Families arriving from Europe usually budget for three things: rent, school fees, and the flight. Those are the three they can see.
Below is what year one actually costs, with the visible items first and the four that catch people out at the end. Every figure is current as of September 2026.
The visible costs
Housing. A three-bedroom condominium in a mid-tier expat area — East Coast, Novena, Bukit Timah — runs roughly S$7,000–10,000 a month. Central districts run S$10,000–18,000 and up.
Then the entry costs, which are conventional rather than legal:
- Security deposit: one month’s rent on a 12-month lease, two months on a 24-month lease
- Agent commission: typically half a month on a one-year lease, one month on a two-year
- Stamp duty: 0.4% of the total rent over the lease term, payable within 14 days
On a two-year lease at S$8,000, that is S$16,000 deposit, around S$8,000 commission, and S$768 in stamp duty — roughly S$25,000 before you have lived anywhere.
One thing has changed and it costs you money: under 2024 industry guidelines, tenants’ agents collect from tenants and landlords’ agents from landlords. The old convention where the landlord paid both sides on higher-value leases can no longer be assumed. Agree who pays, in writing, before you engage anyone.
School fees. Annual tuition at the top international schools, 2026/27:
| Primary | Secondary | Pre-university | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tanglin Trust | S$45,375–47,490 | S$53,535 | S$58,080 |
| UWCSEA | S$44,235–45,909 | S$52,032–52,479 | S$55,092 |
| Australian International School | S$42,420–43,692 | S$50,400 | S$53,148 |
Government schools, if your child gets through AEIS, cost S$1,035 a month in primary and S$2,190 in secondary for a non-ASEAN international student.
Passes. These are trivially cheap and everyone budgets for them anyway. Employment Pass: S$105 application, S$225 issuance. Dependant’s Pass: the same, per person. A family of four pays S$1,320 in total government fees.
The fee is not the constraint. The salary threshold is — S$5,600 to S$10,700 a month depending on your age, rising on 1 January 2027, and a further S$6,000 minimum to sponsor your family at all.
Company setup, if you are bringing a business. The statutory fees are almost nothing: S$15 for the name, S$300 to incorporate. The real costs are structural:
| Item | Annual |
|---|---|
| Nominee director (required if no resident director) | S$2,000–4,000 |
| Corporate secretary (statutory) | S$500–800 |
| Registered office address | S$250–500 |
| Bookkeeping, active small company | S$1,800–4,800 |
| ACRA annual return | S$60 |
Call it S$7,000–8,000 for year one, before tax.
On tax you do well. With Start-Up Tax Exemption and the enhanced YA2026 rebate, a company with S$300,000 of chargeable income pays roughly S$14,875 — an effective 5%.
The four costs people forget
1. Buying property costs 60% more than the price
Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty for foreigners is 60%, from the first property, on top of ordinary buyer’s stamp duty. Entities and trusts pay 65%.
On a S$3 million condominium that is S$1.8 million in duty. Not the price. The tax on the price.
Nationals of the United States, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein get citizen rates under trade agreements. EU and UK nationals do not.
This is the single largest number in this article, and the one most families do not discover until they have been here a year and start looking at property. Plan to rent.
2. A car costs more than a house deposit
A Certificate of Entitlement is the right to own a car for ten years. It does not include the car.
In the second bidding exercise of August 2026, Category A closed at S$128,501 and Category B at S$131,001.
A mass-market sedan lands around S$194,000 on the road, with running costs of S$700–1,200 a month, and roughly S$300,000 over ten years of ownership.
Singapore’s public transport genuinely makes a car optional in a way few cities manage. Most arriving families do not believe this and budget for a car anyway. Wait six months before deciding.
3. You have no healthcare safety net
This is the one that frightens people when they finally understand it.
Employment Pass, S Pass and Dependant’s Pass holders are not covered by MediShield Life. Integrated Shield Plans are for citizens and permanent residents only. Whatever you had in Europe — statutory cover, a national system, an employer scheme — none of it follows you.
You are buying private insurance in a private market:
- Local private hospital and surgical cover: S$150–300 per person per month
- International private medical insurance: S$300–800+ per person per month
Get real quotes for your family before you commit to a package. A family of four on international cover is a five-figure annual line, and family policies are not simply four times an individual premium.
Check what your employment contract covers, and check the exclusions rather than the headline. This is the item most worth an hour of your attention before you sign anything.
4. School one-off fees are a second term’s tuition
The tuition table is the number everyone plans around. The one-off fees are not in it.
Tanglin Trust: application S$1,000, enrolment S$4,500, capital levy S$4,500 — S$10,000 per child before a single lesson.
UWCSEA: application S$627, enrolment S$4,992, plus a development levy of S$9,537 in year one and S$5,166 every year after. That levy is charged on top of tuition, not within it.
Application fees are non-refundable whether or not your child is offered a place. Applying to three schools as a hedge — which is sensible — costs S$2,000–3,000 that you will not see again.
For two children at a top-tier school, budget roughly S$20,000 in one-off fees on top of S$90,000–115,000 in annual tuition.
What year one actually looks like
A family of four, two children in international school, renting a three-bedroom in a mid-tier area, one parent on an Employment Pass:
| Year one | |
|---|---|
| Rent, 12 months at S$8,000 | S$96,000 |
| Deposit, commission, stamp duty | ~S$25,000 |
| School tuition, two children | S$90,000–115,000 |
| School one-off fees | ~S$20,000 |
| Health insurance, family | S$15,000–30,000 |
| Passes | S$1,320 |
| Utilities, mobile, broadband | ~S$5,500 |
| Before anything else | ~S$255,000–290,000 |
That excludes food, travel, furniture, a car, and the company if you are starting one.
It is a large number. It is also a knowable number, which is the point of writing it down. The families who struggle are not the ones who spend this much — they are the ones who budgeted S$150,000 and met the rest in instalments they had not planned for.
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