For INSEAD admits - Accommodation, Transportation and Food in Singapore

It is a pleasure to share something here with the INSEAD admits. I've been living in Singapore for more than 3 years. Hopefully the info below could be of help for you guys when you are in Singapore.

Myself - Male, 26, Engineering background, Environmental/Utilities sector. Class of July 2008, starting at Fonty on this coming August.

Accommodation

There are mainly two types of apartments in Singapore. One is Housing & Development Board flat (HDB) and the other is Condominium (Condo). HDB is publicly held and can only be sold to Singapore Citizen and Permanent Resident so the price has been kept low, which has made its rental price relatively low. It is quite similar to those neighborhood buildings we commonly see in China.  2-room and 3-room types are readily available. The place where INSEAD locates is not far from downtown. The rental for one room can be S$450-600. If you do not mind taking bus to school everyday, you may get S$400 or lower for one room per month. Condo is privately held and it has facilities like swimming pool, gyms, barbecue places and security guards. Therefore the price is higher. S$800 for one room per month can be expected, depending on the location as well.  Utility charges vary. The most expensive part is the electricity. If air-con is intensively used (somebody may regard it a must in Singapore), the bill can be S$100-120. If cooling fan is used instead, S$50-60 is expected. Lastly, if you really want to enjoy, you can choose the villa. But I’m not sure about the price…@_@ 

Transportation

Public transportation is very well developed in Singapore. You will find you really do not need a car here. The MRT (subway) is convenient and relatively inexpensive. One ride is around S$0.60 to S$1.20. If you want to travel from Changi
    Airport to INSEAD, you can take a train inside the airport and alight at the EW21 Buona Vista and take bus no. for 2 - 3 stops to INSEAD campus. Bus network is also good. One ride is around S$0.60 to S$0.80. I’ve attached a MRT map here. You should take it with you if you wanna move around in Singapore with ease. Taxi here is cheap, I shall say. The starting charge is only S$2.50. For example if you take a taxi from Nanyang Technological University, which locates at the west of the island, to Changi Airport, which sits at the extreme east of the island, it will take about S$28. So taxi sometimes is not a bad choice. One website is highly recommended to locate yourself in Singapore – www.streetdirectory.com

Food

Food is the easiest part in Singapore. Since people here have the habit of eating out, food courts are everywhere. One meal at the neighborhood food court will cost about S$2.5 – 3.5. It is something like the “da4 pai2 dang4” in China. If you go to shopping center, food court there is a bit more expensive, about S$4.0 – 5.5. The variety of cuisine here is appreciated. Chinese, Malay, Indian, Thai, Western etc, you name it, because there are so many foreigners here. If you really want to explore more, a lot of restaurants are also available. They are not very expensive either. 

Thanks for sharing!!!!