Hi,
A number of you have been v helpful on a recent post about schools/preschools/nurseries, so thanks for that. I'm starting this as a new thread as I've got a new set of questions which are unrelated to all of that, although hope some of you spot it and offer up your thoughts!
We've now just been presented with 'the package' by DH's HR department, so we're going through that, trying to get a sense of whether it is good/whether anything is missing. I've got a couple of quick questions which those of you who are already living in Singapore will probably have helpful answers to.
- We've been given a total amount per month that they're prepared to pay on rent/utilities/bills. So I'm trying to work out what a realistic monthly utility/bill cost is, so we can deduct that from the total to establish what we'll have left for rent. Do you have any sense of what a family of 4 might expect to pay - I assume that includes heating/AC/water but not sure if there's anything like council tax equivalent which we may also need to consider. If we end up in a condo, is there also a separate service charge or is that included in the rent? I appreciate that this will vary depending on usage and age/size of condo/house but I've not got a clue here, so any kind of finger in the air response will be better than nothing!
- Are there any other hidden costs to life in Singapore which we should know about, which don't automatically come to mind. I understand that general cost of living is more than UK, based on things like the Mercer report. And I know that some of these things balance out, so I know that MRT/taxis are a lot cheaper than they are in the UK, but other parts of life are more expensive. So if rent/utilities are stripped out, is there anything else we should be thinking about to either push for inclusion in the package or just to be aware of for budgeting purposes?
- How important do you think a car might be for family with small kids? They've not included it and whilst we obviously wouldn't expect them to buy us a car, we may want to push for them to include the Certificate of Entitlement - which appear to retail at the most extraordinary amount of money. So I guess two questions - a) do we need a car; and b) is the COE really about $50,000??
Thanks in advance for any help/insight any of you may have! This has been such a useful forum so far, we're really grateful to you for taking the time to answer.