Cut Costing Money Savings Tips to Staying in Singapore

4 min readMar 24, 2021

One conservative method to stay for almost free in high cost of living in Singapore is to buy a HDB and partial rent out the flat.

In my case , I have bought a 3 bedroom apartment in a matured estate in Singapore and rented out my other 2 rooms. for a total of SGD$1350 per month. This meant that we have limited space in the house and hence to live as simple as possible.

Below are a few tips that can save you tons of money for your house while maintain your standard of living :

Before purchasing the house, do compare the estimated rental yield vs the mortgage loan that you will be paying every month. With the worsening of global economy and high unemployment rate , do expect interest rate to stay low for the next couple of years.

To save cost, I would opt for the DIY concept and that comes with proper research and word of mouth recommendation from friends.

MONHTLY HOUSING EXPENSES BREAKDOWN (Total : ~$)

1. Mortgage : $1174 (Fixed Rate for 3 years @ 1.83%)

Do your proper due diligence check with your local banks for the best rates and be sure to read their terms and condition. On a whole, bank offers lock in cheap rates for first 2–3 years of your loan.

Take advantage of that and look for refinancing options after end of the fixed term period. Before refinancing, look for recommendation from real estate agents that can waive bank cost for refinancing fees.

2. Water : ~$80

Other than the months where there are government grants, we can see that generally they are approximately around $80 per month. Do refer to SP site for tips on how to converse more water!

3. Electricity : ~$80

Look for electricity companies that offer the best rates and also get referral bonus($20) from friends or families that sign up as well.

To be honest most retail electricity companies will charge approximately the same amount. However i decide to go with Geneco as they have several bank card promotions going to obtain significant rebate.

Get a apartment that allows wind to come through your apartment, that way you can save up on aircon bill as well.

Geneco also have significant and swift referral rebates which would be processed on your next billing once your friend has subscribed to them. I have referred quite a couple of friends who used Geneco!

4. Property Tax : ~$6.40 based on annual value of 3 Room HDB Flat

5. Conservancy Fee ~ $64.50 for 3 Room (Since my area is located at East Coast Town Council)

6.Internet : $34

Look for internet plan that do not provide a router , get your own router according to your needs. That way you are not effectively renting the router.

I have gone with Whizcomm for their No frills plan for 1Gbps Broadband and had been using for almost 2 years. (No regrets at all). They also have referral bonus as well.