SINGAPORE: After Al-Jazeera’s report ‘So long Singapore: Expats flee city as rents go through the roof’ was shared on Reddit this week, many commenters, both locals and expats, weighed in.
The report, published Thursday (Apr 20), quoted the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) as saying rental rates rose an average of 30 per cent last year, the fastest increase in 15 years.
“Seven in 10 foreign and local businesses are ready to relocate staff if costs do not come down, while half of expats who renewed their residential lease recently saw their rent rise by more than 40 per cent, according to a survey by the European Chamber of Commerce in Singapore (EuroCham),” the article reads.
It added that high rental rates could affect the county’s ability to attract foreign talent.
A lively discussion has ensued on Reddit in response to the article.
One expat woman leaving weighed in, calling saying Singapore a “wonderful country” but adding that “there are many horror stories on expat forums – along with the 40-80% increases, this includes not getting deposits back (we are talking 2 months rent which is a lot) despite issues such as unavoidable wear and tear due to the humidity and even being asked to paint house exteriors). Of course, many landlords are very reasonable (including ours) just pointing out others’ experiences.”
She added that “new expats will come in but it will be a loss not only for the economy – we have grown to love SG, know the culture and are genuinely committed to building capacity in the workforce.”
A local Reddit user wrote, “We are rapidly going from attracting workers attached to MNCs with hundreds or thousands of headcount locally… to attracting capital, i.e. family offices with ten staff which exist to funnel money upwards.
This will make our GDP look really good but none of it will come to us plebs, exacerbate the perceived class differences between FT/1st gen immigrants and natural-born Singaporeans, and cause massive inflationary pressure on goods with limited supply like houses and cars.
Which is to say it’ll all suck for Singaporeans.”
Another agreed with this assessment, writing, “So that means that skilled people won’t be moving here, it’ll be limited to very senior management and people coming to park wealth and none of that really drives growth in the economy although it does make the GDP figures look great, but then Singapore just becomes like Belize or the Cayman Islands where the GDP per capita is massive but the money isn’t really there.”
One commenter observed, “The problem is the incoming foreigners are even less productive than the ones being replaced.”
A long-term PR (permanent resident) weighed in as well.
/TISG