🇸🇬Singapore for Digital Nomads
Singapore · Frictionless, for a while
Photo: Hu Chen / Unsplash
Costs
from €1,323/mo
Wifi
51Mbps
Mild months
0of 12
Safety
9.9
Overall
5.0
Singapore at a glance
Singapore is the most functional city in this catalogue: 24 coworking spaces and 1,749 cafés mapped within 15 km4 (source: OpenStreetMap — July 2026), transport and internet that simply work, and safety that is genuinely exceptional.
It is also the one we would most often steer people away from as a base, and it is worth being direct about why. There is no digital nomad visa, its long-stay routes all require a Singaporean employer or company, extensions of a visit pass are rarely granted, and the climate scores at the very bottom of our ranking — no month averages inside the comfort band, only 71 dry days a year1 (source: Copernicus ERA5 — 2025 full-year count), and 84% average cloud cover1 (source: Copernicus ERA5 — 2025 annual average).
It suits you as a hub: a few well-organised weeks, a regional base between trips, a place to get things done. It suits you poorly as a home for a year.
What works
- Everything works — transport, internet, healthcare, safety
- 24 coworking spaces and 1,749 cafés mapped within 15 km4 (source: OpenStreetMap — July 2026)
- Excellent regional flight connections
- Hawker centres keep eating genuinely affordable
Worth knowing
- No digital nomad visa, and no long-stay route that fits remote work for a foreign employer
- Only 71 dry days a year and 84% average cloud cover1 (source: Copernicus ERA5 — 2025) — among the wettest and greyest in the catalogue
- Zero months in the 18–27 °C comfort band; 26–29 °C and humid, all year
- Accommodation is among the most expensive in this catalogue
Living in Singapore
Neighbourhoods, finding a place and getting around — the practical layer the data tiles below cannot carry. Working, money, people and time off live in their own sections.
Where to stay
The island is small and the MRT covers it properly, so the tradeoff is price against character rather than commute.
- Tiong Bahru — low-rise, art deco, café-dense, and the usual first recommendation for anyone staying a while.
- Katong and Joo Chiat — east, Peranakan shophouses, strong food, further from the business district and cheaper for it.
- Chinatown and Bugis — central and well connected, busier, a good base for a short stay.
- Tanjong Pagar — the business end. Convenient on weekdays and quiet at weekends.
Finding a place
Short stays mean serviced apartments or hotels, both expensive. Longer stays usually mean renting a room in an HDB flat or a condo, and those normally come with a minimum tenancy of several months — which sits awkwardly against a visit pass that grants up to 90 days.
That mismatch between how long you can legally stay and how long you must commit to a flat is the practical core of why Singapore does not work well as a base. Work out the visa question before the housing one.
We publish no rent figures for Singapore yet — no free public source measures what residents pay. Member reports feed the cost section above.
Getting around
The MRT is fast, clean and covers the island; buses fill the rest. Contactless bank cards work directly at the gates, so no local card is needed. Distances are short and fares are low.
Taxis and ride-hailing are reliable and reasonably priced. Nobody needs a car, and the cost of owning one here is legendary for good reason.
Cost of living
#80of 101 destinations
€1,323–€2,157/mo
a coliving room to a place of your own, plus everyday spending
What a month actually costs, as a range — housing you can verify, everyday spending modelled from national price levels, and every line labelled with which it is.
Money
Cards and contactless work everywhere; cash is useful mainly at older hawker stalls. ATMs are plentiful and bank-operated.
Tipping is not customary and is often explicitly discouraged. Restaurant bills usually carry a 10% service charge plus GST, so the number on the menu is not the number you pay — check whether prices are shown with or without both.
- Housing — coliving room to own place, short-let market
- €748 – €1,403
- Food, groceries and eating outmodelled
- €299 – €423
- Local transport
- €83
- Leisuremodelled
- €131 – €185
- Mobile data
- €63
- Coworking deskadd-on, not in the range
- €223/mo9 (source: Published prices — The Hive Carpenter & Workcentral hot-desk rates (median) (328 SGD), Hive S$425 ex GST, Workcentral S$230, checked 2026-07-29)
- Short-let market, whole flat
- €1,941/mo7 (source: Inside Airbnb — market price (median of 462 monthly entire-home listings), Q2/2026)
whole-home short-let listings, not a nomad's room
Spot prices: coliving room €748/mo9 (source: Published prices — Cove, private room from-rate (1,100 SGD), cheapest listed location (Yishun); central locations run higher, checked 2026-07-29) · 3-star hotel €79.54/night9 (source: Published prices — median of 3 listed 3-star rates (Booking.com), night 15–16 Aug 2026 (117 SGD), Hotel Clover 7 S$126, Days Inn by Wyndham Singapore Novena S$117, Venue Hotel S$115; first three listed results, all "Includes taxes and fees"; live OTA snapshot 2026-07-29, checked 2026-07-29) · ride-hailing ~5 km €4.97/ride9 (source: Published prices — ComfortDelGro metered tariff, 5 km (7.3 SGD), S$4.60 flagfall + S$0.27/400 m, surcharges excluded, checked 2026-07-29) · café latte €3.749 (source: Published prices — Starbucks Singapore, tall latte (5.5 SGD), menu aggregator, last updated Feb 2026, checked 2026-02-10) · Big Mac €5.019 (source: Published prices — The Economist Big Mac Index, national average (7.45 SGD = 5.77 USD), July 2026 release — data CC BY 4.0)
Work
#46of 103 destinations
51Mbps
median download, measured in the city
Connection, desks and whether a day here meets yours — the three things that decide whether you can do your job from this city.
Working from here
Coworking is plentiful and professional, concentrated in the CBD and the surrounding shophouse districts. Café work is normal and the infrastructure is faultless.
A local peculiarity worth knowing: in hawker centres and food courts, leaving a packet of tissues on a table reserves it. It is called choping and it is taken seriously.
We have not verified current desk prices from operators, so this page does not quote one.
Internet
Coliving & coworking
CoworkingClick the map to open it — 48 places mapped in Singapore altogether.
- Coworking spaces mapped
- 244 (source: OpenStreetMap — within 15km)
- Cafés mapped
- 1,7424 (source: OpenStreetMap — within 15km)
Time zones
Workday overlap with Europe
1 of 8 h1 (source: Copernicus ERA5 — Nomadbase overlap of a 09:00-17:00 day against Open-Meteo time zone (Asia/Singapore), standard time; Europe reference UTC+1)
Workday overlap with US East
0 of 8 h1 (source: Copernicus ERA5 — Nomadbase overlap of a 09:00-17:00 day against Open-Meteo time zone (Asia/Singapore), standard time; US East reference UTC-5)
Overlap is the hours a 09:00–17:00 day here meets a 09:00–17:00 day there, at standard time.
Climate & air
#94of 103 destinations
0of 12
mild months — felt temperature between 18 and 27 °C
Month by month, not as one annual average. 18–27 °C is the range where being outside feels good — we count how much of the year sits inside it.
Seasons
Singapore has weather rather than seasons: the thermometer barely moves all year, and the variation that exists is rain rhythm — the monsoon halves of the year shift when the daily thunderstorm lands, not whether. Storms are loud, spectacular and short; locals wait them out under cover and carry on.
The adaptation is architectural. Life moves through shade, covered walkways and air conditioning cold enough to justify a light layer indoors. Plan outdoor time for early morning or after the afternoon storm, and treat the climate as a constant you schedule around rather than a forecast you check.
Tap a month for details.
feels-like monthly mean · ticks = rain days1 (source: Copernicus ERA5 — 2025 monthly means (felt temperature, rain-day share, cloud share))
comfortable & clearcomfortable, wetter/greyeroutside the 18–27 °C band
- Dry days a year
- 71 days/year1 (source: Copernicus ERA5 — 2025 full-year count)
- Cloud cover, annual mean
- 84%1 (source: Copernicus ERA5 — 2025 annual average)
Air quality — PM2.5, recent median
18.5 µg/m³ · poor3 (source: Copernicus CAMS — modelled 30-day mean)
The climate score is built from that band plus rain and cloud cover, month by month — so a hot summer costs a destination points rather than earning them.
Safety & everyday life
#18of 103 destinations
8.9/ 10
women's safety — Georgetown WPS index, country level
Country-level indicators — a practical baseline for the whole country, not the vibe of one neighbourhood. Community reports refine this picture over time.
Staying safe
Singapore is the safest base in this catalogue by almost any everyday measure — the late-night walk home is simply not a consideration here. What replaces street risk is the rulebook: fines and penalties are real and enforced, and the drug laws are among the harshest on earth, with no tolerance and no interest in explanations. Vaping is banned outright, and even transiting with the wrong substances is serious.
None of this constrains a normal working life; it constrains carelessness. Read the rules once, take them literally, and the city is as frictionless as it looks. The remaining hazards are sunburn and dehydration on the one hand and arctic meeting-room air conditioning on the other.
- Homicide rate, national
- 0.2 per 100k8 (source: UNODC — intentional homicide rate for Singapore, 2024)
- Hospitals & clinics
- ≈ 9.0 / 100k4 (source: OpenStreetMap — within 15km)
- Pharmacies
- ≈ 2.6 / 100k4 (source: OpenStreetMap — within 15km)
Safety for women
8.9 / 10
Georgetown WPS index — inclusion, justice and security, country level
529 mapped within 15 km
151 mapped within 15 km
Getting by in English
10.0 / 10
English is an official language
LGBTQ+ legal position · Singapore11 (source: Nomadbase country research — checked 2026-07-29)
5.0 / 10- Same-sex relationshipsLegal
- Partnership recognitionNone
- Employment protectionsNo
- Legal gender changePossible
9 queer venues mapped in the city · ≈ 0.2 per 100k residents4 (source: OpenStreetMap — within 15km)
Section 377A repealed in 2022, but a simultaneous constitutional amendment shields the heterosexual definition of marriage from court challenge, and the Workplace Fairness Act 2025 deliberately excludes sexual orientation and gender identity. Gender marker change is possible only after reassignment surgery; safe for visitors, socially conservative.
Tap water · Singapore11 (source: Nomadbase country research — checked 2026-07-29)
10.0 / 10Unsafe
Bottled advised
Mostly fine
Drink the tap
Safe to drink nationwide
PUB tap water is potable straight from the tap nationwide and exceeds WHO guidelines.
Getting there & staying
#77of 103 destinations
90 days
visa-free on an EU passport · set in Your setup
How you get in, how long you may stay, and what it takes to run a business from here.
Visa & entry requirements
Most Western passports get up to 90 days visa-free, but the length is the officer's decision and extensions are rarely granted. Singapore has no digital nomad visa.13 (source: Government sources — checked against the official source on July 27, 2026)
How long you can stay
Nationals of the US, UK, EU member states, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and Norway are granted up to 90 days visa-free. Some other nationalities get 30.
Two things to plan around:
- The period is stamped at the officer's discretion. "Up to 90 days" is a ceiling, not an entitlement.
- Extensions of a social visit pass are generally not granted. The usual answer is to leave and re-enter, and repeated short hops attract scrutiny.
Everyone must submit the free SG Arrival Card online within the three days before arrival. Your passport needs at least six months of validity.
No nomad visa
Singapore does not offer a digital nomad visa. Its long-stay routes (Employment Pass, ONE Pass, EntrePass) all require a Singapore employer or a business here, so they do not fit remote work for a foreign employer. For most nomads Singapore is a stop, not a base.
Visa rules change frequently. This information was last checked on July 27, 2026. It is not legal advice — confirm before booking with the official source.
Flights
The nearest major airport — Singapore Changi Airport — is 17 km6 (source: OurAirports — nearest major airport is Singapore Changi Airport) out, with 5 airports6 (source: OurAirports — major and regional airports with scheduled service) within 100 km overall.
Company & banking
Setting up a company
8.5 / 10
partly remote · 100% foreign ownership · no real minimum capital · ~2 days to register
Opening an account
4.5 / 10
personal account difficult · business account difficult · branch visit needed · one major EMI
Setting up, in practice
ACRA registers a Pte Ltd in a day or two with 1 SGD capital, but at least one director must be ordinarily resident in Singapore — the nominee director is the actual cost of this jurisdiction.Banking, in practice
Company account opening involves serious KYC and often an in-person meeting; banks decline structures without local substance. Not the rubber stamp the incorporation speed suggests.Not legal or tax advice. Company law, fees and bank policy change without notice — confirm with the registry linked on each figure and with a local adviser before you act on any of it.
Going out
#64of 103 destinations
9.2/ 100
bars, pubs and clubs per 100 restaurants & cafés
Evenings, eating and what there is to do once the laptop closes.
Time off
The islands and beaches of Malaysia and Indonesia are close: Johor Bahru is over the causeway, Bintan and Batam are short ferries, and Kuala Lumpur is under an hour by air. Within Singapore, the Southern Ridges walk, the reservoirs and Pulau Ubin are the standard escapes from the built-up centre.
CafésClick the map to open it — 48 places mapped in Singapore altogether.
- Bars, pubs and clubs
- 5554 (source: OpenStreetMap — within 15km)
- Restaurants
- 4,3234 (source: OpenStreetMap — within 15km)
- Vegan-friendly places
- 874 (source: OpenStreetMap — within 15km)
- Vegetarian-friendly places
- 2604 (source: OpenStreetMap — within 15km)
mapped within 15 km
mapped within 15 km — the base the shares below are measured against
1.4 per 100 restaurants & cafés
4.3 per 100 restaurants & cafés
Being active
#31of 103 destinations
290spots
gyms and yoga studios mapped in town
Gyms, studios and board sports in town, and the nature within reach — counted where counting is honest, shown as a badge where the map is too sparse to rank.
Staying active
The park-connector network is the secret: green corridors stitch the island together so a run or ride can go remarkably far without traffic, and the East Coast path does sea-breeze kilometres at dawn before the heat takes over. MacRitchie’s forest trails add actual wildlife to a tempo run.
Condo pools and gyms make daily training trivially easy, and the outdoor fitness corners in every housing estate get used, not just installed. The rule for everything outdoors is the same: dawn or dusk, and a change of shirt.
In town
GymsYogaSurf spotsClick the map to open it — 48 places mapped in Singapore altogether.
- Gyms
- 2674 (source: OpenStreetMap — within 15km)
- Yoga studios
- 234 (source: OpenStreetMap — within 15km)
mapped within 15 km — ≈ 4.6 / 100k
mapped within 15 km — ≈ 0.4 / 100k
Nature within reach
Community
Who is here, who is coming, and who has been. Counts only — never names.
Meeting people
The expat and professional communities are large and well organised, and the events calendar is busy. The nomad community specifically is thin, for the visa reasons above — most long-term foreigners here are on employment passes rather than working remotely for someone abroad.
here now
arriving soon
have been
Nobody from the community has checked into Singapore yet. If you are here, you would be the first.
Nomadbase app · opening city by city
Be there when Singapore opens
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- Real prices, café wifi and reports from members on the ground
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Keep up with Singapore
Visa rules, costs and what members report from Singapore — a short email when something on this page actually changes.
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Places like Singapore
The closest matches in the catalogue, measured across cost, climate, connection and safety — with the reason each one is here. Compare any of them against this page in one click.
How the scores work
Every score runs 0–10 and is comparative — where Singapore lands across the catalogue, not a grade in isolation.
Cost
2.4#80 of 101 · 1 of 1 measured
What a month costs, from the cheapest way of living here to the dearest we can price.
A month runs €1,323–€2,157 and everyday spending is modelled from national price levels. Across the catalogue that ranks 80th of 101.
Public data 2.4
Work
5.3#46 of 103 · 2 of 2 measured
Connection, desks and whether the working day here meets yours.
Typical downloads run around 51 Mbps and 24 coworking spaces are mapped in town. Across the catalogue that ranks 46th of 103.
Public data 6.4
Public data 4.1
Climate
3.7#94 of 103 · 1 of 1 measured
How the year feels outside, air quality included.
0 of the 12 months sit in the comfortable 18–27 °C range and air pollution is moderate (18.5 µg/m³ PM2.5, modelled — no station reports here). Across the catalogue that ranks 94th of 103.
Public data 3.7
Safety
7.6#18 of 103 · 6 of 6 measured
The country-level baseline: violence, healthcare, water, and who the law protects.
Violent crime is rare nationwide (0.17 homicides per 100k), women's safety scores 8.9/10 on the Georgetown index, 529 clinics and hospitals are mapped within reach and tap water is drinkable. Across the catalogue that ranks 18th of 103.
Public data 9.9
Public data 1.9
Public data 8.9
Public data 10.0
Public data 5.0
Public data 10.0
Getting there
4.5#77 of 103 · 3 of 3 measured
Getting in, staying legally, and flying out again.
An EU passport gets 90 visa-free days, there is no long-stay route for remote work and the nearest major airport is 17 km from town. Across the catalogue that ranks 77th of 103.
Public data 4.0
Public data 4.4
Public data 6.5
Going out
4.2#64 of 103 · 4 of 4 measured
Evenings, eating and what there is to do when the laptop closes.
For every 100 restaurants and cafés there are 9 bars, pubs or clubs and 1 vegan-friendly places per 100 restaurants and cafés. Across the catalogue that ranks 64th of 103.
Public data 2.5
Public data 4.7
Public data 3.2
Public data 7.3
Being active
6.2#31 of 103 · 2 of 2 measured
Gyms and studios, board sports, and the nature within reach.
267 gyms and 23 yoga studios are mapped in town, 10 nature reserves and 7 hiking routes lie within 30 km and it sits on the coast. Across the catalogue that ranks 31st of 103.
Public data 5.2
Public data 7.2
Community
Nothing measured here yet
Members on the ground, chapters and events — our own data, not a proxy.
Not measured here yet: community.
Read the sectionSources
Every figure on this page carries the source it came from and the date it was measured. Where no source exists, the field is left empty rather than estimated.
- 1
Copernicus ERA5Generated using Copernicus Climate Change Service information
ECMWF’s ERA5 reanalysis, retrieved through Open-Meteo. Temperatures, rainfall, cloud cover and wind are daily values for the last complete calendar year.
- 2
Our own reading of ERA5 data, not a measurement: a month-by-month score for how comfortable the felt temperature is, damped for rain and cloud. The formula is published.
- 3
Copernicus CAMS© ECMWF/Copernicus
Modelled air quality, used only where no ground station exists. A 40km model cell, not a measurement on the corner — the page says which of the two you are looking at.
- 4
OpenStreetMapODbL
Community-mapped places: coworking, cafés, gyms and diet options within 15km. Counts are a floor rather than a census — coverage depends on local mappers.
- 5
M-LabCC BY-SA 4.0
Internet speed from real speed tests run by people in the city, aggregated over a seven-day window.
- 6
OurAirportsPublic domain
Airport locations and types. Distances are to the nearest major airport with scheduled service.
- 7
Inside AirbnbCC BY 4.0
The short-let market price: median nightly rate of entire homes bookable by the month, times thirty, converted to EUR at ECB reference rates. Deliberately not called rent — local leases run cheaper, and member reports correct downward.
- 8
UNODCFree with attribution
Intentional homicide rate from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime — a national figure, because no free source measures crime per city. The year next to the number is the year the country last reported.
- 9
Prices read by hand from the operator’s or authority’s own published price list — a transit tariff, a coworking rate card, an eSIM store — on the date shown. Checked quarterly; the linked page is the source.
- 10
World BankCC BY 4.0
Price level of household consumption at market exchange rates (US = 100) — a national figure that anchors the cost score where no city-level source exists yet. It measures what arriving with foreign income feels like, which is why a weak currency lowers it.
- 11
Hand-maintained country tables for the LGBTQ+ legal position and tap-water safety, compiled from advocacy databases (ILGA World, Human Dignity Trust), national authorities and government travel advice, and scored with a published rubric. Country-level by nature — city reality can differ, which is what the practical note is for.
- 12
WikidataCC0
Structural facts taken from the place’s Wikidata entity — resident population, which mirrors a national census figure, and elevation above sea level. The year is the one Wikidata records for that figure; where the entity was the wrong scale for the place we describe, the number has been replaced by a hand-sourced one from the statistics office instead.
- 13
Government sources
Visa and entry rules come from the responsible authority for each country, linked in the visa section and re-checked by hand on the date shown.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to live in Singapore per month?
Between €1,323 and €2,157 a month, housing and everyday spending together, depending on whether you take a coliving room or your own place. Housing is a coliving room at €748 up to your own place at €1,403. Everyday spending — food, local transport, leisure — is modelled from national price levels rather than measured in the city, so it is an indication and not a quote. A coworking desk is extra at €223. Every figure carries its source on the destination page.
How fast is the internet in Singapore?
Median download speed is about 51.3 Mbps. Source: M-Lab median of 59,417 tests within 50 km, last 7 days.
What visa do I need for Singapore?
Most Western passports get up to 90 days visa-free, but the length is the officer's decision and extensions are rarely granted. Singapore has no digital nomad visa. Last checked 2026-07-27. Always confirm with the official source before booking.
What is the weather like in Singapore?
Winters average 26.4 °C and summers 27.7 °C. 0 of 12 months average a comfortable 18–27 °C (felt temperature). Source: Copernicus ERA5, 2025 annual average.
Can I work European or US hours from Singapore?
A 09:00–17:00 working day in Singapore overlaps 1 hours with Central European time and 0 hours with US Eastern time, at standard time.
Are there coworking spaces in Singapore?
24 coworking spaces are mapped in Singapore, plus 1742 cafés to work from. Source: OpenStreetMap, within 15km. Counts are a floor, not a census — coverage depends on local mappers.
How do you get to Singapore?
The nearest major airport is about 17 km away. 5 airports with scheduled service within 100 km. Source: OurAirports — nearest major airport is Singapore Changi Airport.
Where Singapore ranks
Last reviewed July 27, 2026. Every figure carries its own measurement date; hover a footnote for the source, or see the list above.