Shipping personal belongings from China to Singapore

1What counts as personal effects

Used household goods and belongings you own and have used: clothing, books, kitchenware, bedding, small furniture, bicycles, personal electronics. Brand-new goods in commercial quantities are not personal effects and are cleared as a normal import.

This page is for people moving home, finishing a posting or sending belongings to family in Singapore. If you are buying new furniture from a factory or a 1688 seller to furnish a flat, that is a normal import rather than personal effects. The guide to shipping furniture from China to Singapore is written for that, and the guide to shipping from China to Singapore covers everything else; the shipping itself works the same way as described here.

2Sea or air for shipping personal belongings from China to Singapore

Sea LCL is the usual choice. Your cartons share a container with other importers' cargo, you pay by volume, and the rate is S$82 per CBM, hub to door, with a minimum of 1 CBM. Weight counts only for heavy cargo: the charge is on the greater of the volume and the weight at 500 kg per CBM, so 1,000 kg counts as 2 CBM. Most household goods are charged on volume; a shipment that is mostly books is the kind that can be charged on weight. Transit is 10–14 days from the day your consignment leaves our Foshan hub to the day it is at your Singapore address, and that window already includes the import permit, customs clearance and the delivery itself.

Air is for a few urgent cartons, not a household. It is priced on chargeable weight, which is the greater of the actual weight and the volumetric weight (length × width × height in centimetres ÷ 6000), from S$6.50 per kg with a 10 kg minimum. A suitcase of winter clothes is light but bulky, so it is usually charged on volume. The CBM calculator gives you both the sea volume and the air chargeable weight from your carton dimensions, and the air freight guide goes into the detail.

3Where the rate starts: our Foshan hub

The published rate starts at our hub in Foshan, Guangdong, for sea; for air it starts at our air freight warehouse in Shenzhen. Getting your boxes from your flat to the hub is not in the rate. When you ask for a quote, tell us where the boxes are, which city, which floor and whether there is a lift, and we quote that part separately alongside the sea or air figure, so you see the whole cost before anything moves.

The Foshan hub, and the Shenzhen warehouse for air, receive Mon–Sat, 8:00am – 5:00pm. Departures run Monday to Saturday, and cargo received on a working day leaves the next working day. If your belongings arrive at the Foshan hub in more than one delivery, we hold the earlier cartons free for 5 days while the rest come in, then ship everything as one consignment; beyond that storage is S$20 per CBM per day. The transit times guide shows the next departure and cut-off.

4Packing and your inventory list

• Pack in sturdy double-wall cartons, no heavier than one person can lift.
• Number every carton and list its contents on a simple inventory: carton 1, winter clothing; carton 2, books; and so on.
• Put a value against each line. Customs needs it, and it is the value a claim is settled on.
• Seal cartons with tape across every seam. On two sides of every carton, write the marking code from your booking confirmation and the carton number (1/20, 2/20 and so on), so both can be read however it is stacked. The code is for that shipment only; a later booking gets a new one.

The inventory matters more than it looks. At the hub we count your cartons against it and tell you if the count does not match. In Singapore, the value you have written is the declared value the import permit is lodged on and the value GST is assessed against. If a carton goes missing in transit, the value on that line is what you are compensated. A carefully valued inventory protects you in both directions, so write down what the contents are actually worth, neither more nor less.

5Furniture and fragile items

Wrap furniture corners and glass. Sea LCL is priced on volume, so a table with the legs removed and strapped underneath costs less to ship than the same table standing. Measure each piece as it will travel, packed and wrapped, and give us those dimensions with the inventory. We can arrange crating for fragile items on request; tell us which pieces when you ask for a quote and we include it in the confirmed quote. For a bicycle, deflate the tyres slightly, turn the handlebars and protect the frame; the box it came in is ideal if you still have it. For new furniture ordered from a factory or a seller in China, the furniture shipping guide goes further on packing, measuring and delivery.

6GST on personal effects

GST at 9% is assessed on the declared value of your belongings. For an import that value is what your inventory says the goods are worth plus freight and insurance — not what they would fetch second-hand — so budget for it whether the things are new or have been in the family for years. Tell us when you ask for a quote whether anything is new, and the figure appears on the confirmed quote before anything moves.

We lodge the import permit as a Registered Declaring Agent, pay the GST at clearance and pass it through to you at cost, so it appears as a separate line and is not part of the freight rate. Duty applies only to liquor, tobacco, motor vehicles and petroleum products, so a household move rarely attracts any. Singapore Customs explains how the value is established on its GST on imports page, and IRAS publishes guidance for consumers importing goods into Singapore. Our GST and customs clearance guide walks through the calculation, and the import GST calculator does the sum on your own figures.

7Items that need a word with us first

Household moves catch people out on the small things: a half-used bottle of perfume, a power bank loose in a drawer, a bag of dried mushrooms from a relative. Go through the inventory with the list above in mind before you seal the cartons. A carton that is opened for inspection in Singapore delays the whole consignment, and inspection charges are passed on at cost.

8Delivery into an HDB flat or condo

We deliver to your flat, not just the lobby. Stairs, timed delivery and unpacking are special handling, excluded from the published rate and quoted when you tell us about them, so that the figure you confirm is the figure you pay. When you ask for a quote, tell us:

• The floor, and whether a lift reaches it. If the lift does not reach your floor, or a piece will not fit in it, the stair carry is quoted separately.
• Whether the condo needs a loading-bay booking or a mover's permit, and who arranges it with the management office.
• Any delivery window the building enforces, and any date you cannot be there.
• Stairs or narrow corridors for bulky items, and the size of the lift door if you are shipping a wardrobe or sofa.

Someone must be at the address to receive the delivery, check the carton count and sign for it. A family member or friend is fine if you have not arrived yet; give us their name and mobile number when you confirm the quote so the driver can call ahead.

9Cargo cover and payment

Your belongings are covered in transit at the declared value on your inventory. Missing cargo is compensated in full at that value; damage is assessed case by case, which is another reason to wrap furniture and pack fragile items properly. There is nothing extra to buy and nothing to opt into; the cover is part of the rate.

You pay when your cartons reach Singapore, before we deliver them, by PayNow or bank transfer. There are no card details to give and no deposit. Nothing is booked and nothing is payable until you accept the confirmed quote, and the GST we have paid at clearance is shown separately on the same invoice.

10How to get a quote for your belongings

Send those details through the quote request form and the instant quote appears as you type, you get a reference number immediately, and the confirmed quote follows in writing within a few hours. If it is easier to send photos of the pile of boxes than to measure them, WhatsApp +65 8162 1037 works too; we answer every day, 9:00am to 6:00pm Singapore time.