Property News

potter said:

"So stop asking me what I think of Malaysia or Iskandar properties. When everybody is talking about a hot market, it’s not the time to buy. It’s time to sell."

she thinks it's time to sell lei... anyway, it doesn't bother me, as im the lo.......ng term investor. :p

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稳中求胜. Long term investor..... RTS really look v long-term, now that the year-end deadline is fast approaching.....haha

PuteriWorld said:

All these people have been naysaying the Iskandar projects even when Iskandar is just a huge tract of Palm trees forest.

I find it amusing that they are discouraging Sing dollar earners from buying S$380k houses which can give u a freehold 2-storey houses with garden in Nusajaya and keep saying prices will crash. Even if prices crash, you are still enjoying life up north.

They expect you to pay S$380k to invest in a leasehold pigeon hole 3 room flat in Singapore where the quality of life is so poor that it takes a 10 step to reach the bedrooms from your main gate.

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But living in HDB you dont have to travel 2 hours to work, you walk 5 mins to MRT, shopping malls and no robbery. And your children get Singapore education not sekolah kebangsaan.

I have seen so many Malaysian students coming out tops in our top schools. They wake up 4am to cheong the jams since P1 to come to Singapore to study.. No complaint, no sweat.

Those complaining are the Singapore kids who go to Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve and complain about being bitten by mozzie. No wonder NS timing is cut. Even IPPT is downsized.

If u have kids, the best is to have a weekend home for them if you have the money. If not, its always wise to stay in red dot and walk 5 minute to the MRT and squeeze with Blangla or foreign workers. Afterall, our public transportation is very cheap to be frank. Not that I dislike squeezing with blangla. During my time MRTs commuters are mostly locals.. now when I enter a cabin I felt as if I was in another country. I have lost touch and disconnect with my homeland. One RHB Banker called me a few days ago and her English was halting. I tot I was in Vietnam! True enough when she emailed me, I saw a Vietnamese name..

Locals are so stupid that they cant do banking jobs.

okkidoggi said:

But living in HDB you dont have to travel 2 hours to work, you walk 5 mins to MRT, shopping malls and no robbery. And your children get Singapore education not sekolah kebangsaan.

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PuteriWorld said:

I have seen so many Malaysian students coming out tops in our top schools. They wake up 4am to cheong the jams since P1 to come to Singapore to study.. No complaint, no sweat.

Those complaining are the Singapore kids who go to Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve and complain about being bitten by mozzie. No wonder NS timing is cut. Even IPPT is downsized.

If u have kids, the best is to have a weekend home for them if you have the money. If not, its always wise to stay in red dot and walk 5 minute to the MRT and squeeze with Blangla or foreign workers. Afterall, our public transportation is very cheap to be frank. Not that I dislike squeezing with blangla. During my time MRTs commuters are mostly locals.. now when I enter a cabin I felt as if I was in another country. I have lost touch and disconnect with my homeland. One RHB Banker called me a few days ago and her English was halting. I tot I was in Vietnam! True enough when she emailed me, I saw a Vietnamese name..

Locals are so stupid that they cant do banking jobs.

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I don't think it's fair you generalize like that. It's often done by many others. Give you a good eg.

Many years ago, the then PM Goh Chok Tong said his wife went to China (I think it was Shanghai) with her group of auntie friends. It was late night (after 10pm?) and the hairdresser shop was supposed to be closed. But to make money, the shop decided to open for them. He cited this eg and said Singaporeans should have such spirit of work or doing business. Remember this???

If you ask me for my opinion, I say it's total rubbish. You are plucking other country's happenings/culture and force it down your own countrymen's throats. Even for myself, I have superiors who once said, look at your peers from Thailand. They work till 9pm doing research, they earn only a fraction of your salary, yet they are so enthusiastic and have no complaints. You all should be like them. Another rubbish comparison!!!! Can we also have houses and cars as cheap as those in Thailand?

Why don't they compare us to real 1st world country? Say Australia. Work ends on the dot at 5pm every day, even earlier on Fridays. Many Australians get paid more than us here. Can we be like them? Why always compare us to the third world countries and say we should expect to be like them? Then why call Singapore 1st world country? Who is making all the money?

Now that is not to say Singaporeans are lazy. I have someone close to me working in a government institution. Knock off work everyday after 8pm. Pay is stagnated like those who earned it 7-10 years ago. Almost every other day got to move around Singapore under the hot sun or rain without a car because the person doesn't have one (so expensive who would buy?) So do not generalize Singaporeans as incapable.

On the last point: "locals are so stupid they can't do _________ jobs" I've heard it said many times. For eg, even the government said that Singaporeans don't want to do so and so jobs that's why we need to employ foreigners to do. They made it sound like Singaporeans are lazy, choosy, incapable, only know how to complain. That's utter rubbish and an insult!

Do you want to know why Singaporeans don't or can't do those jobs? Cos this whole country is run like a mega business hub. Everything is so expensive, including labor and rental. So business owners also want to cut costs all the time. You want to work, we give you only this much. Take it or leave it. With only $2,500 a month for a graduate, and this pay will be that way for the next many years, increasing by only $100-150 a year, do you think any decent Singaporean can survive? How to set up a family or live decently in this so-called 1st world country?

Think about it. Next time you hear a foreign sounding voice on the phone with bad English, or you are served by a foreigner in a shop, it's not that Singaporeans are choosy or incapable. It's the SG government that has created such an environment where almost everything has to be about profits profits profits, sometimes at the detriment of their own born-here, raised-here citizens.

why not quote the pay of government officials.

that would be great for singapore!!!!!!

FHBH12 said:

Shoot the market down, buy then sell. Rinse and repeat.

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Market cant be just shot down over a few blogs & articles, esp for a blog that is not exactly widely read, and without solid credentials. But Property Soul will learn along the way, and she isn't exactly short of money in the meantime, so it's all fine.

sgcount said:

Do you want to know why Singaporeans don't or can't do those jobs? Cos this whole country is run like a mega business hub. Everything is so expensive, including labor and rental. So business owners also want to cut costs all the time. You want to work, we give you only this much. Take it or leave it. With only $2,500 a month for a graduate, and this pay will be that way for the next many years, increasing by only $100-150 a year, do you think any decent Singaporean can survive? How to set up a family or live decently in this so-called 1st world country?

Think about it. Next time you hear a foreign sounding voice on the phone with bad English, or you are served by a foreigner in a shop, it's not that Singaporeans are choosy or incapable. It's the SG government that has created such an environment where almost everything has to be about profits profits profits, sometimes at the detriment of their own born-here, raised-here citizens.

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Good post!

Where is the like button?

I dint vote for this govt so I guess I have the right to complain.

Their mistake started when they started importing millions of so-called talents to replace the locals and increasing the competition. As a result now graduate salaries are depressed to S$2500 a month ( if they even managed to find a job ).

Its really too late to reverse that trend now as many of this FTs from Pinoy, Vietnam and PRC of cos have gotten citizenship.

That's why if you read the Home section of the straits time over the years, under the crime news foreigners easily make up 50% of the offenders and accused. Sometimes the whole day the foreign offenders make up 100%, esp from China. No hard feelings here as I am merely stating a truth.

i can't really agreed with that statement - "...graduate salaries are depressed to S$2500 a month."

In my workplace (which i decline to reveal where however is a non-financial sector), the new grads here came in less than a year ago were offered slightly above $4K per month salary. And the grads admit that the pay was slightly better than what they got from other job search.

And i can't fully endorsed this statement as well (at least in my workplace) - "They made it sound like Singaporeans are lazy, choosy, incapable, only know how to complain. That's utter rubbish and an insult!"

Cos i got this new S'pore grad, as the bosses are often out-of-office and unable to track them, often (almost daily) who take an hour morning break and an hour afternoon break in addition to 1 to 2 hr lunch break. Moreover, always attempt to leave early from work, go missing form work. I must admit that she is smart (but i don't feel she is as she is always parroting other people's views as if it's her own). But she like to complains that what she does are brainless work and a waste of her time (and ahem insulting her intelligence). And another new grad who kept on taking MCs...and another new colleague who just want to "take his full entitlement/ benefits" by applying all sort of leaves i.e. child care..infant care..parent care..annual leave..go on course whether need to or not ( i know because he told me so). And everyone of them claim that they were underpaid for the work they do :o but whenever bosses are around, or send whatsapp group messages... they suddenly became the "most vocal and hardworking people."

i feel like the stupid one because i played by the rule and i felt that the mundane ops work is as important as those work which need more processing, as they affect overall production. Or perhaps, it is just my workplace lah..haha

I also wan to eat snake whenever i see is stream around..:p

There is a property exhibition going on right now at the Sutera Mall new Extension.
For those who interested in what's available now all over JB should visit the Exhibition to see what the many developers are offering.

Property outlook cloudy with silver lining
By Joseph Wong
Friday, 19 Dec 2014, 12:30 AM

The outlook for the property sector is flat with the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda), National House Buyers Association (HBA), property experts and analysts predicting a lacklustre year ahead.

And with the still-high prices of property, possible higher interest rates with the introduction of the base rate (BR) to replace the base lending rate (BLR), tightening of bank lending, impending Goods and Services Tax (GST) and a slowdown in demand, it is hardly surprising that next year is shaping up to be a slow one.

HBA secretary-general Chang Kim Loong says: “The once-red-hot property market has begun to slow in the wake of a succession of new rules but prices probably need to fall further before policymakers wind back these cooling measures.

“Property cooling measures of the current year are helping, to a certain extent, rein in home prices and household debt, but it is too soon to ease restrictions. The measures have helped strengthen overall household balance sheets,” he tells FocusM.

The upside from the curbs is that there has been a respite from the rampant speculative buying that drove property prices up, especially for homes in the city centre, says Chang.

- See more at: http://www.focusmalaysia.my/Assets/Property outlook cloudy with silver lining#sthash.sO4XtEt7.dpuf

The Bank manager who came to my office last week was telling me her pay was only $4k a month despite being there for 6 years. She must be lying to me.

streams said:

i can't really agreed with that statement - "...graduate salaries are depressed to S$2500 a month."

In my workplace (which i decline to reveal where however is a non-financial sector), the new grads here came in less than a year ago were offered slightly above $4K per month salary. And the grads admit that the pay was slightly better than what they got from other job search.

And i can't fully endorsed this statement as well (at least in my workplace) - "They made it sound like Singaporeans are lazy, choosy, incapable, only know how to complain. That's utter rubbish and an insult!"

Cos i got this new S'pore grad, as the bosses are often out-of-office and unable to track them, often (almost daily) who take an hour morning break and an hour afternoon break in addition to 1 to 2 hr lunch break. Moreover, always attempt to leave early from work, go missing form work. I must admit that she is smart (but i don't feel she is as she is always parroting other people's views as if it's her own). But she like to complains that what she does are brainless work and a waste of her time (and ahem insulting her intelligence). And another new grad who kept on taking MCs...and another new colleague who just want to "take his full entitlement/ benefits" by applying all sort of leaves i.e. child care..infant care..parent care..annual leave..go on course whether need to or not ( i know because he told me so). And everyone of them claim that they were underpaid for the work they do :o but whenever bosses are around, or send whatsapp group messages... they suddenly became the "most vocal and hardworking people."

i feel like the stupid one because i played by the rule and i felt that the mundane ops work is as important as those work which need more processing, as they affect overall production. Or perhaps, it is just my workplace lah..haha

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PuteriWorld said:

The Bank manager who came to my office last week was telling me her pay was only $4k a month despite being there for 6 years. She must be lying to me.

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$4k+ should be assistant manager level.

FHBH12 said:

$4k+ should be assistant manager level.

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I once worked in a reputable company where the HR director (he once worked for a reputable American MNC) who was quite liberal in giving out titles. His argument was that "title is cheap", and with this approach he was able to help recruit staff while keeping a low HR budget. As a consequence, I have staff of higher sounding title staff drawing less than a seemingly more junior (in title) staff. It took me a few years to put things back in order, with natural attrition and taking advantage of market adjustment exercise.

I always have a lot of Asst Vice President of banks as young as 25 visiting my office.

Property agents also. All are directors.

AHGS14 said:

I once worked in a reputable company where the HR director (he once worked for a reputable American MNC) who was quite liberal in giving out titles. His argument was that "title is cheap", and with this approach he was able to help recruit staff while keeping a low HR budget. As a consequence, I have staff of higher sounding title staff drawing less than a seemingly more junior (in title) staff. It took me a few years to put things back in order, with natural attrition and taking advantage of market adjustment exercise.

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These days title don't mean anything. Just check the payslip and bonus slip.

whoami said:

Good post!

Where is the like button?

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Haha.... Thanks. As long as someone appreciates it, I am happy.

I just felt the need to express my thoughts cos too often, I hear people say Singaporeans complain too much and that foreigners are necessary cos Singaporeans think too highly of themselves to accept those jobs. That's generally not true at all. It's a convenient excuse for the SG government to import more foreigners here, without much consideration on how the commoner copes with the low pay, long working hours, and high cost of public housing.

PuteriWorld said:

I dint vote for this govt so I guess I have the right to complain.

Their mistake started when they started importing millions of so-called talents to replace the locals and increasing the competition. As a result now graduate salaries are depressed to S$2500 a month ( if they even managed to find a job ).

Its really too late to reverse that trend now as many of this FTs from Pinoy, Vietnam and PRC of cos have gotten citizenship.

That's why if you read the Home section of the straits time over the years, under the crime news foreigners easily make up 50% of the offenders and accused. Sometimes the whole day the foreign offenders make up 100%, esp from China. No hard feelings here as I am merely stating a truth.

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Oh.. haha. I thought wrongly you sounded like govt supporter.

Yes, agree. We look upon it as their "mistake" but to them, it was the right thing to do. That's why I said they run this country like a mega corporation. We are not against letting foreigners in of course. But they overdid it, so that's why so many Singaporeans are feeling upset. The poor results by PAP during GE2011 was a good evidence they are losing popularity. I have a feeling they will get it worse in the next one.

Yes, I also noticed many of the crimes and suicide cases lately were committed by foreigners.

If you guys have traveled by MRT before, you will also know almost everyday, you can feel like a foreigner yourself squeezing in the cabin with the rest. I'm not talking about stations near the city or Orchard, but the heartlands.

streams said:

i can't really agreed with that statement - "...graduate salaries are depressed to S$2500 a month."

In my workplace (which i decline to reveal where however is a non-financial sector), the new grads here came in less than a year ago were offered slightly above $4K per month salary. And the grads admit that the pay was slightly better than what they got from other job search.

And i can't fully endorsed this statement as well (at least in my workplace) - "They made it sound like Singaporeans are lazy, choosy, incapable, only know how to complain. That's utter rubbish and an insult!"

Cos i got this new S'pore grad, as the bosses are often out-of-office and unable to track them, often (almost daily) who take an hour morning break and an hour afternoon break in addition to 1 to 2 hr lunch break. Moreover, always attempt to leave early from work, go missing form work. I must admit that she is smart (but i don't feel she is as she is always parroting other people's views as if it's her own). But she like to complains that what she does are brainless work and a waste of her time (and ahem insulting her intelligence). And another new grad who kept on taking MCs...and another new colleague who just want to "take his full entitlement/ benefits" by applying all sort of leaves i.e. child care..infant care..parent care..annual leave..go on course whether need to or not ( i know because he told me so). And everyone of them claim that they were underpaid for the work they do :o but whenever bosses are around, or send whatsapp group messages... they suddenly became the "most vocal and hardworking people."

i feel like the stupid one because i played by the rule and i felt that the mundane ops work is as important as those work which need more processing, as they affect overall production. Or perhaps, it is just my workplace lah..haha

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$2,500 for graduate's pay I quoted is a real life incident about 1 year ago. I guess it depends on industries. Ok perhaps that amount is generally low in today's context for all jobs. But I think it's fair to say $3.3k is typical for new graduates today. That's the exact amount some new grads at my workplace earn.

To put in perspective, a graduate's starting pay in 2000 was about $2,600. Back then, you could buy a spacious 5-room HDB flat for $200+k. Today, 14 LONG years later, they are earning only a pathetic $700 more per month. But a 3-room HDB flat already costs close to $300k. That same 5-room flat is likely more than $600k.

Ok I know the govt supporters will come out to say, Oei! You expect today's flats to cost the same as 14 years ago izzit???

Stupid! Who doesn't know there is inflation? But did the government consider carefully the salary increment of its people with respect to how they allowed public housing prices to shoot up to so much? Instead of preventing this problem, which their scholar ministers should be smart enough to do so, they tell our young graduates: "HDB flats are still affordable! You don't need to buy a 5-room flat. Go for 4-room or if your budget is tight, a 3-room flat is still cozy. You can take a 30-year HDB loan."

Siao boh?! Think we citizens are dumb or what??? Even a 7 year old kid can also "pian jiak" by talking such rubbish. Instead of cheating you by selling an ordinary cake for $100, I cut it up to 1/100 the size and tell you to buy for $1. So affordable! This govt bluffing who sia?!! Ha....

For those new graduates who earn $4k+, check their working hours. Some may be working till late so by per hour, they are still earning less. For some industries, $6-8k starting pay is possible. But that's usually a scholar, head-hunted, or in some super high stress industries.

I think we work in very different industries! Haha... For mine, none of my Singaporean colleagues are like yours. But to be fair, our personal experiences cannot be the final assessment of how hard-working Singaporeans are.

But when I made the comment previously: "They made it sound like Singaporeans are lazy, choosy, incapable, only know how to complain. That's utter rubbish and an insult!" is purely based on many of the comments I read online forums by PAP supporters. (Who else?!)