Cost of Living in Singapore versus UK - Cafe Rosh Example

A lot has been said about the cost of living and rising prices in Singapore, in recent times.   There is no doubt that cost of living in Singapore has gone up quite a lot in the past decade.  Inflation numbers look rather scary.

Economist EIU Survey
The Economist EIU Survey named Singapore the most expensive city on Earth.  Our Government came out to try to rebut the damage caused by pointing out that the basket of goods used the Economist wasn't representative of local expenditure habits.  However, the damage was done.

More recently, an MAS & MTI survey found that Singapore's prices were found to be relatively high in most instances.  Cost of living is definitely one issue Singapore needs to tackle.

Back to Cafe Rosh
Anyway, the objective of this post is not to gripe about the cost of living in Singapore, but rather to share some photographs of a nice little cafe near Shadwell, where I had a bite.

Here is the cafe.  I was walking around the area near Shadwell DLR sometime last year when I spotted this.  It certainly isn't high-end, but it is not a run-down place either.  It turned out to be a most pleasant stop.

Going closer, I saw this advertisement.  Prices looked reasonable, so it was time to go in to check the place out. Tempting picture.

This is the menu. Alright, probably can't see it too clearly, so go to the next picture.

Check out the menu and the pricing.  My first reaction was - oh, that doesn't look too expensive.  The last time I had a Cafe Latte from Coffee Bean, it cost me more than SGD $6.

Here, the Cafe Latte was only £1.50 (regular) and £1.70 large.  That would be about SGD$3 (regular) and $3.40 (large).  Doesn't sound too bad at all!

At first I only thought I would stop for a coffee.  However, this sight proved to be too tempting.  I decided that I should a panini to try.

They also had cakes and stuff.  Carrot cake at £1.60 a slice.  Now, is that neat?

I ordered a large Cafe Latte and here was the serving.  All £1.70 of it.  It tasted really good.

That is the menu, Cafe Rosh, and the address.  Now, you can see my freshly made panini to the right of the menu.

I was blown away by the size of the serving, the hearty pieces of white chicken meat (I chose BBQ chicken) and it even came with a nice side salad.  The taste was great!  Cost? £3.00.  I don't recall I can get anything like this for SGD$6 back home.

Thoughts
As I enjoyed my Cafe Latte and the wholesome BBQ Chicken Panini, I couldn't stop but wonder why things in Singapore had gotten so expensive of late.

Perhaps it had something to do with the escalating land costs and rents?  This is something we ought to examine more.

Anyway, after a hearty snack, I was ready to explore the area some more.  Here are some more pictures.  This is Shadwell DLR, one stop to Tower Hill DLR.

There were many apartments in this area, and most looked quite new.  This was one.

Another apartment complex, but much shorter in height.

These apartments also looked fairly new. But notice, most of them are rather short.  That's London.  They really do not like high rise buildings.

Where is this Shadwell area I am talkng about? Here is the map.  The cafe was located along Watney Street.

Observations 
Prices in Singapore have gone really high in recent times.  Remember, London is a global city.  No doubt, UK is just emerging from recession (post 2008 crisis) and fixing her debt issues, yet, we cannot ignore the fact that if our costs keep rising, we will soon be priced out of the world market.

In this blog post, I show that Fine Dining is less expensive in London compared to Singapore!

Happy Investing!!