Nerine

My OH has the cchance to do some work with his present (Australian) employer in Singapore, just for a few days to start with but if things take off (and he's up for it) it could turn out to be be longer term.

Just wanted to get a feel for what it's like for us Brits to live and work there, any feedback would be useful.

Thanks.

Englishmum

I lived there for 51/2 years (then moved on another expat post and now in New Jersey) but would go back to Singapore in a heartbeat! You do get 'island fever' from time to time but it is so easy to just go to other countries in the region by road, rail, ferry or plane.

Loads of Brits and Aussies living there as well as other people from all over the world, it's very international there. The climate is of course, tropical as Singapore is only 85 miles north of the Equator...gets dark at 7pm and light at 7am (give or take 15 mins) every day of the year and no seasons unless you count the twice-annually monsoon season, so it's hard to define the passing year as virtually every day seems the same.

If you move there you can join ANZA (Australian & New Zealand Association)

http://www.anza.org.sg - I was a volunteer in their office for 4 years, or the more 'sedate' British Association.

We were members of the British Club (husband's company paid for the membership joining fee and monthly subs we just paid for food & beverage) and it was a good place to hang out at the weekends:

http://www.britishclub.org.sg/Public...?id=2005000021

If you have kids there are British schools and the Australian International School in addition to the other international schools. Many expats with families have live-in maids although couples tend to have a part-timer coming in to do some cleaning and especially ironing....so cheap lah!

Nerine

Thanks for the info that's brilliant!. What sort of living accommodation do most expats opt for? I imagine it to be mostly apartments/condos because it's an urban area, do people have villas or houses?

Also, what's the cost of living like? petrol, school fees, rent, food etc? haven't found it too bad in Oz (certainly cheaper than NZ and the UK) do you think it would be comparable?

Thanks for the links, will follow those up.

Kooky.

It's a very easy place to live! It's small and everything is within about 3/4 hour's travelling (including Malaysia) which IME leads to a great social life but as Englishmum says you can easily escape if you want to. That's one thing I will miss.

Costs have gone up a lot recently - rents especially - and I think, from my research into Sydney, that overall costs are similar to Oz cities.

Rents may be higher depending on where you live. For a small condo in a not great area you may pay A$2500 a month, for a nice 4 bed house in an expatty area you can pay - well silly money really but a friend of mine pays A$15,000 a month (which is silly to me but we're not "expats" and pay our own bills). Take a look at www.singaporeexpats.com it has a really informative property section.

Booze is quite expensive, cars are really ridiculously expensive but public transport is cheap and efficient, and taxis are pretty cheap and easy to get. A lot of expats don't run cars unless they have kids. You can eat out for a few bucks or 500 bucks, take your pick.

The national pastimes are eating and shopping. I find clothing cheap compared to the UK but then I'm a "high street" chick not a designer girl. You can spend as much as you want, I guess.

School fees I think are high, but not sure what you're comparing them with (sorry, I don't have children).

I've been here since 2002 and I'm happy to help - if I don't know the answer I'll point you in the direction of someone or a website that will.

Nerine

That's lovely, thank you so much.

katongkaren

Good comments from Seasider as always. You might also like to take a look at expatsingapore.com - a lot of info on that.


I don't have kids but have also read recently that school fees are very high especially if you are looking at "international" schools and they apparently have long waiting lists. YOu may want to put a posting on expatsingapore or the other one to check. Sure you'll get a lot of info on both sites.

Nerine

Good idea, will do that too .

Just waiting to hear whether or not he's going over soon for work soon but nothing ever happens quickly in this part of the world . We have a family trip planned for later in the year so we could do an in-depth reccy if we can't all go over before then.