I refer to the article “Easy for first-time buyers : Mah sets records straight on claims by couples” (ST, Oct 8).
It states that “HDB figures yesterday showed that eight in 10 first-timers could get a flat on their first try if they were not choosy ; the success rate was 96 per cent for the second try”.
(Left, Photo Credit: Calvin Teo)
This latest revelation of the statistics, seems to go against the large number of complaints about the difficulty in getting a flat.
I think one possible explanation, may be the way that the statistics are compiled.
For example, if a very high priced HDB flat (like the $645,000 5-room flat which is still available and being offered in HDB’s latest exercise) is offered to applicants, all those who may find the price not affordable, may reject the offer.
So, does this then mean that the statistics will show that “the success rate was 96 per cent for the second try”?
Another example, is say a lower-income household who’s breadwinner works in the East, but is offered a flat in Jurong.
After factoring in the cost of traveling by bus and MRT, not to mention the time, the result may be that the flat is “not affordable”.
If you are offered the worst location flat on the second floor, that hardly anybody wants, would you readily accept it considering that you are making possibly the largest purchase in your life?
Instead of just saying that Singaporeans are choosy, the HDB should give the break-down of the statistics as to the reasons why people rejected flats.
We need the statistics as to how many different types of flats are available relative to the number of applicants for each type.
Without detailed statistics, telling us that 80 per cent are offered on their first try, but people are choosy, may be quite meaningless.
You can offer the same flat to every applicant, but if nobody can afford or wants it, does it mean that the success rate of getting a flat was 100 per cent?
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i have an idea…
just pose a challenge to MBT, make him walk his talk. let him show by example what it means by not being choosey, stay in a HDB (his quality home for all, that includes himself. hee…) for 5 solid years. say any 4-room unit in Ponggol.
the unit he gets will be written by hand, on a piece of paper, done “live” on nation TV. each piece of paper contains a unit number, all which will be thrown into a clear round ball, mixed & jumbled. then MBT pick 1 while blindfolded!! :)
i think many people will tune in on this porgramme!! 8)
My wife and I have been married for over 4 years and we’ve applied for a flat 4 times all these years as first-timers (we’re now in our 40s, for goodness sakes).
For the minister’s record, we’ve failed ALL 4 Times as we’ve NOT even had a qualifying ballot number!!!
What’s there to even be “choosy” about??
In our context of statistics, it’s 400% of failures, disappointments, etc.
My statistics indicate that the minister is 400% ignorant.
After reading all the above reply, can’t help to think that some are really choosy.
55) FaceTheFact on October 12th, 2009 2.10 am
“After reading all the above reply, can’t help to think that some are really choosy”
Pay S$ 200 – 500K for Public Housing and take a 30 year loan for it and still cannot choose at all ??
Then, 99 p/c will be classified as ‘choosy’.
The balance 1 p/c are probably a new citizen or a PR of Singapore.
The property market in Singapore, even Public Housing, is like a hot air baloon now.
Very soon, only the PRs and the better off Singaporeans will be able to buy re-sale HDB apartments.
It defeats the purpose of Public Housing.
One of the initial aims of HDB is to give Singaporeans a stake to keep u in Singapore, which made sense because you’ll easily get a home, and therefore a stake in the country’s future. u’ll think the country cares for u so u wanna stay and bring up your kids.
fast forward to the 1990s-2000 onwards
Now the battle for heart and minds has already been lost so the only way to keep u here is to tie your life to a lifelong loan aka CPF stuck, hence the ever increasing valuation done by HDB. since they cannot make you stakeholders anymore, they make u hostage.
Brilliant eh?
Bringing up 2 simultaneous issues here: Spore PR status & resale HDB flats available to these class of people.
With the Zhang Yuan Yuan, Spore PR, flashing her blue IC on China’s national TV declaring her love for China fiasco going on, its high time the policy of allowing Spore PRs to buy HDB re-sale flats be overhauled & revised to weed out opportunists.
Before, I get slammed, I make it clear that I have no objection to Zhang Yuan Yuan declaring her love for her motherland, China. Basically, heck care, she can do whatever she wants in China. But I feel that CCTV AND the China Embassy in Spore owe Sporeans an apology for flashing her blue Spore PR IC on China’s national TV. How would the China Communist Party feel if Zhang Yuan Yuan was shown on American CNN declaring her love for USA flashing her USA Green Card proof of her USA PR status & yet still holding China nationality. Get it?
Finally, coming to the crux of the matter here, is that what if Zhang Yuan Yuan owns a resale HDB flat in Spore and has returned to China to pursue her career? It would be an even greater shitstorm.
So, is it fair that gahment allows Spore PRs to purchase resale HDB flats so easily? NO!!!!
So what would be a better solution? Lengthen the period of eligibility to purchase HDB resale flat. Currently any Spore PR regardless of length of stay in Spore can get one. The gahment should step in to regulate that Spore PRs can only purchase HDB resale flat only after 5 CONTINOUS YEARS OF STAY in Spore. Yes after FIVE FREAKING CONTINOUS YEARS and NOT any earlier. This is a sure fire way to weed out opportunists.
As many have rightly pointed out, once Spore PRs have purchased the flat, they collect income rental from their fellow compatriots while they themselves fly back to China or India to pursue their career.
If the gahment really cares about true blue Sporeans reproducing themselves, then give them a chance to purchase a resale HDB flat at a reasonable price instead of letting these Spore PRs jump into the same playing field as Spore citizens.
I think seriously the ministers have not put themselves into our shoes.
If they are earning at out miserable salary, having parents that are less or not educated, coming from a poor background and also with nothing to live on except the monthly pay we are getting not to mention if both your parents are retirees, your fiancees’ parents are of the same background and etc…..
He (Mr MBT) thinks everyone can affords to pay a 30 year loan. How about our retirement? How do we plan to do that when all our salaries have been taken up by housing?
How can we stay near our parents when resale prices are sky rocketing? How can we have time to have children if we have to consider to cheap housing at punggol when our parents stay at jurong? Who would take care of our parents and our children?
Have the ministers think about the commoner like us? So what if the ministers are scholars and highflyers… do they understanding how badly it is affecting us in terms of the life time commitment?
And why do hdb build smaller flats as compared to the flats they build in the past?
Do you understand the psychology state of our mind, we have already so much to handle, work load, stress, living and etc… and i believe we want to stay and live in a home comfortably.
Have you Mr MBT lived in a HDB flat yourself?
When you sleep peacefully at night with a Gurkha guard at your house and living in a landed property, please think about the rest of us.
How do you expect us to be patriotic when we have to think about how to get by with the housing price over our neck?
Sorry the first line is typo, its should be read as
“I think seriously the ministers have put themselves in our shoes.” omit the not and to…..
was not thinking straight and writing the message in anger
If MBT didn’t settled the flat problem. I think PAP don’t dare to have election.
MBT is not being thoughtful enough for letting the price of housing went up by at least 100k over the past 4 years.
Imagine one BTO 5rm flat of 93sqm in jurong west that cost 190k 3 years ago cost 310k at present. And that price is not open market resale but those collection sale you bid or queue up for.
What is the justification of the price jacking up so high except for the same “prevailing market rate” excuse.
If resale flat is already costing that much, why are they not trying harder to reduce the new flats? the starting off price cost at least 40k more than years ago.
Further more for every floor higher we stay, we have to fork out additional 3k.
Imagine you stay on the 2nd floor and the price for standard BTO is 230k. The next unit at 11 floor would cost 260k. It may not be alot to many but to us who earn at marginal salary and have to worry about our parents and children, how would all the figures come in place?
just 10 years ago, a typical 4 rm flat would cost about 120k. Its quite unjustifiable that housing cost so much nowadays.
#56, in Sg, only rich gets to choose while poor don’t have privilege. It’s all about $$. While singaporean is still choosy on the small floor area, far from city or parent, poor location, transportation, expensive etc etc. Our foreign friends are snapping up all these flats with their parents or some even their kids few thousand miles always.
A person can only afford $200K~$500K and need 30yrs to clear the loan, IMO, he doesn’t have the privilege of choosy and better takes whatever is given because few years down the road, he might not even have a chance to choose.
I just felt somthing aren’t right when ministers and MPs define affordability based on dual income. The loan period is generally 20-30 years and innitially a couple maybe both working when they are just getting married. But when a baby comes along, the the wife may need to quit the job to take care of the child thus it will become a single income family. As the country is encouraging people to give birth, they should not neglect this oncoming social trend and need. As such, we should objectively define affordability based on single income and not dual income. If people couldn’t afford to service the monly house instalment on single income, they would continue to work and delay or decide not to have a baby if they have no one to help them take care of the child. From my personal experience, child care centre is not the answer to raising and caring for a child’s needs. Even if it is a premium childcare centre, the food is still not good.
When the child is sick, if you don’t have grandparents to help out, you can’t take on a full-time job as you can’t always take leaves when there are work to be done.
It’s either child or work, you choose one, you can’t have the best of the two worlds.
Ministers or MPs who are encouraging people to give birth, asking women to go back to the workforce by having more childcare centres as the solution. I want to again empathise that having more childcare centres won’t make much of a difference as it can’t solve the problem of raising a healthy and happy child.
I wanted to ask if the MPs or ministers themselves put their children in childcare centres? Or they have wifes or parents/in-laws that stay at home to look after the children? Why don’t these policy makers try to understand what problems women face and try to help them. That is the only way things can improve. Just plainly talking about low birth rate is not going to change anything.
We can only choose work or child as I found out recently when I am trying out a full time job and try putting my 4 year old son on full day childcare. It can’t work
as very soon he is down with H1N1 and had to be on medical leave for 10 days.
Three weeks later, he fell sick again and this time another 1 week medical leave.
As I have no parents or in-laws to fall back on, I have to quit the job and back to become a stay at home mum. So do the government understand now why I said child care centres are not the solution to increasing the birth rate.
Someone ran a poll on HWZ on this topic as well…
Totally Unaffordable 53 39.26%
Slightly Unaffordable 34 25.19%
Barely Affordable 41 30.37%
Comfortably Affordable 7 5.19%
Voters: 135.
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?t=2526061&page=7
Yes i agree with you, the ministers would never understand our pain and what er are going through…. they just sit there and talk…… implement policy and depend on the people below to spoon feed them with details… the people below of course would not give an entirely truthful story.
Everything a minister visit a place… the people below would clean up the place and make sure its clean and so on… always show the good side….
I think the ministers on top are not connected to the people like us… there is no way they would appreciate what we are going through.
As one of the many homeless new married couples in sinkeeland, I am frustrated and incensed at our present plight.
There was a time when HDB flats were decent places to live in, very affordable, with large rooms and good spacing between blocks. They have become so much worse these years, and cost so much more.
I have the right to be choosy! I’m paying a ransom for something that will chain me to a job for the next 30 years, so the HDB had better give me a good unit! Otherwise I’ll just immigrate like the other thousands of talented and able sinkees.
To be homeless in my own home, it’s a horrible shame.
@53) mice is nice on October 12th, 2009 1.30 am
Aiyah, just get the MPs to disclose where they stay, ask their property agents how long or how many houses they saw before settling on their current houses and then we will know the definition of “choosy”. My understanding thus far is that a house, taking a 30-year loan to service based on one’s salary, can be selected within 1-2 tries, like love-at-first-sight.
MBT and HDB should then provide some comparisons that such 1-2 shot probabilities are similar to other developed countries. Otherwise, we will also be talking in a vacuum.
The purpose of the HDB is to provide affordable housing to the general population. The present regulations allows the CPF savings, which essentially is for retirement, to be used to finance the purchase of a HDB flat. The greater the amount utilised for housing, the less savings there will be for retirement.
It is in the interest of the government to help Singpaporeans own a home. It is also important to ensure that buyers do not over commit when purchasing a property as this will be detrimental to their retirement.
The present situation allows CPF funds to be utilised, not only for first-time home owners, but also for upgraders.
This has led to an unhealthy situation, whereby home owners that have built up some CPF savings over the years after purchasing their first flat, start to contemplate buying a bigger unit to ‘utilise’ their ‘idle’ CPF funds. There is no benefit in leaving the money ‘idle’ in the account for the benefit of the government.
So long as individuals are allowed to use their CPF funds to buy a second or subsequent flat, this excess demand will continue to push prices upwards.
Similarly, PRs in Singapore also contribute to the CPF, and many of them find it useful to make use of this ‘idle’ fund to purchase a flat with the funds, rather than leaving it with the CPF.
A possible change would be to restrict the use of CPF funds for the payment of housing to only first-time homeowners. Upgraders would not be allowed to use the CPF funds subsequent purchases, save what would ordinarily have been used to service the loan of the first time purchased.
This would mean that the upgrader must have sufficient cash savings and/or disposable monthly income before contemplating on upgrading to a bigger flat.
In addition, PRs should not be allowed to use CPF funds for make housing purchases. They should be required to make such purchases with their cash savings and/or monthly disposable income.
This will provide incentive for PRs serious about making Singapore their homes, consider taking up citizenship, in order to utilise their CPF for the purchase of their first home.
It also prevents PRs that do not and/or will not qualify for citizenship from making use of CPF funds to purchase a first home. I believe at present, because of the lax way in which PRs are granted, many actually stand little or no chance of becoming citizens but are still able to use their CPF funds to purchase a flat and subsequently rent it out to ‘monitise’ the money locked up with the CPF board.
The above is merely my first impressions of what can be done to greatly reduce the way in which property prices are moving, with the high valuations and high COV. It also tackles the other important issue of adequate retirement savings.
For this suggestion to work, it is necessary for the government to put in place safeguards such that the terms and conditions for the withdrawal of CPF funds cannot be arbitrarily changed as is the present situation – eg changes possible only by way of referendum.
Dear All,
In the absence of the raw data, I think it right to give the Minister’s the benefit of doubt – assume what he said is correct.
After all, we are recognized to have a first class Govt and our Cabinet Ministers are all full of integrity and as-white-as-you-can-get. Dun forget – we are ranked number 3 in the TI’s Least Corrupt Country. TI is independent agency.
But I agreed that in the quest for profits, the Govt has forgotten that their most fundamental job is to take care of the people. Really – i scare everyday that I will be ask to sleep on the streets when I am old for being poor. They have failed to take care of the older folks. I think this is undeniable – we see it with our own eyes.
But let’s give them the benefit of doubt in this HDB thingy. After all, the benefit of doubt always goes to the accused, right?
@65) righteous on October 12th, 2009 4.34 pm
“….So do the government understand now why I said child care centres are not the solution to increasing the birth rate….”
The problem seems to be tied with the obsession with GDP. In the traditional 1 parent working and 1 staying at home (and no maid), the GDP generated per household is 1x. Then some smart alex see a fast way to boost GDP — make cost of living so high that 2 parents have to work + employ 1x maid (or child care services) = 3x GDP generated per household. Of course that really screwed the family integrity and our fertility rate, but hey our GDP per capita even clobbered that of the USA (we are 11th, they are 12th using PPP)!
The “we will cross the bridge when we come to it” plan didn’t materialize because no one dared cross the bridge when we came staring at it and so our TFR is now 1.28 (for 2008), which is bottom 5 amongst 224 countries. The supposedly remedy is then to import “talents”, which actually is to boost GDP further (in lieu of capital injection as our billions were being used in “other projects”, aka TH-style).
I leave it to anyone to link all these to our housing policies. Otherwise, these are “statistics” that hardly anyone believes….
To clarify what MBT had said in the ST, he should provide all the data on how he got the numbers. Without it, all one could do is second guessing that will lead us nowhere. The data are not secret that will affect national security and hence all the more it should be published in the ST to backup his claims. As a minister in charge of the peoples’ housing, all the more he needs to know the truth and get feedbacks from the people rather then brushing it aside that those are the choosy ones. If there are many complaints, it clearly shows that the system of flats been offered for selection need to be adjusted. Let not the simplicity of administration retard the advancement towards a better system that is acceptable and more productive.
I don’t understand why PAP is allowing Mah to run their popularity (or wad’s left of it) to the ruins so close to the next election.
Today the govt just happily announced how our GDP results has surprised on the good side again. I grew up thinking that meant life gets better for people. Now I know it doesn’t work that way. In fact, life is getting darn shitty here, good GDP or not.
I hope all of the young first time HDB buyers and the non-first-timers who have been severely affected by the crazy property inflation will spend some time educating and communicating to their folks at home, that Singapore should not be run like this, that if they care for their kids’s future, they should put a stop to this nonsense in the next election. It has to start from us. We are the ones who have the means to obtain unbiased news online. We have to be the ones to make our parents understand and start thinking independently, outside of ST’s propaganda.
Please, for the sake of all our well-being, please spend some time talking to our older relatives, family and friends who are not yet aware.
I agree with you 69)LWL . A lot of the PRs ( Malaysian, china, Indonesian) here are actually buying up the HDBs to rent and generating monthly disposable income by renting rooms, yet some of our citizens who are short of cash to pay for the high cov are still struggling hard to get their home. Very sad indeed. The PRs are not wrong, its the system that is wrong. Therefore, I totally agree with your suggestions. Hopefully, the HDB will realise this and take your suggestions as considerations.
Thumbs up!
theforgottongeneration
post #68 on October 12th, 2009 6.21 pm
very good idea, walk the talk before telling others to do something they may not even be able to do. another way is the ask their contractors if these high salaried MPs are choosey where personal taste is concern.
Heard Law MInister Shamungam “chose” to stay in D10 cuz near parents, then “chose” to relocate cuz his place too near bus-stop and road.
Maybe MBT should tell him not to be choosy.
Choosing a location to call home is a big decision that we made a few time in our life time and many considerations had to be taken into account. For those with young children obviously schools play a big part to it. Then those with aged parents a different set of consideration comes into play. It is a personal choice and to label potential buyers as choosy etc do not do justice to them. Cost is a major consideration as many bloggers had rightly pointed out above that a decision that commit one to many years of finacial commitment that may had serious consequences if one fail to carry it out throughout the life span of the mortgage. Personally, I had to save many years before I commit myself to own one and during all that time I was staying rant free at my parent’s home. Beisde the usual monthly contribution for general upkeep, I did not pay any rant otherwise I would have to wait even longrer. Owning a house is getting more difficult for the younger generation. A family of ten including parent in my day was very common and living in a two bed rooms flat is the norm. Time had changed but I would say that it had changed for the better. As the sole supplier of brick and mortal to all SinKaporean one would expect the housing board to make housing more affortable to all Sinkaporean and not to devise mean to make more money.
#69 LWL,
You may have something going there…
The idea is to de-link CPF from HDB, save for first timers.
If you want to “play” with real estate, then use your own cash and not from the CPF. Sure, ppl will be lamenting, why cannot use own money in own CPF to buy house, it’s a better investment than the 2.5% pa.
Looking at the broader green perspective, i believe housing need to be “rationed” in time to come. The carbon foorprint can be put to better use than building more and more houses and shopping malls.
if the singapore gov dare to take a progressive stance, who knows, we might become a model of green governance. A sustainable model.
75) mice is nice on October 13th, 2009 4.22 pm
Hey, joking lah. U think we can just answer a mosquito to stop sucking our blood? Ha, ha.
Anyway, it would be interesting if someone could provide the statistics of how many of our MPs are staying in HBD flats. Let’s start with MBT, anyone?
@76) SilentAssassin on October 13th, 2009 5.09 pm
Next, Law MInister Shamungam. Pls clarify did he relocated into a 3-Rm HDB or what?
I am puzzled by this thing , hope to get clarifications:
1. some people have the impression that the MSM ‘has a certain style’ and not appealing to many i know .
2. So, why is it that Mr Leong has a regular spot on MSM airwaves and WanBao?
To them afforability is to slave to mortage for 25 to 30 years, or for live and left nothing in CPF, no retirement and work tin the end of life but provided you are still employable after 35 years old. But reality, afforable is defined as using excess cash to pay without going to service it for 30 years mortages asset for live. (Maybe, they are getting too much perks and forgetting what are the real meaning of afforable)
It Iis definitly not worth to have property here where we can have the same price or less to own freehold landed property with better facilities, good design & quality in somewhere else. If they seriously to boots up own local population then they got to sacrifized they driven GDP by putting more revenue back to housing, education, medical, transportation, Ulitities etc as to bring down cost of living (reduce GST, no TV Licence tax, water tax.), as well imposed a minimum income $1500 in this state.
They just can’t keep on importing more foreigners (or course, singaporean can do their part, got to learn to be more indepenance by not relied too much on domestic helpers) to this tiny red dot for their GDP driven and neglecting to nurturing or giving more opportunity to truly born singaporean, I think recent PR saga should be able to give them a strong signal.
Bongiovi: “… one BTO 5rm flat of 93sqm in jurong west …”
Either I lost touch with the market or my eyes are failing me due to age!
A 93 sqm is now called a 5 room?!?
Fwahhh…. that is smaller than the 4NG flats that I lived in when I was growing up!
Goodness. Smaller floor area. Higher price. Higher up in the category.
All these point to higher cost, from price per sqm to maintenance cost (higher S&CC charges and lower subsidies).
How different is the HDB from the chicken rice seller who reduces his chicken portion and rice portions but increases the price all at the same time?
No wonder some people are choosy. Have more kids, want bigger homes, only way to look is the open market where the floor area is decent.
But with the rising price, and more news of the price rising higher, who can afford to retire?
Sigh… when they say life is tough, they ain’t kidding!
20 years ago, a 4A flat has about 100-115sqm. 93 sqm is now called a 5 room. I dread to think, in 10-20 years time, how big a 5 room flat will be!
83) PMET on October 14th, 2009 7.30 pm
“…20 years ago, a 4A flat has about 100-115sqm. 93 sqm is now called a 5 room. I dread to think, in 10-20 years time, how big a 5 room flat will be! …”
20 years ago, we were still sensible to have 3+m people on a tiny dot. Now, without any sizeable increase in land area (minus the small victory of
Pedra Branca), we are trying to squeeze 6.5m people in. So, just cut a bit here and there and everyone can still claim to have a 5-rm flat, lah!
Better measure my next burger if it is smaller too…. seems like $5 doesn’t fill the stomach nowadays.
“The relatively small number of residential units completed and the record prices attained in certain transactions this year have caused concern about the supply of flats, difficulty in purchasing a home, and the possibility of a property bubble. The government will closely monitor market changes in the coming months,” Mr Tsang said. ”
Even the HK government is concerned about the housing situation. But ours just keeps saying it is plenty and affordable. Sighs…
No point complaining here. Actions speak louder. Its either we do somthing or continue to let this affect us and our generations. Some ways are:
- To leave the country( most likely if u can)
-To vote to change the govt( it will be an upward task, most unlikely)
- To stay with parent or siblings due to high price and hard to get hdb( likely depend on individuals), so i guess the trend is like that if the govt policy remains the same.
-To rent a room to stay and probably u may rent from a sp pr …hahhaa!(unlikely unless u can afford the money and tolerate staying in a PR Hdb which u hardly able to get as a Singaporean)
I didn’t read all the comments above. But I agree with the writer (Sze Hian). More statistics should be made available. Preferably, these statistics should be up-to-date (<1 months ago) considering the market is moving so fast nowadays. Quarterly, statistic don't seems relevant to the people on the ground. (especially, when buying from resale market)
I never applied for any HDB flat from HDB. Does HDB allow the user to select or set any requirements when applying for BTO, balance flats etc? When buying resale, buyers can set their requirements. Perhaps, HDB can allow some simple but important requirements from these applicants. e.g. some people can state they don't want low floor even if HDB offer low prices, some can state their budget, etc? (u get the idea?)
At least you guys get to enjoy your grant and rights to buy a HDB flat.
I tried unsuccessfully in five attempts over a period of two years to purchase a new flat from HDB up to the point where our combined salary exceeded the income ceiling by $500. With that, I effectively loses my right to any grants and/or privilages that should be given to all natural citizens. I served my NS too, just like any other citizens in this country, in a combat vocation no less.
With that we turn our options to resale flats which were already skyrocketing. We cannot find any justification why we should pay $20k – $50k COV on a flat where the increase in value is already reflected in the valuation. It is disgusting how we have to beg around for a flat.
When enough is enough, after two years of fruitless search for a HDB flat, we decide to stretch our finances to buy a small apartment that costs half a million. And at that price and our combine income, we still find it diffcult to pay for it. So my admiration to couples who are within the $8k income ceiling and brought a $650k HDB flat.
So screw the ST articles and MBT.
When the next election comes, I had and will always let them know exactly how i felt about them.
It is very interesting reading through all these comments.
More importantly is MBT reading them, does he hear, is he capable of understanding? Be a waste if the man is oblivious to your feedback, comments, woes or worst refuses to touch base.
Congrats to those whose combined income is more than 8k.
am thankful to those who refuse to pay the high COV and stay away from resale, or else they will drive up the demand and increase the COV furtrher.
Good.
hi theforgottongeneration
post #80 on October 13th, 2009 7.37 pm
////Hey, joking lah. U think we can just answer a mosquito to stop sucking our blood? Ha, ha.
Anyway, it would be interesting if someone could provide the statistics of how many of our MPs are staying in HBD flats. Let’s start with MBT, anyone?////
no offense taken, i like your humour on the mosquito.
yeah, i too would like to know how many MPs are humble (moderate expectations? lead by example loh) enough to do that, not to mention our “humble” ministers who hold the opinion the masses are choosey, no fire in the belly, always complain, unrealistic….
some things have to be brought down to earth. :)
stop complaining la…. i am a malaysian working in singapore after my secondary. I have work hard for the past 15 years and i am not even eligible for a resale hdb. if you are looking for a nice place to settle down…. work hard for it and stop complaining….. fyi, i have just move in to my 3 room condo last month.
my first world friends were all laughing away at how silly our people here are that they are willing to pay half a million for a 99 government flat at some lousy areas without any protests.