Singapore, with our glistening airport (World Number 1!), bustling with modernity and commerce, and being hailed as one of the most developed nations in the world, naturally attracts a lot of people seeking work and to live here. However, we’ve also all heard that the grass always seems greener on the other side. So no matter how many accolades are poured on Singapore, there’s still a (rather big) bunch of people who have at the very least entertained the thought of migrating to another country and devising ways on how to migrate out of Singapore. In fact, “how to migrate out of Singapore” gets a pretty good chunk of clicks to this very article.
Why do Singaporeans migrate?
So, what are some of the top reasons why Singaporeans want to migrate? I don’t have official stats and reasons, but based on forum trawling, discussions with friends and my personal feelings, here are some of the common threads for why we want to migrate out of Singapore.
- Life is too hectic: Sometimes, we just want to pause and smell the flowers. But if you do that, you’re gonna end up getting to the office 30 minutes late, during which time your colleague would have done your job for you, gotten that promotion, and you’ll find yourself staring down a box with your name and your stuff on it, and your work email disabled. OKAY, maybe things aren’t that bad, but you get the drift.
- Cost of living is (way) too high: It’s one thing to have to slog like a dog. It’s another to slog like a dog, and still not see the fruits of your labour. If you’re ever up late at night wondering why your bank account isn’t bigger, it’s probably because you’re committed to paying SGD$700,000 or more to live in a fucking shoebox government “subsidised” housing estate, and if you have to drive around, that’s another SGD$110,000 for a very normalish sedan, which by the way, will only last you for 10 years.
- The Education System creates drones: To be fair, the government is actively trying to salvage this point, and is actively refreshing the education system to not overindulge in academia, and to provide for multiple pathways to success. Not sure if it’s too little too late, but for a lot of us, a major theme in migration is to provide our kids with a more positive and rounded education, and overall life education as well, overseas.
- It’s an urban jungle: Those of us who love and crave nature, will find nothing in Singapore.
- The heat is killer: Singapore has 4 weather modes; hot, hotter, hot and wet, hotter and still wet. One of the biggest considerations in moving, apart from cost of living, is to find a place with better weather.
Where do Singaporeans migrate to?
I think we’re a lot who wants to have our cake and eat it too. So in that sense, we’re looking for a country that’s also developed enough that they have good network infrastructure, healthcare and general accessibility, while at the same time, allowing us to have whatever our core reason for wanting to migrate was in the first place.
- Australia: Australia is modern, beautiful, has the perfect mix of city life, country life and wine life. If I had my way, Australia will definitely be in my top 3 places to migrate.
- New Zealand: New Zealand over the last 2 years has been proving popular among Singaporeans, given their friendly people, great infrastructure, amazing space, work opportunities and general standard of living. It’s a little far if you think about having to travel back to visit family, but everything else seems pretty on point.
- Malaysia: Singaporeans migrating or living in Johor whilst commuting to work in Singapore are doing it mainly for the currency arbitrage. Or it could be a stop gap measure to accumulate more funds for an eventual move to another country altogether.
- United States of America: To be perfectly honest, given the political climate, their stance with gun laws and the general state of the world we’re in, I personally haven’t thought of relocating to the US at all.
- Canada: Again, personally speaking, Canada will be a much better option for me if I were looking at the US region. Just the general vibe of Canadians being really chill and awesome folks, and not being run by an idiot.
- Thailand: Again, I would say this is a move purely from a cost of living point of view, and wouldn’t work for me as their infrastructure is not as great.
Depending on the mix of reasons for wanting to leave, there are dozens of other locations, but I think in terms of the most popular ones, I believe have been covered in the list above.
Where have I considered moving to?
For me, the big three reasons for wanting to get out of Singapore will be
- Quality of living: I want to have a balance of work and play, and time for my family and my children, and more importantly, for my children to experience the joy of growing up, of being curious, of learning at their own pace for their own interests, and I find that hard to come by in Singapore.
- Cost of living: Let’s take a look at our homes, one of the most formative things in our life, and also one of the highest ticket items in your life that you will purchase. A typical 5-room (3 bedroom) HDB flat in Singapore in a mature estate like Tampines will set you back SGD$700,000. (I know because I sold our flat for that price in 2016).
- Weather: I hate the hot and wet all year round weather in Singapore. We literally can’t do anything outside without sweating buckets.
And so… my three places I have thought about migrating to are:
- Australia: Weather’s not too harsh. Summers can be unforgiving, but hey, that’ll pass. It’s also a short flight away (4.5 hours from Perth) if we need to skip home.
- New Zealand: Again, beautiful weather, great scenery, not too many humans. Perfect.
- Canada: I’ve only ever been there for 2 weeks, but loved every minute of it. Not too keen on the harsh winter though.
Let’s just look at something that is irrefutable. Cost of owning a home in Singapore and in Perth.
334 square metres translates to about 3595 sqft, which is almost 3X the size of the HDB flat in Singapore, at less than half the cost! Plus, you own the home forever, and not just for 99 years.
What does this have to do with FIRE, you ask? Well, just this one factor alone, saves you literal years of mortgage and being in debt. In fact, if I sold everything we have in Singapore and got this home in Perth, we’ll be debt free, instead of having to service a 28-year mortgage.
In fact, typing this makes my heart seethe with rage, so on top of paying mortgage, I’m gonna have to have my heart looked at too!
So, even discounting the other 2 factors, the cost of living factor is already a huge win for migration.
I mean, I’m grateful for everything Singapore has given me thus far. But, what’s the point of it all if you’re not going to take advantage of it? Unfortunately, until the wife is on board with it, this remains on the drawing board.
I would love to hear from you, Singaporeans or not, on why and where you’ve migrated to, or not. Chime in please!
Hey Richard, managed to came across your blog and thought that I would share some opinions. I just came back from Perth after studying for 2 years there.
Quality of life: I think it depends on preference. Work generally ends around 4.30 to 5 pm. However, stores/restaurants close earlier than in Singapore (7-8 pm). People generally cook at home, rather than eat out, due to costs and convenience where you end up walking a fair distance to a restaurant. Asian food isn’t rare, I can find the food that I like to eat mainly from malaysian stores, but the quality might differ from your expectations. For me, it’s about the same but a number of Singaporeans I knew complained. Perth is also a lot more peaceful and family-oriented, but it could be confining for extroverts who love community activities and things that are planned out for them.
Cost of living: Eating out is more expensive, but apart from that, everything else is cheaper. House prices vary a lot based on distance from the city and the coast. Houses near the coast > Houses near city > Houses that aren’t near either. There is a sizeable gap in house prices based on suburbs, which is more drastic as compared to Singapore. If you willing to travel more each day, you could get a bigger house. If not, it would be smaller. Overall, it’s all freehold, regardless of where you stay, so there’s certainly more value for money. Cars are cheap, so if you are willing to drive, it could definitely reduce the travelling time a lot and make commuting easier.
Weather: Perth has a nice weather to go out for outdoor activities. For spring/fall, temperatures go around 20+ degrees in the afternoon, you could just keep walking without breaking a sweat. For summer, it gets warmer than Singapore, but you only feel the heat that is similar to the afternoon heat in Singapore when it gets to 37-38 degrees, as Perth has a lower humidity. Winter isn’t too cold, but there’s more rain. Rain tends to be lighter and only gets close to Singapore level of rain only during winter. It’s possible to sleep without air conditioner/heater during spring/fall, with just a fan. For summer, you can sleep with air conditioner in the afternoon, but at night, the weather becomes close to typical air con temperature. For winter, you generally need a heater. Spring/fall are easily the best seasons, summer is good if you can tolerate the flies, winter is good if you only go out in the afternoon or invest in gym membership for the evening if you want to exercise.
Overall humidity is low so skin health matters more, it’s easier to get dry skin.
Hey Jedrek,
Thanks for reading and also providing such a thoughtful response. Hope you spent a great 2 years in Perth. We love Perth too, and Margaret River has always been one of our favourite destinations and we never fail to visit at least every other year.
Eating out may be more expensive there, but overall, after factoring in housing and car (the two most expensive items in Singapore), I still find Perth to be a way better option. Singapore’s humid and all year hot weather also bugs me no end!
Hi again Richard,
I guess if you do consider the economical reasons to migrate, then Perth is definitely better off, unless you hope to buy a house near the river and city.
I think a big consideration is the culture. Australia tends to be more individualistic, you don’t really help each other as much in university and prefer to keep to themselves. There also isn’t as many community events in Perth, you have to take the initiative to approach others for activities. However, people are generally more warm and chill, they are more likely to help you when you are in trouble out in the open as compared to Singapore.
The people are more laidback and prefer to take their time to do things. That also means that it takes longer for servicing and repairs. They are also less judgmental and prefer to be themselves rather than conform to societal norm.
Perth sets itself up to be more family friendly. There has really good work life balance, even those in essential industries like food and beverage want to leave work for family. This sets up the city to be pretty lively on the mornings and afternoons but quiet at night. It definitely isn’t a place for young and illustrious graduates looking for night life and career advancement opportunities, but it is definitely a place to settle and retire.
Singapore sets itself up to be more work friendly. There are more stores open up late at night to cater to the young. The blending of work and life, makes it more likely to work longer hours. From what I understand, most people are highly focused on career success in Singapore, as compared to Perth, where people just hope to earn enough and live within their means.
Hi Richard,
Good insight but however more research needs to be done on the cost of living such as the income tax payable and the cost of eating out and other entertainments which are all way higher than in singapore. Public transport can be really expensive in Australia (at least 2-3 times more than in singapore). While i agree with you that cost of having a car is way cheaper in australia, parking fees and petrol is more costly in Australia. While average salary earned is slightly higher in Australia, after all the necessary expenses and deduction, you’ll be left with much lesser savings than in Singapore. Hence overall, your quality of life in Australia will not be as good as in Singapore
Nevertheless, i agree with you on the weather in both countries. Singapore weather sucks all year round. However Australia is very prone to wild fire during summer which can be quite a drawback.
There are MANY pros and cons of living in every country, research is VERY important before deciding on moving out of your home country. Be more receptive to the cons and not just focus on the pros. Best of luck!
Hey Quan, Australia is generally cheaper than Singapore with the exception of Sydney. For income tax, the salary earned is higher for early-career, similar to Singapore in middle-career, pales off in high-career. I would say Singapore is better off in high-career, while Australia is better off in low-career. Eating out is subjective, because it really depends on how often one eats at home or out and also the restaurants that they eat. What I realised is, the minimum cost of food in Australia is a lot higher ($7-8), but the restaurants are not too different from Singapore. For instance, if you go out to shopping centres in Singapore to eat in restaurants (not Kopitiam), then it’s quite similar to the cost of food in Australia. Kopitiam and coffee shops, bring down the minimum cost of eating out by a lot. Even if eating out costs a lot more, the portion size is usually 1.5x more than Singapore, you can take away and save the meal for the next day. The difference for eating out isn’t too substantial, especially when you familiarise yourself with cheap places to eat.
Public transport is more expensive than Singapore, but driving is definitely cheaper. Fuel and parking fees, though more expensive, it’s marginal cost relative to the cost of the car. Singapore cars require COE and I reckon the average cost of the same car is also higher in Singapore without COE. Housing is cheaper by a lot and you own the property, housing being the most expensive investment, needs to be the biggest consideration for cost of living and I believe Australia is a lot cheaper than Singapore, except Sydney. The housing in Sydney is really expensive.
I think couple of questions that Richard has to consider about quality of life is:
1. Is his immediate family open to relocating and if not are they fine with him relocating? My uncle emigrated with his wife but without his parents, his parents are highly independent and prefer to stay in Singapore, despite having no pressure against my uncle to settle down.
2. Can he secure a job in Australia for the long term? My uncle managed to get a job and then work towards PR, via the international company route. With a PR, it makes getting a job within the country a lot easier afterwards.
3. Which part of Australia does he want to live in? Different cities come with different lifestyle options. Perth is better for those looking to settle down and caters to those who are introverted, Sydney is better for finding jobs and caters to the extroverted.
If he can’t resolve 1 and 2, which is generally the reason why a lot of Singaporeans (students/non-students) end up returning back to Sg, then it’s better to remain in Singapore.
It is evident from what the writer of this blog post, Richard has written that he belongs to the lower to lower-medium academic, social and economic class of Singapore. Usually these people live more of a frog-in-the-well existence, in terms of their educational, career and personal exposure and opportunities they’ve had.
Such people usually have never lived outside Singapore before, and even if they did, they haven’t lived in the west. Their first experience seeing a western country is usually a “holiday trip” to the nearest western country, Australia.
The top and upper top circles in Singapore are people who have a past connection with US, as it’s USA is where the top academic tier go to for studies and then work.