Where to House Your Employees in Singapore
If you’re relocating your operations to Singapore, it can be useful to familiarise yourself with the available housing options for you and your employees. While the range of choices will depend on how long you intend to stay in the city, business-owners will find a more than ample number of options suitable for any number of employees. To help smooth the transition to living and working in our city, we have prepared this blog to help you better understand what is available in terms of accommodation.
Short-term options
If you’re only operating in Singapore for a short period of time – under 12 months – it can be hard to justify taking out a lease on a number of flats. Equally, if you have a high local staff turnover – say from employees coming from your overseas parent company to work in Singapore for a short period of time – it can be more useful to look at more flexible options.
In both cases, a serviced apartment may be more affordable for your budget and more suitable to your needs. As a global hub of commerce, Singapore has an extensive corporate housing and serviced apartment industry. These businesses offer fully furnished apartments available at a monthly or weekly rate, serviced regularly by housekeeping staff. This makes them perfect not just for you in that you are not locked into a fixed-term lease, but also ensure that your busy employees can make better use of their time in the city without having to worry about the drudgery of cleaning their own homes.
Long-term options
For businesses looking to set up operations in Singapore indefinitely or for a period spanning multiple years, Singapore offers a wealth of choices in affordable, space-conscious and conveniently located accommodation. The most abundant option is renting a Housing & Development Board flat on the open market. The flats available on the open market are held in a 99-year lease by a Singaporean citizen and can legally be subleased to any foreign individual holding an Employment Pass, S Pass, Work Permit, Student Pass, Dependant Pass, or Long-Term Social Visit Pass. Much like any rental market, flats vary in price relevant to their location, their amenities and their size, but Singapore’s small geographic size and efficient public transport system make flats outside of the Central Region highly accessible.
For more information on relocating your business to Singapore, please speak to Allied today.
To find out more about Allied's moving services, or to book a consultation, visit www.alliedpickfords.com.sg or call +65 6862 4700.
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How to Enjoy Chinese New Year as an Expat in Singapore
For many native Singaporean residents, the rapidly approaching Lunar New Year represents the single most important date of the year. Also known as Chinese New Year, the spring festival holiday is associated with traditions thousands of years old and is celebrated by communities the world over. Singapore marks the auspicious date with a public extravaganza of light and dance, getting fully into the festival spirit with food, fashion, and public events.
If you’re an expat currently living in Singapore, the advent of such a raucous and colourful holiday might be the perfect cultural experience, but it also could be a bewildering drain on your energy if you aren’t prepared. With that in mind, here’s a short guide to the key facets of Chinese New Year in Singapore.
Paint the town red
One of the most visible cultural foundations of the Spring Festival is the veneration of the colour red, which is simply everywhere in Singapore at this time. Seen to signify luck and prosperity, you will see people buying new clothes, cooking food, and daubing their homes in the colour.
If you plan on celebrating or at least blending in during the festival, it’s a good idea to plan your best “red” look. Buying new clothes – especially ones which are red themselves – is considered good luck at this time of year, so don’t be afraid to splash out a bit in order to look the part.
It’s all about family
Togetherness and family unity are a huge cultural theme of the holiday. One of the central moments of the holiday season is Reunion Dinner, when scattered family members move hell and high water to get home for dinner on the eve of the Lunar New Year. If you’re a lonesome single expat far from home on a night like this, it can be very easy to feel cut off from the celebration and sink into a melancholy homesickness.
Take the opportunity to match like with like; Allied Pickfords recommends looking into local expat bars and social media groups to see if anyone else is partying against the grain on reunion night.
It’s not just about the New Year
In Singapore, the Lunar New Year is traditionally marked by a 2-day public holiday, sometimes 3-day, and the revellers will make those days count. But if the holiday itself is too intense or just not your style, the festive season persists for a good month around this crimson crescendo. Featuring a range of mouth-watering seasonal food prepared only around the New Year, colourful public decorations and a cheerful, relaxed atmosphere, this could be the perfect antidote to frantic New Year’s Eve celebrations. Make sure to witness the legendary Chingay Parade, held 8 days after the Lunar New Year and one of Singapore’s most cherished public traditions.
To find out more about Allied Pickfords’ moving services, or to book a consultation, visit www.alliedpickfords.com.sg or call +65 6862 4700.
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