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  • Many Expats On Localised, Perk-Free Packages

    Many Expats On Localised, Perk-Free Packages

    Some people assume that Western expats get luxurious perks and lead a glamorous lifestyle here but two of them say the reality can be different.

    Ms Elaine Young, 43, left Scotland 12 years ago to be a writer here.

    She buys her groceries at NTUC FairPrice and her clothes from Uniqlo, and eats at hawker centres near her Tiong Bahru rental apartment.

    Ms Young says: “I wish I could walk into Burberry and buy anything I want but the reality is I wear basic clothes like an average person here.”

    She did not imagine the cost of living here to be so high.

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    PHOTO COURTESY OF ELAINE YOUNG

    And she did not know she had the option of renting an HDB flat since property agents serving expats here often recommend private properties.

    “Had I known about renting HDB flats then, my husband and I would have done so to save more money,” she says.

    She and her husband, who is an Asia Pacific sales director with IHS Energy, pay about $6,500 a month for their three-room apartment.

    SAFER

    Apart from the haze and high cost of living, Ms Young says: “I’ve never felt safer and the people here are lovely.”

    She has made many local and expat friends, and they organise outings and dinners for the weekends.

    Ms Young intends to move back to the UK to look after her mother in a few years.

    She says: “We love living here but are well aware that we are guests in the country. It’s home now but not forever.”

    Thirty-year-old Dane Jesper Rasmussen, an operations manager in a shipping company, says he usually eats at hawker centres.

    He jumped on the opportunity to work in Singapore the moment he saw his company post the opening and has been here for more than two years now.

    Mr Rasmussen had another motivation to move here: His girlfriend, whom he met in Denmark, is a Singaporean.

    She was stationed in Denmark for three years in the same shipping company.He had never been to Singapore although he travelled around South-east Asia over a few years before his move here.

    So, the high cost of living here came as a surprise to him, especially since his experience with South-east Asia mainly involved Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

    MOST EXPENSIVE

    Singapore is the world’s most expensive city, according to research by the Economist Intelligence Unit this year.

    During the first three months alone in Singapore, Mr Rasmussen overspent because he did not know about hawker centres and cheaper supermarkets.

    His girlfriend returned from Denmark and took him to hawker centres and food courts, showing him ways to save money.

    He says: “It’s great to have someone local to show me around. Had it not been for her guidance, I would still be spending a lot of money on the wrong things.”

    He rents a two-room condominium unit in Farrer Road and pays about $3,400 a month.

    Mr Rasmussen says that sometimes it is hard to adjust and make new friends as an expat because people know that he won’t be here for long.

    “Many have their own groups of friends and sometimes it’s hard for them to invest time in a person who will leave.”

    Both Ms Young and Mr Rasmussen have noticed expats switching to localised packages to secure a job here. They also say that many expats here do not live a life of luxury.

    “Like Singaporeans, each individual earns a different amount of money and leads different lifestyles,” says Mr Rasmussen who spends his weekends visiting his girlfriend and her family in Woodlands.

    I’ve never felt safer and the people here are lovely.

    – Ms Elaine Young from Scotland has been working here for 12 years

    Like Singaporeans, each individual earns a different amount of money and leads different lifestyles.

    – Mr Jesper Rasmussen, who is working as an operations manager in a shipping company

    Expats who are on localised package do not get perks

    Most Western expats no longer receive big income packages.

    “Today, a sizeable percentage of the expat community move here on a localised package,” says Dr Yvonne McNulty, founder of Expat Research.

    Dr McNulty is a scholar-practitioner by training. She is on the associate faculty at SIM University and is co-author of Managing Expatriates: A Return on Investment Approach (Business Expert Press).

    She adds that half of the expats here receive localised packages that do not include perks such as extensive allowances, a car and sponsorship of school fees for their children.

    “These expats who are here on a localised package don’t live in big houses and it isn’t easy for expats to rent in the heartlands,” she says.

    According to the HDB website, the quota for subletting to non-Malaysian foreigners is set at 8 per cent at the neighbourhood level and 11 per cent at the block level.

    INCOME

    For expats on a localised package, their accompanying spouses need to find work to supplement the household income.

    “Because the quota for foreign employment has been changed, it has become harder for expats and their spouses to find jobs,” says Dr McNulty.

    International schools are expensive and expats with children also face problems when trying to get their children into local schools.

    “The cost of putting them in local schools is about $12,000 a year, so it is still very costly.”

    Dr McNulty also says that while some may have started on expat packages, they switch to localised packages later to remain in Singapore.

    “Firstly, it could be that it is a critical point for their school-going child such as the Primary School Leaving Examinations.

    “Or, they do not foresee getting a job back in their home country.

    “Or it could be because they find living in Singapore good for the family because it is safe.”

     

    Source: www.tnp.sg

  • Expats Work In Singapore, Children Study In Johor

    Expats Work In Singapore, Children Study In Johor

    Given the current exchange rate between the Malaysian ringgit and Singapore dollar, Johor continues to be an attractive destination for shoppers from Singapore. But it’s also becoming a destination for expats working in Singapore, with housing options and international schools being part of the draw.

    As with other parents, Mrs Sarah Grubb says goodbye to two of her daughters every morning when they hop into a school bus. Unlike other children, however, the girls aged 12 and 9 are headed to Marlborough College in Nusajaya. Their 14-year-old sister is already at a boarding house there.

    Mrs Grubb says the Britain-based school deploys seven buses every day to Singapore, taking with them about 100 students.

    “My children get picked up every morning; initially it was a drop off to each house. That was proving to take too long, so we now do a central location. I drop my children off, the bus leaves at 7.20am, and it takes about 45 minutes to get to school,” she said.

    “If you were to sit on a schoolbus in Singapore, it takes about 45 minutes as well to get to school – about the same amount of time, apart from having to cross the border.

    “If I had to do it myself every day, going across the border, maybe I might not have done it. But they guaranteed a bus to take the children to school every day. It was cost-effective.”

    Johor has continued to be an attractive destination for shoppers from Singapore with favourable exchange rates between the and Singapore dollar and the ringgit. Now, it’s also becoming a destination for expats working in Singapore, with housing options and international schools being part of the draw. Our reporter Lee Gim Siong with the story. http://bit.ly/1WQxe16

    Posted by 938LIVE on Thursday, 8 October 2015

    Based on current exchange rates, enrolling children aged 7 to 18 at the 90-acre college could cost between S$23,000 and S$34,000 a year. This could be 10 per cent less – and maybe even cheaper – than schools offering similar programmes in Singapore.

    But for Mrs Grubb, who moved to Singapore from England three years ago, cost was not a decisive factor.

    “Right now the ringgit is lower, obviously it’s less costly for us now. But you go there because of facilities and standards. When you go and look at international schools in Singapore … they’re concrete blocks, many have no fields, there’s hardly any facilities compared to what Marlborough college has to offer,” she said.

    “If we are going to move across the world, I want to give my children an experience, to be able to have fields, running tracks, courts, to enjoy school.”

    Her compatriot Audrie Clarke, who has lived in Singapore for 22 years, sent her first three children back to the UK for senior school, the equivalent of upper secondary education in Singapore. But she decided the school in Nusajaya would be ideal for her youngest daughter, a netball player.

    “It was only an hour and a half away rather than a 13-hour flight. For her, having us near, we could go and watch every match – she plays a lot of matches! It’s easy, it’s great, I don’t have to take so much time off work,” said Mrs Clarke.

    “The school reassured us that they were going to look after her. It’s a secure and safe place. Finance was not a factor. I might say I paid exactly the same for her to go to Malaysia as I paid for my son’s boarding in England.”

    CHOOSING FROM THE TRADE-OFFS

    Schoolmaster Robert Pick said the college has seen a steady increase in enrolment figures since it started in 2012. And a sizable number come from Singapore.

    “Our numbers would suggest that Marlborough is a popular choice; we now have 820 pupils,” said Mr Pick.

    “We came to this region because we believe we could operate a school here. When we started in 2012, approximately half of the pupil body came from Singapore. We still have a similar number, but the percentage has decreased quite dramatically; a lot of expatriate families have moved over to Singapore, with either the husband or the wife commuting to Singapore when they need to go into the office, and it seems to be working incredibly well for them.”

    Mr David Bochsler, a Canadian, is one such parent. He lives in Johor, but works in Singapore.

    “It’s such a personal decision. Some parents want to first make sure that the kids thrive at the school – it’s a big commitment that you move houses from one country to the next,” he told 938LIVE.

    “Singapore’s a very expensive city, I was trying to stay within the budget of my condominium rental at that time. I was able to move from my 1,300 square foot condo down at Keppel Bay, and I purchased – on the same budget – a 30,000 square feet of land and built a 12,000-square-foot home.

    “So, my bedroom is the size of what my old condo used to be. For me it’s a no-brainer as far as that is concerned.

    “The trade-off is between the children making the commute or the parents making the commute, and everyone has to follow what their guts and values tell them. For me, I know I am happier that my kids have two hours less on a bus travelling, and they can have that time studying or playing.”

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com