Singapore losing popularity as an expat haven

Dwindling expat demand for Singapore properties is highlighting cracks in the city-state’s long-term appeal for foreign professionals.

Although recent survey results still put Singapore at the top of the listings tree for its lifestyle, career opportunities and general ambience, expats on reassignment are finding it more and more difficult to cope with the combination of rising prices and shrinking housing packages. The news that dwindling expat demand is weakening the rental market comes as a relief for many expat professionals struggling to manage their shrinking budgets.

It’s no surprise that international real estate and rental agencies are dismissing the decline in rental yields as ‘conventional wisdom’, brought on by multinationals’ pessimistic views of the city-state’s future as an expat hub. However, another recent survey has revealed as many as 50 per cent of expat respondents on reassignment from such companies’ Western headquarters are now having financial difficulties. It’s not just rental costs, it’s also the soaring cost of living excluding accommodation.

The top reason for taking on a foreign relocation is to ensure financial stability in later years, an ambition it’s becoming more and more difficult to achieve. As in other long-time favourite expatriate professional havens, costs are going up and salaries and packages are coming down, forcing expats to think very carefully about their next career moves. Providers of expat accommodation and other necessities for the transient percentage of their population should also be thinking about tomorrow, as expats nowadays comprise a considerable percentage of the world’s demographics. According to yet another study of the phenomenon of expat life, should all expatriate workers get together in one mass, the country thus formed would be the fifth-largest in the world by population.