Mullet

Hi all, I'm considering a move to Singapore (an internal transfer with the UK firm I am currently based with). I am a Senior PQS with plenty of experience and work for one of the larger Construction Consultancy firms.

Despite dredging the internet I haven't been able to find any details of salary levels & packages for someone in my position and hoped for some feedback here. I have an interview next week and (if it goes well) I want to make sure that I am well informed for any salary discussions.

Should I be expecting;

- a salary which is more/less/same as my UK salary?
- Any package benefits i.e. car/housing allowance?
- Annual return flights to UK?
- Holidays, is their a normal level in Singapore, i.e. 25 days a year?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Eagle eyed people may notice I have also posted in the Middle East forum, I'm in the fortunate position of having 2 job offers to consider!

lumines

Well, expat packages these days are supposed to be on the decline. But having said that, I would expect your salary to be at least the same as your UK salary, but definitely you should try and negotiate some housing allowance. Singapore is not a cheap place to live, and housing is very expensive. You can have a look at www.propertyguru.com.sg to get an idea.

If you have children, you definitely want to be asking for school fees to be paid, or at least an allowance towards them - international school fees here are expensive, plus many of them have a registration fee as well, which can easily be a few more thousand dollars.

A car allowance - not sure about that, many people would argue that a car is not necessary, and I generally agree - unless you have small children.

Flights home - I think this is certainly part of the more traditional expat package, I don't know how common this is these days.

You should also ask for medical insurance cover.

Hope this helps, and good luck. It's an interesting place to live for a couple of years, providing you don't mind the heat and humidity

Englishmum

You might want to check out the latest Mercer COLA (cost of living allowance) reports, which are comparisons of the cost of living in quite a number of countries eg. from average cost of rental apartments to the cost of a basket of essential groceries eg. bread, sugar, coffee, milk etc. etc.

Many HR depts use Mercer when allocating expat allowances for their employees so you might want to use it when you are negotiating.

Cars are extremely expensive in Singapore, actually because of high taxes on them many expats don't bother with a car as the public transport infrastructure is excellent (although it's hard to find a taxi when it's raining!). Oddly enough there are many Ferrari's, Maserati's, Lamborghini's on the roads... We are leasing a Nissan Murano, the company no longer buys company cars and substituted it with a leasing allowance.

Some companies also offer country club membership to expat employees (spouse got the choice of British Club, Hollandse (Dutch) Club or Polo Club membership....it's up to you to request this.

Another place to look at property rentals in Singapore is:

http://www.singaporeexpats.com

Inselaffen

i hope you get more than I'm currently on!

I had to take a crap salary here after losing my first job due to the recession.