In Focus

S&CC rebates to HDB residents is one key factor.

As the city-state remains amongst the costliest cities to live in. Twenty-eight-year-old Kieran Hughes had high hopes when he decided to move to Singapore to be with his partner a year ago. In the United Kingdom, Hughes worked as a professional broadcast engineer earning an equivalent of $96,000 a year, enough to pay the mortgage and buy his own car there. With a strong professional background, he thought finding a job in Singapore with the same competitive pay would be easy. But when he started working in an audio-visual firm as a project manager, he suddenly realised that he bought himself a one-way ticket to dismal pay conditions. Hughes now earns $4,000 a month – just enough to pay his rent in a tiny dwelling and to cover for necessities. He describes living in Singapore as "barely living" and was nowhere near the life that he had back in the UK. "I have a three-bedroom house in the UK with a big garden front and back and I rent it out for approx. $1,000 dollars a month. Here in Singapore, you can barely get a bedroom in a shared apartment for that kind of price," he recalled. Hughes is amongst the 1.3 million foreigners struggling to make a living in Singapore. And whilst Singapore continues to be the most generous when it comes to expat salaries and benefit packages, it is almost like survival of the fittest for many of the expats like Hughes. Benefits consulting firm ECA International found that expat packages in Singapore fell 6% in 2017 to $316,600 per annum, inclusive of salary, tax, and benefits. Meanwhile, in its closest rival Hong Kong, expat packages declined 2% to $356,800 per annum. Over the past five years, the gap has widened between Singapore and Hong Kong for the total cost of an expatriate package offered to middle managers. ECA International regional director Lee Quane said, “Expatriates in Singapore have some or all of their cash and benefits determined in SGD values. For the purpose of our cross-border comparison, we have converted values into USD. As the value of the SGD has fallen against the USD in the past 12 months, USD values of expatriate packages in Singapore have suffered.” He added that the costs associated with some of the benefits that have been provided to Singapore-based expatriates have fallen in the past 12 months. This led to accommodation costs in areas commonly inhabited by expatriate staff to fall in the past year, reducing the housing assistance provided to expatriates. However, Quane argued that this would not affect Singapore's attractiveness when it comes to luring talent. "Despite a fall in the value of typical expatriate packages for middle managers, salaries are at their highest level in SGD terms for five years. Low tax rates also mean it remains an attractive location. Beyond salary incentives, Singapore will continue to be attractive to international talent as it is an attractive place to live and work," he reckoned. Aon Hewitt Partner for Southeast Asia Kumar Subramanian concurred, noting how the declining value of expat packages seem to indicate that Singapore does not need to fork out significant pay premiums to attract expats. "The value of working in a regional location, and the experience of working in Asia are significant non-monetary factors that global talent find attractive. In addition, a decline in wage increases in Western markets, as well as a greater pool of skilled talent including local Singaporeans and expatriates from emerging markets such as India and China, have moderated increases in expat packages," Subramanian said.

January to April figures point to a 4.4% decrease in RevPAR.

Hong Kong is the most expensive in Asia.

Over 7% of firms in Hong Kong don't even have their numbers on the web.

The rising private healthcare spending is one.

Occupancy costs fell 6.6% from a year ago.

Buyers will still be on the prowl for properties as the market bottoms out.

Growth was seen in nine key job sectors.

Candidates expect greater flexibility around their work hours.

This the biggest drop since 2Q09.

Retail sales recorded a 2.6% growth in April.

The current quarter may be impacted by a low base on imports.

Malaysia's HMI offers quality treatment at relatively lower cost.

By 2030, citizens aged 65 and over will double to 900,000.

But seven in 10 are open to retraining.