Families arriving from Europe usually budget for three things: rent, school fees, and the flight. Those are the three they can see.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Housing.<\/strong> A three-bedroom condominium in a mid-tier expat area \u2014 East Coast, Novena, Bukit Timah \u2014 runs roughly S$7,000\u201310,000 a month<\/strong>. Central districts run S$10,000\u201318,000 and up.<\/p>\n Then the entry costs, which are conventional rather than legal:<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 roughly S$25,000 before you have lived anywhere.<\/strong><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n School fees.<\/strong> Annual tuition at the top international schools, 2026\/27:<\/p>\n Government schools, if your child gets through AEIS, cost S$1,035 a month<\/strong> in primary and S$2,190<\/strong> in secondary for a non-ASEAN international student.<\/p>\n Passes.<\/strong> 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<\/strong> in total government fees.<\/p>\n The fee is not the constraint. The salary threshold is \u2014 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.<\/p>\n Company setup, if you are bringing a business.<\/strong> The statutory fees are almost nothing: S$15 for the name, S$300 to incorporate. The real costs are structural:<\/p>\n Call it S$7,000\u20138,000 for year one<\/strong>, before tax.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 an effective 5%.<\/strong><\/p>\n Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty for foreigners is 60%<\/strong>, from the first property, on top of ordinary buyer’s stamp duty. Entities and trusts pay 65%.<\/p>\n On a S$3 million condominium that is S$1.8 million in duty<\/strong>. Not the price. The tax on the price.<\/p>\n Nationals of the United States, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein get citizen rates under trade agreements. EU and UK nationals do not.<\/strong><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n A Certificate of Entitlement<\/strong> is the right to own a car for ten years. It does not include the car.<\/p>\n In the second bidding exercise of August 2026, Category A closed at S$128,501<\/strong> and Category B at S$131,001<\/strong>.<\/p>\n A mass-market sedan lands around S$194,000 on the road<\/strong>, with running costs of S$700\u20131,200 a month, and roughly S$300,000 over ten years of ownership.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n This is the one that frightens people when they finally understand it.<\/p>\n Employment Pass, S Pass and Dependant’s Pass holders are not covered by MediShield Life.<\/strong> Integrated Shield Plans are for citizens and permanent residents only. Whatever you had in Europe \u2014 statutory cover, a national system, an employer scheme \u2014 none of it follows you.<\/p>\n You are buying private insurance in a private market:<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The tuition table is the number everyone plans around. The one-off fees are not in it.<\/p>\n Tanglin Trust:<\/strong> application S$1,000, enrolment S$4,500, capital levy S$4,500 \u2014 S$10,000 per child<\/strong> before a single lesson.<\/p>\n UWCSEA:<\/strong> application S$627, enrolment S$4,992, plus a development levy of S$9,537 in year one<\/strong> and S$5,166 every year after. That levy is charged on top of tuition, not within it.<\/p>\n Application fees are non-refundable whether or not your child is offered a place. Applying to three schools as a hedge \u2014 which is sensible \u2014 costs S$2,000\u20133,000 that you will not see again.<\/p>\n For two children at a top-tier school, budget roughly S$20,000 in one-off fees on top of S$90,000\u2013115,000 in annual tuition.<\/strong><\/p>\n A family of four, two children in international school, renting a three-bedroom in a mid-tier area, one parent on an Employment Pass:<\/p>\n That excludes food, travel, furniture, a car, and the company if you are starting one.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 they are the ones who budgeted S$150,000 and met the rest in instalments they had not planned for.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The obvious costs are large and easy to budget. The forgotten ones are larger, and they arrive without warning.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":440,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guides","category-singapore-relocation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xinran-international.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xinran-international.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xinran-international.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xinran-international.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xinran-international.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/xinran-international.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":591,"href":"https:\/\/xinran-international.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions\/591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xinran-international.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xinran-international.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xinran-international.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xinran-international.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\n \n<\/th>\n Primary<\/th>\n Secondary<\/th>\n Pre-university<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n Tanglin Trust<\/td>\n S$45,375\u201347,490<\/td>\n S$53,535<\/td>\n S$58,080<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n UWCSEA<\/td>\n S$44,235\u201345,909<\/td>\n S$52,032\u201352,479<\/td>\n S$55,092<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Australian International School<\/td>\n S$42,420\u201343,692<\/td>\n S$50,400<\/td>\n S$53,148<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n \n\n
\n \nItem<\/th>\n Annual<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n Nominee director (required if no resident director)<\/td>\n S$2,000\u20134,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Corporate secretary (statutory)<\/td>\n S$500\u2013800<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Registered office address<\/td>\n S$250\u2013500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Bookkeeping, active small company<\/td>\n S$1,800\u20134,800<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n ACRA annual return<\/td>\n S$60<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n The four costs people forget<\/h2>\n
1. Buying property costs 60% more than the price<\/h3>\n
2. A car costs more than a house deposit<\/h3>\n
3. You have no healthcare safety net<\/h3>\n
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4. School one-off fees are a second term’s tuition<\/h3>\n
What year one actually looks like<\/h2>\n
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\n \n<\/th>\n Year one<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n Rent, 12 months at S$8,000<\/td>\n S$96,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Deposit, commission, stamp duty<\/td>\n ~S$25,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n School tuition, two children<\/td>\n S$90,000\u2013115,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n School one-off fees<\/td>\n ~S$20,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Health insurance, family<\/td>\n S$15,000\u201330,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Passes<\/td>\n S$1,320<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Utilities, mobile, broadband<\/td>\n ~S$5,500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Before anything else<\/strong><\/td>\n ~S$255,000\u2013290,000<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n