If the Johor gov has some talented ppl and smart ass, they would suddenly attract all the wealth to Johor and sg is doomed liao. Cos everyone will be migranting over there, malays and chinese lol.

post #48 on September 25th, 2009 12.36 am

////I do not resent singles and divorsees, it is you who is accusing me of being so.
My question was ” wouldn’t it drive prices higher?”////

keke, my bad. sorry.

currently with public housing policy no, even if the policies change to allow singles & divorsees freer access than before. such policies do have a positive effect (1) encourage rootedness to S’pore, (2) spur singles to date, get hitched & hopefully have babies

not all are single by choice. financial woes is a major bugbear to finding a partner. there is no good reason to add additional burdens. its a lose- lose-lose situation.

////is the destination more important or the journey?
yes true, but it will be a journey with great short start and a long miserable ending.
and I am sure it is someone else’s fault////

currently the journey (not just the start) is painful & long enough, if the end is just more of the same what are the young working for?
how do you know the ending will be long & miserable when the start is not great?

I do not resent singles and divorsees, it is you who is accusing me f being so.
My question was ” wouldn’t it drive prices higher?”

is the destination more important or the journey?
yes true, but it will be a journey with great short start and a long miserable ending.
and I am sure it is someone else’s fault

See the gap between HDB prices and private property, it has narrowed down considerably. HDB is making all the money that 1st hand owners are making. But the difference is that previously, Initial HDB prices were not so high. Now, it is so much higher, and who would really sell at a loss? People would only want to sell higher, and this is making new HDB flats not affordable for the young homeowners as open market prices of HDB are high.

HDB is really what is driving property prices up a lot., though they do not want to admit it.

Back then the Pinnacle held its first sale, top units priced at 350,000. That was astronomical by those days’ standards. Today the same top units are priced 700,000!!!

Why did MM Lee and ministers want to raise it in first place when they are also the one who benefit from it ? Aren’t these are billionaire and millionaires, and what these rich people do with their money other than place them in investment. How about in property investment when gahmen know information we don’t ? Did we not remember that LKY and his family get discount for property somewhere in 1998, and Woody act blur to move on and clear them of corruption ? Isn’t there is a law passed to prevent private investigation of gahmen and ministers ? Does that tell us something about the crony family business affair ?

1) racial quota, restricting sales for locals (any racial quota for PRs?)
2) escalating prices across the board
3) profiteering from new units
4) profiteering through ballot exercise
5) lack of social security, with too much income tied to paying installments, less disposible income, locals get blamed for not spending enough. lol…
6) hindering couples from getting hitched
7) hindering couples from planning from raising children

HDB can afford to charge less for newer units but greed is a problem. can HDB lead by example & moderate their profits? otherwise how to expect salaried workers do likewise?

it’s one thing to tell people to live within one’s means, its another to rise the cost of living beyond the means of most.

The first thing that i needed to define was affordability. Many commenters have lament about affordability without stating what that means. To me, I simply define it as 25% of my income because to me, it means not using any cash to pay for my house. After all, i can’t take out the money, so teh money is as good as not there. Since CPF is 34.5% (20% employee, 14.5% employer), it makes sense as i can service my house and have 10% income for medi and savings.

One often stated principle of housing is to buy within our means. But how do we define what is ‘within our mean”? So i simply list all the houses in order and match it with the corresponding house size. Say if I am the 200,000th richest guy in SG, I will stay in the 200,000th house according to size (which is a 3rm flat).

To cut the long story short, if you stay in an average price flat (not seaview prime flat), you will need to make at least $4,000 in household income for your flat to be affordable (i.e. 25% of your income).

Basically, Households who make less than 4k are screwed. Of course, this raise an interesting question- why there is no big hoo ha over the prices yet? After all, almost half teh population earn less than that amount.

The short answer is that this policy only screws the younger generation over. and the younger generation (25-40) is disproportionately under-represented in this income group. Hence, there are only about 5-9% that fall through the cracks. Not to say they are not important, but this explains why there isn’t a major revolt against the high housing prices. (not enough extremely unhappy people).

Of course, this problem is growing as more young people enter into the property market and expectations of living standards increase.

*i used all publicly available data from HDB, Singstat. If anyone wants to discuss more abt the numbers, can contact me.

There can only be so many blocks facing the sea, especially in a mature estate.

Want cheap want fresh, want near the sea? You want a unit with such good qualities, everyone wants it too, and there’s bound to be lotsa people willing to pay a premium for such a unit.

There’s limited supply in mature estates unless hdb decides to buy back the flats and rebuilds a super high rise like 50 storeys blocks to accommodate the demand.

Here’s the thing, someone wins, someone loses. If they allow hdb prices to crash, what about those who already bought them at high prices? Put yourself in the shoes of those people, if you already plonked 500k into a hdb and suddenly it drops to 300k. I think you’ll be hopping mad too. In this situation what’s going to be fair for you, will not be fair for the other person affected.

So unless HDB decides to break the bank and covers those people’s losses. There is currently no real feasible way to salvage the situation.

Allowing cpf (retirement fund) to be used to purchase housing is one of the biggest factor that cost this mess.

Sure I figure every singaporean won’t mind living in a high floor seaview hdb flat that only cost them $100k, as much as I would really like to shag Angelina Jolie or that hot midget in the bar with a club leg and wears an eye patch.

It’s kinda too late to salvage the situation or to bring prices back down to earth. Unless the government decides to allow hdb to bleed, ie: to compensate all citizens who are affected by the sudden plunge in prices.

I can imagine any other way to make hdb prices drop.

Being Singlea and divorced in Sg is FAILURE in PAP’s eyes. except His daughter and second son, because their gene are different from ours

Serving NS is to enslave our thinking, BE OBEDIENT ! BE SLAVES !

FT are talents, fre etheir mind and so they craete jobs for singaporean, according to PAP’s theory

People, VOTE WISELY in future GE, break the chains casted on us !

May ALL THE OPPRESSED PEOPLE RAISE THEIR VOICE AND CAST THEIR VOTE FOR A REAL SINGAPOREAN’S SINGAPORE !!!

post #8 on September 19th, 2009 11.24 am

////contradiction here – if floodgate are opened to singles, wouldn’t it drive prices higher?////

do singles not have a right to public housing?

////contradiction #2 here – if floodgate are opened to divosrsee, wouldn’t it drive prices higher?////

do divorcees not have a right to public housing?

also, why the negativity from someone who harps on being positive? you seem to resent singles & divorsees, to use the word “floodgate”.

////What did they do with thier money before reaching 35?////

good question, if the younger generation know that all that they work for will not give them a comfortable life when after retirement, is it so wrong to enjoy the journey (growing up & old) than to ponder a retirement that is likely filled with uncertainty?

is the destination more important or the journey?

A couple of months ago, I also encounter similar experiences as the author. After working for more than 13 years, and being eligible to purchase a HDB flat, I suddenly found that I cannot even afford to buy a 3-room HDB flat because I am not eligible for a HDB loan and grant because my pay is more than $3,000. As single, I am also not allowed to buy a new flat. If I were to take up a bank loan to purchase a resale flat, I have to pay 5% of the flat in cash, other than the COV. So, if I do not have enough cash, how to purchase a resale flat?

Even if I were to get married to be eligible for the HDB loan and grant, I also need cash to pay for the wedding expenses, dinner, house renovation, etc. Again, no cash how to get married? So, without a house and a family, where is the home I am taught to defend since I am a child?

With the influx of foreign talents and PRs pushing up the HDB resale market and pressing down the salary range, I felt that Singapore is not worth defending anymore, because Singapore is no longer the home of Singaporeans. Hence, what’s the purpose of wasting the time of Singaporeans serving NS to defend a Singapore that has been ‘colonised’ by foreign talents and PRs, who are taking away the houses and jobs of Singaporeans? Why should Singaporeans lay down their lives to defend a Singapore that is a home to foreign talents and PRs?

Moreover, unlike the SAF regulars whose salary are given a premium above market rate and paid a large sum of money when they retired from SAF at the age of 50, a NSman is not pay by the SAF to defend Singapore. So, why should a NSman laid down his life for Singapore when in peacetime, the SAF regulars are paid more than a normal NSman?