretty sure. expats who've been to other parts of SE asia, find no particular reasons to dwell in sg, apart from the "cleanliness". other than that, i see they're all adapting fine, in other places - especially coastal parts of Thailand and/or Indonesia.

kitkat · Jul 26, 2008

suteerak1099 said:
Moscow was ranked the most expensive city both in Europe and globally for the third year running.

This is surprising. I thought a city like London or Paris would have got the honours.

slyer · Jul 26, 2008

i think whether the country is expensive to live in or not is based on the strength of the currency. sg dollars is quite strong.

i feel london shd be ranked above moscow in the ranking

counsel · Jul 27, 2008

The MNCs here particularly the Americans and Europeans pay their expat staff very well. With all that and first class treatment by the government and Singaporeans, I am not surprised Singapore is voted the best.

suteerak1099 · Jul 28, 2008

kitkat said:
This is surprising. I thought a city like London or Paris would have got the honours.

beats me, i too was a lil shocked to know that moscow was ranked top in euro. then again, perhaps its the cost of living vs the avg remuneration that makes it the most expensive - meaning to say, ppl cant really afford the simple necessitites in life.

hungary fighter · Aug 1, 2008

i hav a number of expat friends who say tat s'pore is getting more expensive 2 live in....they r not here as senior management staff so their pay package does not include housing & transport....they told me itz getting more expensive to rent a place 2 stay as hdb flats r not easy 2 find 4 rental....they can only get condo or landed property which is more expensive.....they will leave s'pore after their contract or assignment ends.....bt they claim that they do gain experience here & if they go back 2 their respective country....they will get a promotion or a better job offer elsewhere.....

silverfox@ · Aug 1, 2008

cantor said:
The survey results must be taken with a pinch of salt:

(1) Only the expats currently in Singapore are being interviewed (I am not sure whether this is true);

(2) Some expats may not have travelled to other countries to make a comparison. Even if they do, they may not have travelled enough to gain the real experience of concluding this way.

Actually to take it with a pinch of salt or not, its simple, just go and stay in other countries for a minimum of 3 months each, and then 3 years later, you come back and compare.

Only then can we compare.

silverfox@ · Aug 1, 2008

hungary fighter said:
i hav a number of expat friends who say tat s'pore is getting more expensive 2 live in....they r not here as senior management staff so their pay package does not include housing & transport....they told me itz getting more expensive to rent a place 2 stay as hdb flats r not easy 2 find 4 rental....they can only get condo or landed property which is more expensive.....they will leave s'pore after their contract or assignment ends.....bt they claim that they do gain experience here & if they go back 2 their respective country....they will get a promotion or a better job offer elsewhere.....

When rental is low, people say "There was a time when people said that Singapore couldn't make it". When rental is too expensive for expats, people scream too. So whichever flip of the coin also got people complain.

silverfox@ · Aug 1, 2008

Crime rate is relatively low in Singapore compared to other countries. That is why expats feel safer coming to Sg without any worries of being robbed or mugged.

twinseeker · Aug 2, 2008

Expats don't only flock to sg. Many also flock to other parts of asia, and they don't seem to have as much complaints as those here in sg.

scoobyhoo · Aug 3, 2008

last week, i was with two ang-mos at a pub. within an hour, they approached six local gals and got tel numbers of all of them. they selected two to accompany them for the evening. if i were them, i'd sure to vote for sg.

aakumu · Sep 3, 2008

Hi bro,
Agree with that 120%.

My humble two cents.

zhihau · Sep 3, 2008

molly said:
... S'pore voted best place to live in for expats ...

if one had been able to drive along Sentosa Cove... one would vote S'pore to be the best place to live too... :biggrin:

S'pore voted best place to live in for expats

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