The fact that Singapore is widely known as the easiest place in the world to establish a business and that is largely because it deserved the reputation. Its infrastructure is good, the legal environment is transparent and the government does attract foreign investment. But physical office space? That’s a different story. The rates of commercial rent in the area are one of the top in Asia and that is precisely why the virtual office solution has become such a convenient staple among startups, remote workforce, and international corporations setting up here and establishing a local presence. Click our important link for more information!

A virtual office is, essentially, a legitimate Singapore address, but at no cost, since you do not have to rent a real office. Registration ACRA may be used in that address on your site, invoices, and any other material that you give to clients. To most businesses that is the main attraction, the local address credibility without a physical lease contract commitment.

What the Setup Really Appears Like.

Services that are included in the “virtual office” are more diverse than many people would expect. The simplest package may be the collection of addresses and mails. Go up a notch more and you are usually getting mail scanning services, document forwarding as well as a dedicated local phone number and call handling services. Premium packages usually include access to meeting rooms, the use of coworking tables, and more reactive administrative services.

Location of address is more significant than providers would like to believe. A Cecil Street or Raffles Place address is not as attractive as a suburban business park, particularly when your clients are in a financial, legal or business services industry. With that said, a prime district address is not always required in any business, it depends on who you are trying to impress and whether they will even pay attention.

Singapore is a natural base to foreign-incorporated companies that intend to venture to Southeast Asia. The time zone is region-wide, English is the official business language, and the presence of a Singapore-derived entity provides entry to the local banking, contracts and partnerships which would be otherwise challenging to develop. The initial convenient step in that process is usually a virtual office, which allows companies to incorporate and start operating but leave the decision of whether to have a physical presence or not to the cost.

One of such services is mail handling, it sounds boring until you wait on a government letter or signed contract and your mind is in the clouds not knowing where the letter went. Good providers scan and send the documents within the same working day. Some people put it all into a batch every week. It will make a difference based on the time sensitivity of your correspondence.

The Call Answering Question

Virtual office packages are differentiated most dramatically where handling the phone is concerned. Others give you a local Singapore number which diverts to your mobile- pure, simple functional no frill. Other ones have a staffed reception whereby the staff answers the calls in your name as a human being. The latter is an additional cost, but the extra cost is justified in case you have a client-facing business and you anticipate receiving inbound calls using Singapore numbers. Telephone first impressions are stronger than anyone would care to admit.

Another variable is meeting rooms. Majority of the mid-to-premium virtual office packages are based on the number of hours per month, yet the quality of these rooms is between the level of the real boardroom, and somewhat tired interiors that look better on a photo than in real life. In case you need to meet your clients in person on a regular basis, it would be prudent to pay a visit to the actual physical place before making a plan.

Prices between Singapore virtual office companies are priced lower than you would anticipate, with pricing ranges spanning between less than SGD 50/month address only to more than SGD 300/month full-service including answering calls, meeting room credits and postal handling the same day. The intermediate, which is between SGD 80 and SGD 150 per month, is inclusive of the majority of the business requirements without any extra informatics.

Worth noting, one thing: some of the providers are registered office specialists; which is to say that they are established with the express purpose of managing ACRA compliance and corporate secretarial services in addition to the address service. Coworking spaces are other ones that provide virtual plans as an ancillary service. All of them are not necessarily better than the other, however, they address slightly different needs and the fact that you know what kind of type you are dealing with creates the right expectations at the very beginning.