Living in Brunei Daressalam

Hi j_nomaan and welcome to Expat.com!

Do not hesitate to browse through the different threads of the forum, it may help.

Harmonie.

Hey j_nomaan,

I would say B$2500 is enough to live on comfortably in Brunei. A good weeks shop for 2 can be around B$100-B$200 depending of course what you buy. At the moment I tend to buy imported stuff because 'I' know what it is but local produce is about 2/3rds of the price.

I would say the housing allowance is too small. you will be lucky to find a house or flat to rent for less than B$1000 and you will be looking at around B$400 a month for bills internet and tv.

This would of course eat into your monthly pay.

I hope this helps.

Agree with what Spuds has said.

The salary is pretty good, you should be able to get buy easily on that (even when you're supporting your wife as well), but that housing allowance sucks! :-)) You'd need atleast $1500 for a half decent furnished 3-bed house; there are some apartments available that would be cheaper, though - depends what you're after. Your best bet re: finding accommodation is to contact a load of local agents by phone (websites are USELESS and rarely updated, so don't even bother looking down that route) and ask them to source houses/apartments for you within your budget. They'll do this for no fee. You can find many agents advertising properties for rent on www.bobwhatson.com

Generally, cost of living is low. Eating out are cheap (a nice meal for two will set you back no more than $20 in many places), and locally produced food is quite cheap. Imported western foodstuffs are understandably much more pricey. Petrol is very cheap - 50c a litre, and diesel is cheaper still!! - so your travel costs will be negligible. It costs me around $18 to fill up the tank of my 3-litre diesel 4WD truck.

Goods can be expensive...many electirical items are much more expensive than those you can acquire from your home country, so it's always worth comparing the price of said items on EBay/Amazon before buying here. Another website based in Hong Kong called www.dinodirect.com (a bit like Amazon) does free worldwide delivery, and I buy many items from there rather than locally. They're LOADS cheaper. The other thing to be aware of is that A LOT of stuff in Brunei is knock-off, even things like laptops and iPads, so take care...

Furniture and home furnishings (if you need them) are available in a wide range of standards. Department stores (Hua Ho's) sell a lot, and Court's and Jackhan's (two chain stores) sell fairly cheap and cheerful furniture. Another good source of this kind of thing is the 2nd hand market. Garage sales abound here, as ex-pats move on and sell their stuff cheaply. Keep an eye on the bobwhatson website!

Utilities are cheap - water should cost you under $10 a month, even if you use a lot, and your electricity should be under $100 a month (depending on the size of your home and how much you use your air con!)

The most expensive utility is your broadband. An 'unlimited' package will cost you over $100 a month, and you'll be lucky to get 1MEG download speed :-/ Skype with video will JUST about run on it.

Hope all this helps! :-)

Hey Emmarooney,
Thanks a lot for taking out your time and replying to my post, thats more than enough of wat i wouldve wanted to know
Thanks mate & cheers.

Look to get a decent house to rent you will be looking at around about $2k, the locals will try and do you over and provide the cheapest, crappiest possible furniture.

Cars are much more expensive than in England, so what if the petrol is cheap? Most cars are ludicrously priced.

Restaurant food is very bad quality. There is probably only 1 sushi place worth wile here. I went to Pizza hut and was sick, I won't dare go back to KFC either.

Oh yeah and your internet is going to be prehistoric and expensive too.

I'd stay put if I were you in Doha!

I am looking to move to brunei with my family of two girls under 5. I'm interested in asd much info as poss?

HI jimbo44,

I would suggest you to start a new thread on the Brunei forum. Thank you.

any one has a clue how to get chef job in brunei?

Hi Rami, you should start a new thread on the forum for better visibility.

Harmonie.