This week was eventful for the AIRINC APAC team.

Back in September 2022, AIRINC organized the first in-person roundtable discussion for Singapore-based companies at WeWork Collyer Quay.

On September 8th, AIRINC attended the Forum for Expatriate Management (FEM) APAC Summit at the Hotel Fort Canning in Singapore.

The COVID-19 pandemic inspired a trend of assignees working remotely and moving from downtown living spaces to more suburban areas.

Language barriers are common on survey, but each year technology makes it easier to get around and collect cost of living survey information. While in Bratislava during my recent survey, I arrived at a transport ticket counter to find that none of the staff were able to speak English, but this wasn’t as much of an inconvenience as it would have been a few years ago.

From Hong Kong to Banjul and everywhere in-between At home in Hong Kong, getting around the city is simple due to our modern subway. When traveling for survey, I get the opportunity to experience the wide spectrum of ease and difficulty found in the world’s transportation systems

The rental market is up in Bogota. The newly elected president’s tax cuts on corporations have led to more investment and more assignee arrivals, increasing demand for an already limited housing supply.

The housing markets in the Dutch cities that I surveyed – Amsterdam, The Hague, and Rotterdam – are showing rapid growth with increased demand from new expatriate arrivals. While uncertainty looms, opportunity grows in the wake of change.

Value-added tax (VAT), known as “Taxe sur la valeur ajoutée (TVA)” in Algeria, is applied to most goods and services. Algeria’s Finance Act 2017 increased the standard rate from 17% to 19% in January 2018, and the reduced rate from 7% to 9%. The reduced rate applies to pharmaceutics, staple food items, and some services like construction and internet to name a few.

Abu Dhabi and Dubai Rental Markets: In Abu Dhabi, limited economic growth has led to job cuts and fewer opportunities for incoming expatriates. Rents are dropping as new housing supply increases. The decrease in rents was most prominent for mid- to high-quality properties.