Singaporeans Own HDBs While Renting Abroad

Many young Singaporeans own Housing Development Board (HDB) flats but have moved abroad to live and work, taking advantage of workplace flexibility to balance costs and lifestyle.

A two-week routine in Bangkok

Chin Wei Nyen, a 30-year-old former product manager, now splits her time between Singapore and Bangkok. She owns a four-room resale HDB flat in Punggol with her husband, but the couple’s monthly mortgage of roughly $2,000 and other expenses, including a car loan for a Subaru, made the traditional Singaporean path feel restrictive. After her boss offered her a remote work option in October 2024, she seized it. She moved into a 31 sq m condominium in Bangkok’s Ladprao neighborhood for $1,000 a month. She returned to Singapore in January 2025 and quit her job in May 2025. Six months later, she signed a one-year lease for the same unit for $600 a month, turning it into a semi-permanent base.

Chin says she needed “my own space to recharge and enjoy making content in a space that I’m 100 per cent responsible for.” She now works as a freelance social media manager and content creator, spending about two weeks in each location. The lower cost of living in Thailand offers a distinct appeal. She admits that the pressure to keep up with peers—buying a house, a car, or a promotion—was overwhelming in Singapore. In Bangkok, she feels she can focus on personal growth rather than constant comparison.

While there are no public statistics on the number of Singaporeans renting abroad, the number of Singaporeans living overseas grew from about 213,000 in 2016 to more than 221,000 by the end of 2025. This trend is supported by programs like Malaysia’s My Second Home (MM2H) initiative. Data from Asia Home Services shows the number of applicants for MM2H soared from 1,902 in December 2024 to 12,495 in March 2026. Singaporeans account for a small but growing share of this pool, with the number of applicants from Singapore quadrupling from 96 in December 2024 to 383 in March 2026.

Some are going even farther. In July 2026, Singaporean content creator Rachell Ng posted on TikTok that she rents a four-room condominium unit in Guangxi, China, for $520 a month. Ng and her husband, who live in an HDB flat, spend between $9,000 and $10,000 on renovations for the unit they visit almost every month for work.

For Chin, the appeal of living in Thailand was not simply about escaping the office. It also gave her a reprieve from the pressures she associated with life in Singapore. She says: “Burnout was one thing, but more crucially, I was constantly comparing myself with my peers and I think the pressure was getting overwhelmin

Lower costs, higher flexibility

Others use the lower cost of living in neighbouring countries to stretch their earnings. Jim Ng, 31, runs a digital marketing agency with his wife, Catheryn Wong. They own a three-room HDB flat in Admiralty, which they rented out to a Filipino family for $3,200 a month before moving to Medan, Indonesia, in May 2024. They signed a two-year lease for a 129 sq m duplex condominium there for $500 a month.

After a trip to Kuala Lumpur for a concert in June 2024, the couple reconsidered their location. They felt there was a cultural mismatch in Indonesia and decided Malaysia was the better choice. They moved to a 250 sq m two-storey house in the gated township of Gamuda Cove, Selangor. By living in Malaysia while running a Singapore-based business, the couple practices geoarbitrage, widening the gap between their income and living expenses to increase their spending power.

Even with the lower rent and the ability to travel between countries, the lifestyle shift requires careful planning. Travelers often need to duplicate their belongings, carrying two sets of cosmetics, running shoes, and clothes to avoid packing heavy luggage. The strategy works best for those whose income is not tied to a specific geographic location, such as remote workers and business owners, allowing them to enjoy a higher standard of living without a drastic change in career.