Moving to Singapore: The Region’s High Net Worth Anchor
Singapore does not sell itself as a bargain. It sells itself as a city that works, and for a particular kind of globally mobile resident, that turns out to be enough.
You know what you are getting in Singapore before you land. The taxi will show up. The contract will be honored. The hospital will not ask you to bring your own gauze. That is not sarcasm , it is the actual value proposition of one of the most expensive cities in Asia, and it is why the conversation about moving here is never really about the cost of living. It is about what you are buying with that cost.
For anyone weighing a regional base , Bangkok with its traffic and charm, Kuala Lumpur with its quiet affordability, Bali with its lifestyle gravity , Singapore sits at the opposite end of the spectrum. Less improvisation. Fewer surprises. The electricity works. So does the government. And the bill for all of that arrives monthly, in the form of rent that would make a Manhattan landlord feel competitive.
Certainty Has a Price, and Singapore Charges It
Singapore is not the most exciting city in Southeast Asia. It would probably agree. What it offers instead is a kind of institutional reliability that becomes genuinely valuable once you are managing a business, raising children in international schools, or moving serious money across borders.
English is the working language. The legal system follows common law. The healthcare infrastructure is world class , both public and private options are available, the private hospitals are efficient, and a visit to Raffles Hospital or Mount Elizabeth does not require a diplomatic contact.
Public transport is fast and indexed to the minute. Changi Airport connects you to most of Asia in under four hours.
The wealth infrastructure is equally deliberate. Singapore has spent the better part of two decades positioning itself as the region’s premier address for family offices and high net worth capital. According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the number of single family offices here grew from around 400 in 2020 to more than 1,100 by 2022. That number has continued rising. The regulatory framework, including the Variable Capital Company structure introduced in 2020, makes it straightforward for families to domicile investment vehicles here. That is not a coincidence. Singapore built that infrastructure on purpose, and the right kind of resident noticed.
Planning a move to Asia?
Tell us where you are now and what the move looks like. We will match you with people who have done it before and can save you the expensive mistakes.
What Living in Singapore Actually Costs
The honest version: living well in Singapore is expensive in ways that compound.
Housing is the first shock. A four bedroom apartment in a good district , say, Holland Village, Buona Vista, or the Tanglin corridor , runs between S$12,000 and S$20,000 per month. Landed property, meaning a house with a garden, starts higher and often requires approval under the Residential Property Act for non citizens. Serviced apartments in Orchard are slightly more forgiving but still start around S$8,000 monthly for anything worth inhabiting.
School fees for international institutions run between S$30,000 and S$50,000 per child per year at schools like the United World College of South East Asia or Tanglin Trust School. Cars are a separate category of pain: the Certificate of Entitlement, the government quota system that controls vehicle ownership, means a standard family SUV can easily cost S$180,000 to S$220,000 all in before you have touched a fuel pump.
Groceries at Cold Storage or Jason’s are priced close to London. A sit down dinner for two at a mid range restaurant without wine runs S$80 to S$120. The hawker centres, still excellent and still the honest soul of the city, let you eat well for S$5 to S$8 a plate. The gap between those two options is not a contradiction , it is Singapore in miniature.
What the money buys: a domestic life that runs without friction. The helpers (a Singaporean term for live in domestic workers) cost around S$700 to S$1,000 per month plus levy, and many expat families employ two. The infrastructure absorbs the logistics. The schools are serious. The hospitals are clean and fast. The city does not require you to negotiate your daily life.
A Base, Not a Bargain
The people who do best in Singapore tend not to think of it as a permanent destination in the traditional sense. They use it as a launchpad. Weekends to Bintan or Batam. A villa in Canggu for the slow months. Business in Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur by morning flight. Singapore anchors the arrangement because it is where the bank account, the children’s school, and the reliable internet connection live.
For founders, executives, and family principals who operate across the region, that logic holds. The reliability carries its own return on investment. Deals close cleaner. Contracts stick. Counterparties take you seriously. And when something goes wrong medically, legally, or logistically, the systems here are built to catch you.
That is not the same as loving the city. Singapore rewards a specific personality: someone who values function over atmosphere, who would rather have a great hospital than a great street market, who finds Bangkok’s chaos charming for a long weekend but exhausting as a operating base. If you are honest about which of those you are, Singapore gives you a clear answer about itself.
The romance is elsewhere. The infrastructure is here.
Still weighing up your visa options?
Tell us your nationality, your plans and how long you want to stay. We will put you in touch with immigration specialists who handle these applications daily.
