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It's Not A Bubble Until It's Officially Denied, Singapore Edition

"There is no bubble in Singapore." - MAS and various govt cronies.


"There are no American tanks in Baghdad." - Iraqi Information Minister of Saddam's regime.
07-minister.jpg
 
Singapore is far from perfect but to give this Forbes commentator so much attention shows our colonial complex of giving so much attention to this so-called expert FT.

Property analysts have forecast HDB resale prices to drop about 5 to 10 per cent this year, a much needed correction after the doubling in recent years.

The property market here is controlled by the government - it can let it gain or slide as much or as little as it wants.

The government doesn't have to respond to Forbes but it is vain, what to do?
 
singapore is far from perfect but to give this forbes commentator so much attention shows our colonial complex of giving so much attention to this so-called expert ft.

Property analysts have forecast hdb resale prices to drop about 5 to 10 per cent this year, a much needed correction after the doubling in recent years.

The property market here is controlled by the government - it can let it gain or slide as much or as little as it wants.

The government doesn't have to respond to forbes but it is vain, what to do?

画蛇添足 :d :d
 
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Bubble will only burst after the elites have gotten rid of their property investments. Until then they will continue to paint a rosy picture regardless of eat anyone else is saying.
 
Sg gov can always relax the regulation by allowing FT to buy HDB that is worst case . So unlikely like USA no buyer.
 
fucking MAS are run by a bunch of clowns....if they are so fucking kilart wtf bother to honour the drivel with a response.....it is probably because all these pwabye kiahs in the gabrament only know how to argue and fuck back because they scared people *know* they are fucking incompetent and useless...........
 
Singapore is far from perfect but to give this Forbes commentator so much attention shows our colonial complex of giving so much attention to this so-called expert FT.

Property analysts have forecast HDB resale prices to drop about 5 to 10 per cent this year, a much needed correction after the doubling in recent years.

The property market here is controlled by the government - it can let it gain or slide as much or as little as it wants.

The government doesn't have to respond to Forbes but it is vain, what to do?

The government have used foreigners to boost the property market. But with the backlash against foreigner first policy, the PAP government doesn't know what else to do. Their preference is not to use the reserves to prop up the property market as every dollar spent means less for their own pockets.
I wonder if the increase in foreign trips by ministers has anything to do with plans to squirrel our money overseas. Kee Chiu is in New Zealand now ...it is like every other week someone cabinet minister is away. Are they busy opening bank accounts overseas?
 
fucking MAS are run by a bunch of clowns....if they are so fucking kilart wtf bother to honour the drivel with a response.....it is probably because all these pwabye kiahs in the gabrament only know how to argue and fuck back because they scared people *know* they are fucking incompetent and useless...........

It was actually a non-response. Just some motherhood statement which does not mean anything.
They did not rebut to specific issues raised.
The truth will out.
 
IT TOOK a big fire at Marina Bay Suites to expose the chill in the rental market.

One disconcerting fact to emerge from the incident at the posh condo is that less than 10 per cent of the units are occupied even though over 90 per cent of them have been sold by the developer already.

It begs the question: Why would anyone want to buy them in the first place, only to leave them vacant, especially when they come with an expensive price tag?

This newspaper has quoted agents as saying a three-bedroom unit in the 221-unit development costs $3 million while a four-bedder fetches up to $6 million. One of the three penthouses sold for an eye-popping $19.3 million.

If the buyers had left such big sums in the bank instead, they would still have enjoyed some returns, despite current near-zero interest rates.

Worse, if they continue to be fussy over tenants and asking rentals, they may find themselves with a whopping tax bill. This is because there is no longer any property tax refund on unoccupied units. There is also the hefty sum they have to fork out each month for the condo upkeep.

The sorry episode at Marina Bay Suites reinforces an observation made by this column over a year ago that even then, owners of upmarket condos were facing difficulties in leasing out their units unless they were willing to slash their asking rental.

“On paper, their investments look good because their prices appeared to have appreciated sharply. But they are not getting much by way of returns in the form of rent because the pool of high-flying tenants appears to be drying up,” this column had noted.

So far, the chill in the rental market appears to be confined to the upmarket condo segment, but the big worry is that the malaise may spread to the rest of the residential sector as well.

Still, the concerns seem to be unfounded.

A Savills report shows that in the third quarter of last year – the latest quarter for which data is available – a record 15,083 rental transactions were signed. This was a 11.6 per cent jump on the previous quarter.

Data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority shows rentals holding up. For the third quarter, its overall index for private residential properties rose 0.2 per cent.

But a potential oversupply situation looms. A large number of units – 17,459 to be precise – were left vacant in the third quarter, and this will get worse with another 26,000 units slated for completion this year.

Sure, some of the newly completed units will be occupied by HDB upgraders, but the worry is they may add to the already stiff rental competition by putting up their vacated HDB flats for lease if they cannot sell them on the softening HDB resale market.

There is also a growing fear that the pool of expatriate tenants may start to shrink, as they face difficulties in getting their employment passes approved or renewed, as companies with more than 25 employees must advertise job openings on a government-sponsored jobs bank website before they can hire foreigners. The jobs bank will be launched by mid-year.

One particular area of concern would be the large number of new shoebox units coming up on the rental market, whose owners had bought in the past few years as they were affordably priced at below $1 million.

For those desperate enough to want to quit being landlords altogether, the moribund state of the housing resale market offers little consolation.

Flash estimates from the Singapore Real Estate Exchange show the number of condo units and private apartments resold almost halved to 6,550 last year from 12,278 in 2012.

Worse, the crunch appeared to be more acute in the second half of the year, after the Government capped a home loan applicant’s total monthly debt repayments to 60 per cent of his income. In November and again in December, fewer than 400 resale units changed hands a month.

But it would be wrong to think that property investors are behaving like ostriches burying their heads in the sand, oblivious to the hazards ahead.

Most of them believe they can weather the oncoming storm, as long as mortgage rates stay low and they are able to service their monthly instalments.

However, the negative factors have soured their buying appetite. This may help to explain the stunning drop in new home sales to a mere 259 units last month, from 1,271 units in November and 1,410 units in December 2012.

For landlords caught between getting a sub-par rental and a difficult resale market, getting kicked in the belly, even before the Year of the Horse canters in, is painful. They can’t wait for the year to be over.

- Goh Eng Yeow, The Straits Times, Tuesday, Jan 21, 2014
 
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