Hi folks, how’s it going? It’s been a while since we’ve travelled anywhere and looks like there’s still sometime before we can do that. Essentially, we’re stranded on a tropical island.
So, instead of a travel vlog, we created one on Cost of Living in Singapore where we draw from the experience of 7 years living here. In this post, we’ll share with you average monthly expenses for 2 people – for Rent, Basic Utilities, Transportation, Groceries and Dining Out.
Disclaimer that these costs are approximate based on our own experience and can vary depending upon your lifestyle.
Housing / Apartment Rents
Now, housing / apartment rent is the biggest expense so let’s talk about that first and foremost. In Singapore, there 3 main types of options to choose from – Landed House, Condominiums and HDBs / Public Housing apartments.
Singapore is a small island and land comes at a premium so landed houses are the priciest of the three options. Having said that, there’s a wide range available and rents vary by size and location. On an average, rentals would be 5,000 SGD and upwards and can go up to 20-30K per month. These houses usually come with a swimming pool, jacuzzi, garden and multiple car parking / garage.
Based on our research, here are the ballpark figures for size and rent.
Now let’s move on to Condominiums or Condos in short. These are private apartments and are second priciest after landed houses. Condos complexes can vary from a low-rise building with 30 units to a high-rise complex with 300 units or more. And most condos usually come with various amenities like swimming pool/s, gym, sauna, tennis courts, BBQ pits etc.
Rent varies by size and location. If you’re single or a couple you should find several studio or 1 bedroom options that’ll be cheaper and come with all the amenities. For families, 2,3,4 bedroom condos will also be available. Leaving you will the ballpark numbers below.
Finally, let’s look at HDBs or public housing estates. These are the most affordable out of the 3 options and are usually conveniently located close to public transport access points (bus stops, MRT station). The neighbourhood will also have wet markets, supermarkets, open gyms, public parks and a community center which sometimes have swimming pool and gym.
Rents again vary by size and location. There aren’t many studio and 1 bedroom options in HDBs and the most common configuration is 2 and 3 bedrooms. See below, the ballpark numbers.
Basic Utilities – Gas, Water, Electricity
These basic utilities are quite affordable in Singapore. We avail all three from the same company, called SP Services and our average monthly bill (2 people) has ranged between 125 – 200 SGD.
Mobile Connection, Broadband Internet and Streaming.
For a mobile connection you can go for a SIM-only plan – postpaid or prepaid or a Contract plan – which binds you to a certain time period and comes with a handset of your choosing. See options here.
Earlier we had a contract plan with iPhone and the monthly cost was 80 SGD per month. Later we converted to a SIM-only post paid plan and the cost now is 25 SGD per month – this plan includes 5 gb mobile data per month (+10 gb pm free for 12 months), 100 mins talk time and international roaming.
Moving onto the lifeline these days for almost everyone – the broadband internet connection. Here you can see the various options but we went for a 1 gbps fibre optic connection which is unlimited. We’ve also opted for a combo for a basic TV channels pack (mostly for browsing news channels) and together with broadband this costs us 75 SGD per month.
On top of this, we have our video streaming and music streaming subscriptions and the monthly cost for these is approx. 15 SGD each.
Transportation
Singapore is a small island with a population of approximately 5.6 Mn as of 2020. So if everyone had a car, the roads would get congested causing traffic jams and wastage of time and fuel. That’s why the government intentionally made it very expensive to own and drive cars here and has built a fantastic public transport system which is efficient, reliable and clean – which greatly reduces the need to own a car.
Public Transport
One arm of public transport is the MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) or the network of trains (aka metro or subway in some parts of the world) that connects the entire island. These MRTs are quite affordable with usual fares ranging between 1-3 S$ per trip and are calculated by distance / number of stations travelled.
Similarly, Singapore has a good system of buses too and the bus stops are conveniently located every few hundred metres making them easily accessible from the various neighbourhoods. The frequency of buses is good too ranging between 10-15 mins for each bus number / route and the fares are same as that for MRT, in the range of 1-3 S$ per trip, calculated by distance.
Taxis / Cabs / Ride-sharing
Taxis in Singapore fall into two categories – Standard Taxi and Limousine which is premium taxis. These are quite affordable here with a flag down fare of 3-3.40S$ for standard and 3.90S$ for limo and additional charges calculated based on distance i.e. 0.22 cents per 400m. Note that there will be a surcharge during peak hours and after midnight. To give you an estimate, a standard taxi from city center to Changi airport, which is a distance of about 20km should cost around 20-25S$.
Ride-sharing is widely used here too. While earlier, we had Uber, their operations were taken over by a company called Grab which provides the same services in South East Asia. And the other popular one here is called Gojek. Similar to Taxis, these are more affordable in Singapore as compared to our experience in cities like New York, London and Sydney. As an estimate a Grab ride from our residence to Changi airport, a distance of about 28km would cost around 30S$.
Grocery Shopping & Dining Out
Grocery Shopping
Now moving onto to Grocery shopping which can be broadly divided into – 1) Supermarkets 2) Wet Markets and 3) Online grocery shopping.
Supermarkets can be further bifurcated into a) budget – such as Giant and Fair Price and b) Premium – such as Cold Storage, Market Place, Little Farms. A huge one stop shop for grocery shopping is called Mustafa Center where you’ll get all kinds of groceries including the whole breadth from India – things like dal, atta, basmati rice, amul butter / ghee, masalas, haldiram namkeen etc.
Wet Markets are the neighbourhood local markets where you can buy diary, meat, fresh fruits and vegetables and these are the most affordable option for grocery purchases on the island.
Online grocery shopping is quite prevalent and Redmart is the most popular one here. If you’re looking for online delivery option for Indian grocery, then we’ve had good experience with Wangoo.
In our experience, the average monthly expenses for groceries in Singapore, for 2 people can range between 500-700 S$. This applies to people who cook at home quite often, let’s say in cases where about 70% of the meals are prepared at home.
Dining Out
Lastly, let’s look at the cost of dining out here. Eating out is one of the favourite activity amongst Singapore residents and the island has a huge variety of options – from small to big and from cheap to lavish.
One type of food establishments that stand out are the Hawker Centers, which are food courts usually run by locals. They can vary in size from small with just 10 stalls to larger with 30-40 stalls and offer a range of food choices – from local Singaporean to Malaysian, Indian, Thai and Western – along with beverages like tea, coffee, fruit juices, sugar cane juice, coconut water etc. The best thing about hawker centers is that they are very affordable and an average meal cost for one person is usually in the range of 4-8S$.
When dining out at cafes or restaurants, the avg. meal cost for 2 should be between 50-60S$ at mid-range options. And the same should be in the range of 80-100S$ at slightly more high-end cafes/restaurants. Note that alcohol is generally expensive in Singapore, so that’ll be a plus based on how much you consume.
In summary, if we add up all the costs, the average monthly expenses for 2 people should be around S$ 4,000-5,000 S$. See, below the break-up of expenses.
