Singapore more costly for citizens to live in than Seoul, Hong Kong: Survey

[valuebuddies]

I think we need to interpret the title correctly, it says "more costly for CITIZENS to live". Citizens means people of a particular country, which is different from Residents (in which the later means citizens or non-citizens who lives in that country). So if the poverty ratio is high for a country, isn't it means "more costly for CITIZENS to live"? Example majority of Cambodia citizens earns just sufficient to continue a living, but what about here in Singapore, where majority people eat in restaurant at least once a month etc. Obviously the living standards in both countries are difference, but if I were to choose whether to be a Cambodian or Singaporean, I choose the latter because it will be less costly for me to live, right?

Sometime I finds these articles super misleading that causes public angers against their countries ruling government.

[corydorus]

To add further, living environment is important. Is it not costly to have insecure/high crime rates a cost to us ?

How about the air we breaths. We complaint like Hell when our "Friendly Neighbour" burns their forests for a period. There are cities in China where they breath basically Carbon Dust 24HR annually. Is this the place you want to retire ?

In Taipei during Hot Summer, if you climb the hills nearby and watch over 101 Building direction on a windless day, you can literally see a huge dark polluted cloud hanging over the city. Roaches roaming on the street level is not an uncommon sight at night around low level residential area. They are getting better but is nowhere near Singapore.
BTW nobody should drink water straight from the tap in Taipei.

Again many countries are cheap for a reason.

[valuebuddies]

Ok to summarize my view, Singapore is indeed a country with superior living standards and security, YET less expensive for citizens to live comparing to its nearby countries in ASEAN.

[orangetea]

There is also comfort to know that the currency we have is not depreciating like crazy.
Some people i know from neighbouring deposit sgd here just to keep the value of money

[Porkbelly]

Yes, Singapore is certainly very expensive.

It gets obvious when we dine out in other cities. Some places in Europe, there is no GST, no service charge and you get table service ( with or without table cloth.. )

In Japan, you pay for your meal from a vending machine. Present the ticket and you get served at the counter with endless green tea, and condiments. Of course, the exchange rate is now favourable, but the cost is still cheaper in terms of service and standards. No GST ( for cooked food) no service charge.

Productivity is what counts. The cost here is high but without a corresponding increase in standards makes it unjustified.

[specuvestor]

Firstly cost of living is different from standard of living. The former is more quantifiable and the latter more subjective as VBs have noted. CPI basket is a simple cost of living as a measure and we had a discussion on another thread on cost of living for expat where we topped.

However increasing standard of living is what we are aiming for. Cost of living generally correlates with standard of living but not always if the country do not add value to the populace. Goh CT was advocating Swiss standard of living but looks like we have achieved Swiss cost of living instead, as pointed out by PAP MP Inderjit Singh

In addition as some VB pointed out, what is missing in this equation is actually income or affordability. If cost increase by 5% and income by 10% that's not a big issue. The issue in recent years is that the input cost of property had elevated cost in Singapore with insufficient rise in general income measured by median rather than mean due to the escalating income gap

Nonetheless we have done better vs our neighbours for sure. With their income sometimes i wonder how they afford their cost of living. And it is obvious Singapore policy makers are trying to adjust this by providing some form of safety net as well as disinflating property prices. 6.9m population is not going to improve our standard of living and i think the government heard it

[corydorus]

That's true which is why i am very hard of the Gov on removing property curbs and you need to show your votes in the next election. This Walls do nothing but increase misery to many people especially common folks. I am very wary when they curb land sales or HDB units to the tune of developers. This is dangerous imo. I have seen such damage done to Taiwan. And i am willing to cast a NO vote against them despite all their performance even if this result in gov flip.