Hong Kong or Singapore: Every Figure, Officially Sourced
By Di Ma, Co-founder - Abroadbase.com · Last reviewed 2026-09-24
Six minutes, thirty-six slides. This is the narrated visual companion to Episode 1 of the Abroadbase podcast with Di Ma and Jasur Mavlyanov — every figure the episode rests on, with the department that publishes it named on the slide.
A comparison, not a verdict
Two cities, priced differently. Which trade suits you is not something a slide can decide, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What follows is what each government actually publishes — and, where it publishes nothing, a plain statement that the guidance is silent.
If someone hires you
Singapore's Employment Pass has a published floor: SGD 5,600 a month, rising with your age to SGD 10,700 at 45. From January 2027 that floor becomes SGD 6,000, topping out at SGD 11,500. Clear the salary bar and you still face COMPASS, a points test you must score 40 on — where half the available score belongs to your employer's workforce profile, not to you.
Hong Kong's General Employment Policy publishes no salary threshold at all. The test is market-rate pay and a role not readily filled locally, assessed at the Immigration Department's discretion.
Same job, two ways of being judged. Singapore gives you a checklist you can model in advance. Hong Kong gives you room, and no way to score yourself before you apply. Some people want the checklist. Some want the room.
If you qualify on your own
| Hong Kong | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Scheme | Top Talent Pass, Category A | ONE Pass |
| Bar | HK$2.5m a year | SGD 30,000 a month |
| Job offer | Not required | Not required |
| To renew | — | Must keep earning it in Singapore |
The Immigration Department recorded 14,847 Top Talent Pass approvals in the first half of 2026, 5,937 of them Category A. The scheme is being used. That is not the same as people staying.
If you're building or investing
Singapore's EntrePass asks a founder to hold 30% of shares and to fit a funded or incubated profile. Hong Kong sets no shareholding rule and no minimum capital, and asks you to make the case on your business's contribution instead. A fundable deck does better in Singapore. Revenue and no story does better in Hong Kong.
On capital: Singapore's Global Investor Programme starts at SGD 10m into a business, SGD 25m into a fund, or SGD 50m of family-office assets. Hong Kong's Capital Investment Entrant Scheme asks HK$30m — HK$27m in permissible assets and HK$3m into a government-overseen portfolio. Property is the part most often got wrong: real estate counts toward HK$15m at most, residential capped at HK$10m, and only for a property valued at HK$30m or above.
What the money buys differs more than the price does. Singapore grants permanent residence directly. Hong Kong grants residence — you still serve the seven years, and you have to show up. Asked whether capital alone is enough without living there, Hong Kong's published answer is: no.
What it costs to stay
Hong Kong's salaries tax is effectively capped at 15–16% for high earners, the Inland Revenue Department applying whichever of its two methods costs you less; lower earners pay far less. Corporate tax is 16.5% against Singapore's 17% — closer than people assume. The real gap is consumption: Singapore charges GST at 9%, Hong Kong has no sales tax, no capital gains tax and no estate duty.
Permanent residence is the sharpest contrast in the episode. Hong Kong: seven years, rules-based, and you can know whether you qualify. Singapore: unpublished — no points system, no minimum, no stated formula. Eligibility to apply is automatic with a pass. Approval is another matter.
Who comes with you
Often the thing that actually decides it. In Hong Kong a spouse can work with no separate pass. In Singapore they need their own — their own employer, their own points score. For a dual-career couple that is not a detail; it may be the whole decision.
Parents are the mirror image. Singapore will take them at SGD 12,000 a month. Hong Kong will not, until you hold permanent residence — seven years away. One city sells it as a benefit. The other makes you earn it.
Daily life
English spoken at home: 4.6% in Hong Kong (2021 Census) against 48.3% in Singapore (2020 Census), the same question asked the same way. But 58.7% of Hong Kong can speak it — English is the professional register there, not the domestic one.
On banking, Hong Kong's refusal rate for account applications fell from 10% to 5% since early 2016. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority publishes that figure. Singapore publishes nothing to compare it with.
If you leave
The question almost nobody asks first. Hong Kong permanent residence survives 36 months away before it lapses. Singapore gives you 180 days to apply for a re-entry permit — and those rules changed in December 2025, so older guidance is wrong on this.
Overrun in Hong Kong and you keep the right to land: automatic, return and live and work with no visa. Overrun in Singapore and you are a visitor. No reinstatement, no appeal. Hong Kong hands you a fallback you never applied for. Singapore has none.
And the one people don't price in: a father may be exempt from National Service, but his son is not — and the son's decision reaches back into the father's own permit renewals.
What nobody publishes
Three things we will not guess at, because no government states them:
- Whether dividends count toward Hong Kong's income test. The guidance is silent. Take advice before applying on dividend-heavy compensation.
- How long an account takes to open, in either city. Neither regulator publishes it.
- What Singapore actually weighs for permanent residence. No points, no minimum, no published approval rate.
Where this leaves you
One is harder to enter and easier to keep. The other is harder on both. Optionality, or roots — a personal judgement rather than an analytical one, which is why we are not making it for you.
Immigration and tax figures circulate for years after they stop being true. Naming the department is how you check us.
Sources
General information only — not legal, tax or immigration advice. Rules change; confirm with official sources and a qualified professional before acting.