It is a balmy Saturday afternoon in the suburbs of Singapore. Patricia, 21, and her partner Sham, 28, share their first meal of the day: a box of chicken nuggets at McDonald's. "It's getting much harder to survive in Singapore," Patricia says between bites. "I love my job, but my pay doesn't match up to the cost of living here. But what choice do I have?"
Patricia recently moved out of her parents' house to be with Sham. In Singapore, with its sky-high housing prices and conservative Asian values, most young people have no choice but to live with their parents until they get married. Singles cannot apply for public housing until they turn 35.
Patricia works full time as a nurse in a government hospital. She is undereducated by Singapore's standards, with only n-levels (below high school) and an ITE (technical college) certificate in nursing, and earns S$1,400 (£670) per month.
In a country where a small, two-room condominium unit in the city centre can fetch a monthly rental of S$5,000 or more, Patricia pays a pricy S$850 a month to rent a non air-conditioned room in a flat at Admiralty, a suburban area in the north of Singapore, a 90-minute commute by public transport to her workplace.
Her monthly rental does not entitle her to the use of her landlord's kitchen, so she has to eat out for all her meals. "Definitely life is hard, with the increasing costs in Singapore," Patricia says. "Somehow I buck up and struggle through these storms. Though I know I'm suffering inside, I still motivate and push myself to work harder." Full story...
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Patricia recently moved out of her parents' house to be with Sham. In Singapore, with its sky-high housing prices and conservative Asian values, most young people have no choice but to live with their parents until they get married. Singles cannot apply for public housing until they turn 35.
Patricia works full time as a nurse in a government hospital. She is undereducated by Singapore's standards, with only n-levels (below high school) and an ITE (technical college) certificate in nursing, and earns S$1,400 (£670) per month.
In a country where a small, two-room condominium unit in the city centre can fetch a monthly rental of S$5,000 or more, Patricia pays a pricy S$850 a month to rent a non air-conditioned room in a flat at Admiralty, a suburban area in the north of Singapore, a 90-minute commute by public transport to her workplace.
Her monthly rental does not entitle her to the use of her landlord's kitchen, so she has to eat out for all her meals. "Definitely life is hard, with the increasing costs in Singapore," Patricia says. "Somehow I buck up and struggle through these storms. Though I know I'm suffering inside, I still motivate and push myself to work harder." Full story...
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