Clean, cheaper pastures draw expats to Lion City

Internal data from recruitment group Ambition revealed an alarming statistic last month for local companies looking to hire and retain expatriate staff.

The data, which was sourced from an in-house system used to refer candidates to the firm's Singapore office, has shown a marked increase in the number of executives looking to relocate to the island-nation.

Among the Hong Kong candidates canvassed by Ambition through the first half of the year, 24 per cent said they would consider moving to Singapore for their next position. The figure was 118 per cent higher than that for the same period in 2010.

The firm's managing director for Hong Kong, Matthew Hill, says the factors contributing to the change largely come down to rising living costs, limited education options, and a rapidly diminishing quality of life here.

While high property prices are partly to blame for the shift, surging rental rates are the real issue, Hill says.

'The majority of candidates are not coming here to buy houses. They're coming here for four-to-five-year stints, and thus are looking to rent,' he says. 'But as prices continue to rise, things are getting vastly more expensive for the bulk of them.'

This, in turn, is closely followed by a lack of placements at international schools, he notes. 'We've had a lot of candidates that had offers, but have had to wait to find school places [for their children].