SINGAPORE: A Singaporean, now a permanent resident in another country, was shocked by the price surge when he returned for a visit.
“I left before prices went crazy on this little red dot,” he wrote on r/singaporefi, a Reddit forum, on Sunday (Mar 9). “Forget about houses and cars, which were always ridiculous anyways; things like chilli crab or hotpot are far more pricey (like multiples more) than what I remembered it to be growing up in the 90s/00s.”
Beyond dining at restaurants, he noticed that even hawker food once considered a budget-friendly staple for many Singaporeans, had not been spared from inflation. He shared that a friend had recently informed him that a plate of Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice now costs between S$8 and S$10, a sharp increase from the S$3 he used to pay in his younger years.
Concerned about the rising cost of living, he turned to the online community for insights. “I wonder how the average Singaporean family budgets and what they live on nowadays,” he said. “If I ever moved home, what’s a realistic budget for an average family? I don’t need a car or a big house; a three- to four-room flat will suffice for my family, and I can take MRT and bus wherever I need to go.”
“Things being more expensive after 20 to 30 years shouldn’t be surprising…”
His post ignited a lively discussion among Singaporeans, with many debating how much a family truly needs to make ends meet in the country.
“Plenty of families with one kid are surviving with S$3K to S$4K household income and still can afford to travel once a year. Ultimately depends on how you spend,” one Redditor said.
“If you want to be ‘comfortable, ’ I think a household income of S$7K to S$10K for a family of four. I assume your parents/in-laws are self-sufficient. You will also buy an HDB (Housing & Development Board) with a monthly mortgage of ~S$2K, and no, you are not buying a car,” another argued.
“Tian Tian is S$8 because they (are) famous now. Heartlands still (has) S$3.50 chicken rice. It’s very difficult to estimate how much you need because lifestyle differences can result in big differences. I have a friend with two kids and lives in (a) four-room HDB, who only takes public transport, etc.—around S$7k all-in including mortgage?” a third commented.
Beyond the discussion on family budgets, several Redditors also addressed the rising cost of living, which was another significant point in the original post.
“Things being more expensive after twenty to thirty years shouldn’t be surprising. Median monthly household income has also increased from S$4.4K in 2000 to S$11.3K 2024 (with the top 20% with S$20K more),” one wrote.
“SG becomes more expensive, but the country you’re living in also does. There’s no point in comparing the prices before and after you go back to SG because it works the other way with foreigners living in SG. There’s one thing that has not yet changed about SG. You have the option to live on a budget, comfortably, or luxuriously,” another pointed out.
Steady growth in household income
The latest report from the Singapore Department of Statistics (SingStat) shows that the median monthly household employment income rose from S$10,869 in 2023 to S$11,297 in 2024, marking a 3.9% increase in nominal terms. However, when adjusted for inflation, the real growth in household income was more moderate at 1.4%.
Examining a longer period, the data further revealed that between 2019 and 2024, median monthly household employment income grew by 3.6% in real terms. This equates to an average annual increase of 0.7%, reflecting steady but moderate income growth over the past five years.
Read also: Foreigner spending S$200-250 on each date with Singaporean girlfriend shocks netizens
Featured image by freepik (for illustration purposes only)