Leong Sze Hian/
I refer to the article “New flats affordable for most buyers, says Mah” (ST, Apr 25).
It states that “A couple below the age of 30 needs to pay only a 5 per cent down payment for a new flat. This can come out of their CPF savings.
So, a couple earning a combined $4,000 a month can work for half a year and buy a new four-room HDB flat with no cash upfront, said Mr Mah “.
I think the Minister may have made an erroneous calculation.
Here’s why? :-
Since the CPF Ordinary Account (OA) contribution rate is 23 per cent, the monthly OA for the couple’s combined $4,000 income is $920.
So, after working for six months, the cumulative OA including the 2.5 per cent interest per annum is $5,549.
So, at five per cent down payment, the price of the four-room flat is $110,980.
The are no new BTO four-room flats at such a low price.
The average price is about $200,000.
(Note: The latest 25 April BTOs launched has average four-room prices of $286,000 and $283,000 for Hougang Parkview Standard Flats and Montreal Ville Standard Flats, respectively.)
March BTOs Jurong West Boon Lay Fields – $296,000.
February BTOs Fernvale Flora and Fernvale Gardens – $$276,000 and Segar Vale – $255,000.
January BTO Orchid Spring@Yishun and Vista Spring@Yishun – $254,000)
Therefore, the down payment required is $10,000.
Thus, the couple would have to work for 11 months in order to accumulate $10,000.
Chasing a moving target?
However, new flat prices are pegged to resale prices under the Market Subsidy Pricing policy.
There, if the rate of incase in HDB prices at 11.1 per cent per annum over the last five years continues, the $200,000 flat may have increased to about $221,318, after 11 months.
So, the down payment then correspondingly increases to $11,066, whuch means that the couple may have to work for about a year.
Actually, since practically everyone may have to pay for their Dependants’ Protection Scheme (DPS) premiums, we may need to add another month to make it 13.
Hence, the time that it may take to have enough, may be like chasing after an ever rising target.
But, what if the couple has pay or bonus cuts, temporary job loss, illness, children, etc? For example, in 2008 and 2009, the real median income increase of workers was negative at – 3.2 and – 1.2 per cent, respectively.
By the way, the real median income increase last year was only 0.5 per cent, despite the record GDP growth of 14.5 per cent. Real median household income growth last year was even worse at 0.3 per cent.
When real incomes decline or is almost zero, people may have less cash-flows to pay for housing related costs like the mortgage, Service and Conservancy Charges (S & CC), property tax, utilities, mortgage and fire insurance, etc, as well as other expenses.
Also, since about 40 per cent of households earn below $4,000 (as the data is not broken down into Singaporean and permanent resident (PRs), this is an estimate), how many Singaporeans may not be able to afford a four-room flat?
What about the following Singaporeans who may not be eligible or unable to buy a new flat?:-
Singles age 35 and above
Second-timers who cannot afford the Sales Levy
Second-timers who may have a very slim chance, as 95 per cent is for first-timers
Those who put their name into their parent’s flat, and are thus deemed as second-timers
HDB Concessionary Loan second-timers who may not be able to come up with 50 per cent of the cash profits and all CPF utilised plus accrued interest from their last flat sale
Divorcees, etc.
With about 40,000 resale transactions to about 10,000 new flats’ transactions on the average in a year, many Singaporeans may have no choice because of eligibility, financing, etc, which may just not work out for them.
Perhaps for every first-timer under the Minister’s ‘affordable’ definition, there may be a few who need a flat but do nor fall into the ‘affordable’ defination.
Being eligible to buy a new flat is one thing. To be able to afford it when you get it eventually when prices may have risen and ciscumstances may have changed, may be something else altogether.
The fact that the example used by the Minister was below 30, may also not bring to light the issue that the CPF contribution rate to the OA starts to decline from age 35 to 21 per cent, and gradually to 11.5 and 1 per cent, at age 55 and 65, respectuvely.
Housing Grant
I would next like to touch on the fallacy of the Housing Grants – the Minister’s remarks “If they are eligible for housing grants, they can also use them for the deposit”.
Since the cut-off point for the Additional CPF Housing Grant is $5,000 household income, about 60 per cent of households may not qualify.
But, rising prices affect every buyer.
For those who earn between $4,500 to $5,000, the grant is only $5,000, which similarly fails to catch up with rising prices.
For those who earn between $3,500 to $4,000, the grant is $15,000, but as their pay is lower, it may take an equally long time if not longer depending on how fast prices rise, to accumulate the down payment, and the OA contribution may also not be enough to pay for the monthly mortgage.
For those who earn below $2,000 and $1,500, the grant is $35,000 and $40,000, respectively.
However, if your household income is below $1,500 or $2,000, how will you be able to afford to pay over the typical 30- year mortgage, as the lower -income may tend to have a higher tendency for declining income, pay cuts, job loss, sickness, etc?
Affordable?
So, only those who can afford will buy and therefore the Minister’s logic may be flawed, because those who can’t afford wouldn’t be in the Minister’s always ‘affordable’ population in the first place!
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VOTE FOR PAP AND SCREW YOUR WHOLE FAMILY…..
VOTE FOR PAP AND SCREW YOUR WHOLE FAMILY….
VOTE FOR PAP AND SCREW YOUR WHOLE FAMILY……..
THAT IS WHAT YOUR PARENTS AND GRANCOKONG DID, THEY SCREWED YOU AND ME
AFTER ELECTION, BE PREPARED FOR NO JOB, OR GET FIRED…..
AFTER ELECTION, BE PREPARED FOR NO HOUSE…….FOREIGNERS ARE GIVEN FIRST CHOICE…..
AFTER ELECTION BE PREPARED TO PAY HIGH, REPEAT, “PAY HIGH PRICES” FOR EVERYTHING…….
BE PREPARED FOR LIVE IN HELL…………
MBT should join in the private business sector. Political career doesn’t suit him. Everywhere he goes he made profit for the organisation. I hope he get headhunter by the private sector & definitely he get better paid & not so much dislike by public.
@eaglefly
Sigh……another one of those who discredit the supporters of the opposition with sensless rantings….
If you are really a supporter of the opposition, then help them achieve their goal of being credibile….How credible can the opposition get if their supporters have the same mentality as you? There is some truth to the saying…birds of one feather, flock together…
Don’t sabo the hard work some of the credible opposition figures have been doing by screwing it all up sounding the way you do!!!
Wah Lau!!
Was HDB demand deliberately inflated by simply ignoring the fact that scores of new immigrants would need a place to stay? This have obviously increased the resale flats dramatily. And with Mabuk Tan insistance to peg new HDB Price to the resale market. Wah la, he just created profits for his bosses out of thin air. And of course the mysterious SLA Land Valuater adds on to the profit margins.
Mabuk Tan teaches us to use our CPF money to pay for our flats ” if you clever enough, all your housing can be paid with CPF monies, and you dont have to come out a single cent. Just pay your installment for the next 30 years! And make sure you dont lose your job along the way. If not we will reposses your flat”
And so the scheme is complete, the great highway robbery on stealing our retirement money by the government.
Mah might be correct that HDB flats are affordable. But what we do not know for sure is whether the government is pricing our flats based on the disposable income of Singaporeans. There are reasons why this could be so.
It also did occur to me that whether all other prices of things in Singapore (not just the HDB flats) which are set by the government (using GST and direct ownership of essential services) are deliberately tied to our disposable income, so that people are left with no money in their pockets. Why not? This is a great advantage in controlling many areas of a citizen’s life. By tying price increases a notch or two up of real wages and a notch or two down to inflation, Singaporeans will have little or no disposable income (spending power). In this way the government can achieve many of their goals.
This leads me to a series of speculations, which I would like to share with you.
Now, let’s make a list of the issues the government thinks Spore has been facing and see how one simple approach of consistently raising prices may be able to achieve their goals. Lets imagine this scenario in 2004.
For this purpose, let me wear the cap an adviser to the “head minister-in-charge” and speculate these possible consequences as I discuss with him how to tackle Singapore’s “woes” then…
Migration issue
Head Minister: The govt needs to prevent Singaporeans from migrating overseas. This is becoming embarrassing. What do you think we should do? It used to be the middle class. But now, even those who own HDB can afford to migrate because they are rich after selling their homes. And those who win lottery also migrate.
Adviser: If people find it hard to save cash because things are so expensive, you obviously cannot migrate. Also if your CPF payout is delayed, they will still have difficulty accessing their wealth after selling their homes. And if the main bulk of their disposable income goes to paying their HDB mortgage, their migration dreams can easily go down the drain, don’t you think so? Well, as for those middle class, if they were to lose their jobs for a year or two, their retirement savings would have been wiped out – so will their migration dreams. When you allow foreign talents in, they should be taken care of. I suggest we give them last priority because they have to live out their savings before we attempt to help them. As for lottery winners, keep the winnings low. All these suggestions should reduce the migration figures drastically. This is my advice, Minister.
Sustaining the S$ currency
Head Minister: Our dollar is flowing out of Spore too fast. We need to get Singaporeans to spend as much of their money inside Singapore. We are also planning to bring in 2ml more foreigners to work here. How can we retain as much of our dollar within Spore since these foreigners will be sending money home?
Adviser: This is to protect the $S from eroding and to keep it strong, I suppose. Presumably this is very important for those whose wealth and investments and shareholdings are inside Singapore and in Singapore companies – the elite rich. So, let me ask you: Will a series of rapid price increases and sustained increases of basic essentials leave the people with little (or even nothing) left to spend outside Singapore? That is your answer! Well, the rich won’t be affected, so they will not be mad with you. Many live outside Singapore anyway. We can justify these increases, especially the prices of assets. Use the term “increased value” instead of increased prices” especially when you refer to the escalating costs of buying a flat. They won’t know the difference.
Medical costs burden
Head Minister: Our past attempts to make Singaporean children take care of older folks didn’t work. How do you think we can make this happen?
Adviser: Why bang your head against the wall? Why not simply make older folks continue to work so that they are able to take care of their own medicals until they perish? After all, working keeps them healthy and gives them more self esteem. Can increasing the costs of living across the board force older people out to work even in jobs nobody wants like coffee shops and food court cleaners, etc? I think so. They will be doing a service to the nation. It is worth a try, don’t you think so? Is it also advisable to let the media and people harp on these price increases if this can remind them to go out and work.
Opposing Voices
Head Minister: We detest people sitting down to dream big because a free mind is a dangerous mind. Nothing good will come out of it. This includes older folks congregating at void decks. What can we do?
Adviser: As I have already said, a widespread price increase across the board will surely get them to be concerned about their next meal, wont it? Will they have any choice but go out to work? But you must make it difficult for these folks to access social welfare, so that we are sending a strong message that everyone must get out to work. But this will seem too harsh, so I think you should introduce a system called “Means Testing” in case people perceive us as merciless. Let them know we are always there if they need help. We don’t want people to die on the streets!
Sustained Profitability In State Businesses
Head Minister: As you know, we have just privatized all our essential services. And we have entities securing leadership positions in various industries. We also have control over food supplies too. And we have already locked in many prime locations for our retail enterprises. How can we make them profitable?
Adviser: Just focus on consistent price increases at short intervals. With 2 millions more foreigners, your profits are going to be more than healthy! Mr Minister, I see we have found the magic bullet!
Head Minister: What if some people really can’t afford all these increases?
Adviser: Just give them an unconditional handout based on “Economic Progress” or “Growth Dividends”. You can give this out to the entire nation in a timely manner so that you can achieve more than appeasing a few desperate souls. Time these handouts carefully to achieve votes or national buy-in into some new policies. Also, you have your regular “Means testing” route for them. This should cover all angles.
Casino Justification
Head Minister: Two casinos are being planned. How can we prevent locals from entering? We want to prevent them from irresponsibly gambling their salaries away otherwise they will end up in foreign currencies. And we also want to keep their money in our own enterprises and not with foreign enterprises like the casinos. For example, we collect a huge amount of revenue from our turf clubs and our ToTo outlets every week. It goes into billions. We cannot allow these takings to go to the casinos. Also, we are not sure if the locals can accept the idea of not one, but two, casinos in town – from a so-called “moral” standpoint. The religious organizations will not be too happy. So, we need help here. What solutions can you provide?
Adviser: We all here know why we need casinos. There is no debate on this. I think the solution is staring us at our face again. It is simple. Just put a levy on locals and justify it as a moral issue. Get a few religious groups to debate about this and get them to play a part in creating a system for “wayward” locals. Let the press make this credible. This should get them out of the way.
Potential Dissent
Head Minister: But what if people protest all these levies and price increases?
Adviser: I am sure you can come up with something to convince them. Global food prices are predicted to increase, so will all other types of materials such as chemicals, building materials, etc as China and India create new demand. Just use this story. It will be a valid excuse for the next 20 years!
But Mr Minister, do you really want to pocket every cent from everyone? Leave them a bit – holidays overseas, etc. This will keep them happy. But keep these short and non expensive so as not to permit too much Sing dollar to leave the country. I suggest you allow some budget airlines to operate in Singapore and to service the surrounding areas. In this way, Singaporeans can still travel and stay in budget hotels. This will keep them happy. Also these airlines make it easy for all the cheap labor and aspiring students from neighbouring countries to flood your little island instantly and become immediate consumers of your businesses, schools, hospitals and later, as PRs, HDB home buyers.
Head Minister: Well, Mr Adviser, thank you so much for helping us find the magic bullet we were looking for. You are brilliant! What should our next move be, then?
Adviser: Why don’t you get the press to condition the people about big changes coming ahead over the nest few years? Talk about having a new mindset for a new economy and new rules. When they are psychologically ready, do everything quickly and at once – including the series of price increases. If you delay one at a time, it would be messy. Just push all these through and handle damage control later.
I hope you enjoy my speculations. Of course, if you debate with me, you will win because I have no justifications. These come from a free mind which likes to dream and imagine things. I leave you, the reader – to make your own conjecture or shall I say, play.
Hdb appointed valuers valuation was the killer internal injuries where pricing went up too fast and top furious within 1 year of more than 30-40%, what made it worser was the rise was during recession period, and also private bank valuation for private properties was the killer as bankers need biz they would try break record and match valuations. Greed of authorities, investors and speculators, fear of real buyers prompted the rise and demand of properties.
Cooling measures are external bandages. If internal injuries rot from the core to the skin then too late.
Also, gov should give more grants for citizens to couple and even singles since they pegged to market price the grants should be pegged to market price, less stringent and less stingy in the grants requirements and have buffer. As I exceeded abit and only this hdb officer is more helpful to appeal for me.
mbt has proven what humanity is capable of.
agree that mbt is ideal for profit-making PRIVATE sector.
its clear how disgusted people are with mbt. why? because he is not suitable for Public Sector.
go. go away.
Marlboro Tan go smoke Marlboro lah, dont smoke fellow Singaporeans.
By the way smoking too much is bad for you!
Trouble is, one person had made our life so fearful after what he has done to the dis-senting voices and opposition and used our courts to “KILL” the person’s spirit and will to live. So, today, we have a nation of young that has no fight, no challenge, no imagination and that person and his stooges claim, “our young must be apathetic to politics”, what a contradiction.
Trouble is the sing dollar appreciate too fast and furious. Is it good for us, you better think. Hot flow of money into any economy, closed or open, is not good as it destabilize all things.
Our trade with malaysia is more on, concrete, sand, granite, and granite in sand and compared to food, chicken, vege, eggs, pork, its this trade of building materials, that brings in the bacon for the gov, in selling of land, condo fees and fees of all kinds to gov coffers. This trade is larger than the food cost all singaporeans consumed since day one, look at HDB from 1973 onwards.
The nation has lost christmas island because of some despot, imagine if we have christmas island, our army, navy and air force cost can be saved in the billions, instead of going to australia, new zealand, taiwan, south africa for training. Imagine if christmas island is with us, our fishery can be develop, farming of all kinds can have huge potential, and recreation too. One can imagine the kind of things one can create there.
But then, we have voted in duds, with no imagination and that cost us aplenty. We have many malaysians chinese and indians and they say, “LKY is our saviour, he’s very good” taking away our jobs and depressing our wages, creating inflation of all kinds, but never wanting to take up citizenship, why, is the jobs not good enough for your children, the ones you have taken away from locals, the HDB that you have stayed, 10-20 years, not good enough for your retirement, the buses, mrt.?
As if this person wants to show or prove to Mahathir, “look, we have created jobs and save your economy”, “your unemployment data figures by giving jobs to 600,000 malaysians”
It’s this person that think and said, singaporeans are difficult, daft, has no spike, not hungry. This person looks at us, all singaporeans as a BARRIER to his GLORY.
Now, do you want to give him your vote ??
@Passerby
Wow, this is a neat and elegant summary of the whole grand scheme that the PAP has conjured up over the years. I’m really beginning to put two and two together now. It’s a grand feat of Psychological Manipulation and Social Engineering. Hats off to LKY and all who have helped him to pull this off without us knowing what hit us overs 40 years. It’s truly a mind-rape of a nation.
1) Keep the majority of the populace busy so they don’t have time or energy left to think of giving trouble to the government.
2) Condition them to be comfortable with strict rules, National Service, rigid schedules, no-nonsense faith in the system, spoonfed “benefits” and carrot-and-stick culture, fear of failure — so that the majority of the populace loses the ability to think too creatively, to understand the true meaning of independent thought and freedom. When you achieve that, you create an electorate that has blind faith in the system that they grew up in. Those who somehow fall between the cracks and have the ability, would migrate and not give trouble anyway.
3) As in the movie series, The Matrix, the architects of the system realised that the population always revolts if they are deprived of choices. Give them choices (even if the choices are an illusion and not a threat to the ruling party), and you’ll have them reined in. That’s why the architects of Singapore have been very good at paying lip service to complaints and fierce requests: Create artificial “choices” that don’t actually offer real solutions or hurdles to the system’s priorities. As long as the people think they have a choice, they will simmer down. Those who don’t receive gratification after making a choice, will think they made the wrong choice and not blame the government but only themselves for being too slow, too unqualified, etc.
4) The most effective con jobs in history always involve victims who don’t even know they’ve been conned, or victims who embrace the con and use it in turn to con others! The entire PR and propaganda machinery of the PAP is a fine masterpiece of subtle (and not-so-subtle) mind control, fate control and pavlovian manipulation. So far, it has worked as of the recent GE (at 66.6% penetration).
5) Milk the country for all it’s worth because the psychological masterplan may soon reach a plateau or be overwhelmed by future communication and mind-liberating phenomena (eg, the Internet). That’s why we have been dragged into the furious pace of economic growth devised to build up the elite’s wealth and security. By the time that cracks start to show in the seams of the Grand Pay-and-Pay Masterplan to Rape the Nation’s Mind, there would be a giant income divide, a powerful momentum of powerful organisations and international network of supporters that entrenches the elite’s power. This power can then be dispensed into new channels of economic and social controls to keep the populace docile or at least grudgingly compliant.
@one-sided toc
Thanks. 3 points from what u mentioned it take the authorities 8months to monitor then come up and analyze and take one year to try counter.
1) the valuation of hdb policies and guidelines of hdb appointed privatised valuers is flawed.
2) red tapes
3) short sightedness and oversight of the minister and the the hdb and ura management, in private corporation they will be asked to leave
To make things worse, gov took the oppotunities to clear the state lands via land sales to claim that the pricing will stabliZe and start to slowdown the peak.
Read http://www.goldclubasia.com/forum and you will understand what is happening to most countries currencies depreciation which is causing housing prices to peak, but greed of authorities, oversight and also ignorance and robbing of people wealth plays a part also unfortunately. Also high cost structure of authorities including their pays of ministers and super scale civil servants
@passerby
Superb stories, it should be true.
Moral of story, control the media controls the flow and wins half the battle. How scary is dictator mind
THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF PUBLIC SERVICE HAS BEEN RAPED OVER AND OVER AGAIN FOR THE PURPOSE OF POWER AND MONEY…
PAY MILLIONS YOU GET THE BEST MINISTERS IN THE WORLD TO SERVE YOU…
WE SINGAPOREANS HAVE TO DECIDE NOW IF WE ARE SATISFIED TODAY FOR THE EXHORBITANT PRICES WE HAVE BEEN PAYING FOR SO MANY YEARS..
WHAT IS OUR FINANCIAL STANDING AS MASTERS IN COMPARISON TO OUR SERVANTS!!!!
MBT should provide an explanation why the ratio of applicants to available flat is almost 3 to 1. Can the HDB provide the average waiting time for first time applicants from 2001 to 2011? I have got too many young Singaporeans lamenting the large queue numbers every time a ballot is available.
MBT just wants to keep HDB prices up. Simple principle of Supply and Demand. High Demand = higher prices
Higher prices = Profitability for HDB.
Is this a ruse to justify his high salary? the PM must take responsibility for appointing such a Minister who just simply make us pay and pay!
Come on MBT, the COE is already collecting S$2Bn in taxes, when you factor other costs such as Road tax, ARP, returning the TV/Radio licence is such a poor form of rebate.
You cannot deny that rising costs for services are attributed to higher operatig costs and transport costs is a prt of operating costs. Building more ERP gantries and higher ERP charges is not helping traffic woes but the collected revenues that go to the LTA goes unchecked!
So who is raiding the citizens?
mah suggested stretching home loans from 15 to 30 years.
there hdb flats will b affordable.
OMG-wat a brain dead million $$ minister.
did he calculate t compound interest for 15 years loan
versus 30 years..
even my 16 year old son was shocked by his comnent.
stupid compound interest calculation.
So Mr Leong, I look at your sums, and I’ve looked at the comments. I see that not only have you missed out the AHG, for some reason you also missed out mentioning the special housing grant for low income families. Without adding in that grant, it’s no wonder things look tough for them. Call yourself a financial advisor? Either you are biased, or you are incompetent. So which is it?
For the couple earning a combined income of $4000/mth, the AHG is $15000. The AHG can be used to pay for the 5% downpayment, but there are strings attached to the AHG, first the couple needs to be employed for AT LEAST 2 YEARS for HDB to assess their eligibility for AHG (in addition to Housing Loan Eligibility – HLE).
In this day of $280-350k 4 room flats, the $15,000 won’t help squat to defray the young couple’s high cost of living (even without fancy Kate Spade bags!)
Samantha 2 May 2011
So Mr Leong, I look at your sums, and I’ve looked at the comments. I see that not only have you missed out the AHG, for some reason you also missed out mentioning the special housing grant for low income families. Without adding in that grant, it’s no wonder things look tough for them. Call yourself a financial advisor? Either you are biased, or you are incompetent. So which is it?
:
to be fair, i bought my own hdb flat, I was told hdb officer that most of the low income families did not make the cut to take additional housing grants when exceed monthly pay abit(and they did not know can appeal if plus minus around 10% exceed the income barrier), or rather didnt even quality to apply for the housing, let alone the grant..
and the case above is for bto when the author mentioned it..
one sad thing, have we asked why the grant needs to be given? it is only because most of the bottom 20% wages never increase or increase much in line with inflation and housing price increase drastically..
and the rules and sometimes too rigid and sometimes so double standard as some similar condition can get and some cant and also some officers dont even know how to advise/bother to advise and the people dont know how to apply for the grant..
Hi all responsible singaporeans,
Pappies going to win aljunied cos they control the traditional medias. They won half the battle. To help the opposition or rather our voices, or rather our own future, we should do these.
1) talk to our loved ones about manipulation and propaganda of traditional newspapers, tv and radio.
2) unite online media and promoting online through brochures or flyers, even in the rallies
3) promote distrust by doubting of traditional media of pappies monopolies even in rallies
4) unleash in rallies that the traditional media might be biased so that media are pressure to reverse situation abit
5) opposition should propose check on media and disassociate them from government linked companies and related nepotism and links and also government officer not allowed to unfair handle news
6) propose in rallies 1 minute silence to mark death of democracy
by grc and also to mark doubt about traditional media.
No wonder opposition mostly lose elections in grcs and smc due to the medias are blocked and biased. Also, they need spokesman and push up some more credible and familiar faces to the public.
Bless ourselves for the sake of next generations and ourselves
#
Gazebo 2 May 2011
i have said this before, and i am saying it again. this is very certainly, the last “real” Singapore election. post this election, the demographics distribution is likely to shift so far towards new citizens, that original Singaporeans (those who were citizens pre 2001 when the floodgates opened) are no longer going to be the absolute majority.
i am not xenophobic. but we have to give some serious thought to this. if we are really unhappy about the rate of immigration, and its related problems, this is truly the only chance we have to make any changes. if you believe that the rate of immigration has been too rapid, and an outrage against your citizenship, this is your only chance to speak up. if you believe that there is more to citizenship than accepting the immunity of the ruling party, you must make yourself heard now.
the stakes are really that high. this is the only chance we have for our voices to be heard. take back the parliament. it should not be a feedback unit, in which the ruling party has made it to be. just for this once, stop caving into the wanton fear mongering and propaganda. making yourself heard will not induce calamity, but will only herald a better tomorrow.
@ss
So rather than having the govt giving grants to help the lower income families afford HDB flats, you would prefer the govt to artificially depress the value of flats instead? But didn’t you just bought one…?
Hi Samantha,
It is good u ask but probably u didn’t see it from other angles
The damage was done when price or rather hdb appointed valuers for most flat increased too fast and too furious from 2008 2xxk to I bought 38xk. It was during recession this thing happened, thats why people are even more pissed. It rises or fall does not mean anything cos I can’t sell and staying permanently. Maybe I might be forced to sell if I can’t pay, also if I were to sell after 5 years mop where I going to stay? Maybe china with my pr wife since situations are so lop sided here.
The high valuations are internal injury for gov. Since got reserve and want to help youngsters like us, me 35 got the flat and pay 30 years loan for ard 1k one month. Can’t be sick and can’t be unemployed. Remember this is 99 leasehold and hdb takes back from u if u can’t pay. Title deed duplicate will be given to us when we pay up all loans after I turn 65. We don’t have real title deed as it is custody of hdb. Remember one thing pls, title deed not in yr hand meaning not yr house. Yr Money in bank may not be your money if any issue with the bank, it applies to the reserves of singapore also. Another way is to die halfway and my wife can inherit from insurance payout. Wait for ser enbloc is also taxing when the hdb lease is old
like above 30 years.
Also if flat prices is up then I worried that if I have children by then can’t afford. Also currently the government should unlock some proportions to top up our oa like eg additional 20k each year for next 5 year since they are so rich in their pay is 2-3 million each year. No point giving peanut rebates and locking up our cpf.
Also rising or falling of price hdb if can’t control, then why hdb give guidelines to hdb appointed valuers how and what limit to certain value..
. Etc etc
That’s wat I meant by struggling hard to maintain false glory. I cAn buy 2 or 3 room, but next time if my family can grow I end up need to change
Continued :
If need another upgrade then I will be paying for more housing fees and housing loan.
Hope u got these angles covered also.
Mbt well done, u mess up lta and now hdb and ura.
TrAnsport minister Raymond lim glorified number of erp gantries and coes, directly and indirectly pushing up cost of living.
Mr Leong,
It’s not possible to do so for a year as HDB told us that we have to wait 5-6 years to get a new BTO flat. I told them that Minister Mah mentioned in the Straits Times that it would take 2.5 years to get a BTO. They told me they do not know of this. And I went to see HDB 2 months after Minister Mah announced it in the papers and Straits Times. 3 months later, I called HDB and they told we have to wait 4-5 years for a flat.
So, there is no way you’re gonna get a flat lesser than 4 years in Singapore from the moment you click to the point you get the keys in your hands.
And this has not yet hit many ignorant Singaporean young couples out there.
Thank you, Mr Leong for your compassion. Keep up the good work!
Please be honest, Mah Teo Tan.
My friend younger brother got a 4-room Design & built flat in Punggol for $382,000.00.
Dont misled singaporeans. We are no more goondu !!!!
Shame on you to quote artificially low priced flat at most, 2nd floor unit !
Trying to play people backside.???
Go and tickle the one with $600,000.00 go;d plated peanut lah !!!
Ass hole……………
Their target is obviously to control minimum grant given to sporeans, maximise price increase for their houses and ultimately push GDP UP.
And that translate to what ………..MORE BONUSes. ‘Smart strategy’ this machinery across all depts churning profits COE, ERP, (even collecting TAX….backlane parking etc LOL). Even better outsource and collect even more revenue. How not to collect more $$ when such activities like traffic offences get outsource.
Mr Leong
u assume the couple start their marriage with $0 in their cpf
not possible
Mr Leong Is just using case study. That’s why it is not easy to own a house and we must have some reserves of cPf and savings.
Did you take into account the housing grant which can be offset against the deposit?
If you didn’t then you are misleading people with your article…
the erudite scholar-minister MUST SURELY KNOW that HDB – LOW COST PUBLIC HOUSING or what it is in letter meant to be? – is surely MOST AFFORDABLE to those like the TRANSCIENT passer-by FTs who just ant to ‘SPECULATE’ and PROFIT from it?
ps: even my little nephew know this and he has yet to GRADUATE from kindergarden?
matrixenlightenment:
You have the same perspective. Totally agree. Everything is conditioning. But they can’t fool us. Quietness all these years don’t mean the electorate didn’t know. They were just brewing.
@Samantha you missed out another option..you are plain rude.
Cindy 2 May 2011
@Samantha you missed out another option..you are plain rude.
……………..
do not worry bout Samantha..
she is not a she…she is a HE
a permanent sec calibre in the instana office which is why ALL pap permanent sec is rude and arrogant..ow else would they be granted a 5 month leaves of absence just to learn french cookin?
remind samantha who is postin this?
I would like to praise that this article is well reported. Almost all the facts has been taken into consideration of the hdb affordability planning. There is so much hiccups encountered as a divorcee and subsequently selling off your resale flat and buy a flat off the resale market… so much financial burden on the high resale pricing and 30 years loan. The only worry i have is, will i still be employed when i turn 55-65yrs old, and will i still get to earn my current pay in order to repay my 30years loan up to 65years old???
Be AWARE of new MPs pass their BILLS 2U
a) Energy Sector-Sale of Spore Power etc.Why the new MP from this sector?
b) Finance – New MP is from MAS,Why is he being voted into as MP?
c) Defence Sector–New MP why is our defence spent increasing?
We need a LOUDER opposition to STOP them to pass more unknown bills to SPOREAN
My dog is very sick: Should I keep it or euthanize?
My family owns a white papillon, in short we call her “Pap”. She is very sick and we have to quickly come to a conclusion whether to keep her under the observation of our vet or put her to sleep. We cannot afford to pay for her bills in the pet hospital for as long as we want because we are not filthy rich folks that earn 15 grand a month; in this dog-eat-dog world we have to save all the resources we can for rainy days, you never know when would a flood destroy everything you have. I heard from a friend that it is painful for dogs to fall sick; they would rather die than fall ill for the sake of their owner’s pocket. We are very sad that it has sunk to this state of despair and desperation. Our greatest regret is we have not brought her to walk around the Universal Studios as we have promised. We can only blame fate as we can’t expect more subsidy or free consultant from the vet. Could anyone help with us in the decision making please?
Pap loves this song called Because You Love Me from Celine Dion, she waggles her tail whenever she hears this part:
For all those times I stood by you
For all the truth that I made you see
For all the joy I brought to your life
For all the wrong that I made right
For every dream I made come true
For all the love you found in me
You’ll be forever thankful baby
I’m the one who held you up
Never let you fall
I’m the one who saw you through through it all
Last August, she participated in the championship as I wanted her to be conferred as one. It was like an Olympic, there were so many other dogs around to compete with. I can’t believe that so many people would want to pay 3 times more for the championship fee than to participate in another typical one. It seems all of us who were there are born suckers. Perhaps it was the amount of money spent in marketing this event and the promise that most of the dogs would go home with a certification of participation that made it so attractive. The organizer even catered dog food for the event, even though most of the dogs leave it untouched. I suspect that Pap’s illness started from food poisoning just like some other dogs in this event. Those dogs who did not consume the food seem healthy and fine till today. We could not put up a case against the organizer as it was only the minority. Bad luck did not stop here, it was later then I realized that the certificate of participation I received did not contain the right signature and the name was for another dog named “Vivian”. We did not blame the organizer since their reasoning is that all humans make mistakes, it was just our bad luck that we chose them.
I adopted Pap 5 years ago from a Spanish friend, and the championship made me discover Pap is a foreign talent as compared to our local breeds. We believe since she is foreign, she must be good! We therefore sign her up involuntarily for a condensed course of 2 years instead of the usual 2.5 years although she hates to leave home. We have faith in her despite her illness, we believe that the training course will make her stronger and probably speed up her recovery. In this course, they were trained to defend their masters and protect the home. We were happy that she completed the course with only minor injuries e.g. hair line fractures in her hind leg as some dogs were killed in accidents during the trainings. We did not blame the trainers as the training is safety certified and that we are guaranteed that the probability of an accident happening is as little as an Apache loses control and then manages to land on an empty parcel of land safely.
Because of her illness, she has become unreliable to guarding our home even though she was sent for training earlier. I remember it was 27 February 2008 when a burglar broke into our house from an unsecured toilet window and stole all our valuables (2 million dollars’ worth of loot). He escaped from the same window without Pap noticing him since she was soundly asleep at the main door. When we came home and discovered the break-in, we let Pap took a sniff around the house for the foreign scent and it took her awhile before she started tracking the scent all the way to the woods nearby. We combed the forest for hours and hours but in vain. Thankfully the burglar was caught by the Malaysian police sometime later. It was found out that instead of the forest, he escaped and hid himself in his relative’s house! We were bewildered how Pap led us to the forest instead. We did not blame her, since we chose her to guard the house door instead of engaging another party and it was our mistake for not securing the window properly.
After we have decommissioned her role as our faithful guard, Pap has been digging holes all over my yard for no good reason. If there is one reason, I think she must be really bored. All her constant nonsensical destruction and construction caused huge pools of rain water to form all over the places when it rains. Worse still, the rain washes the loosen soil into the drain and clogged them up. It was so bad that whenever it rains, our house get flooded. Bad things do not come alone; on 23 Jul 2010 the coconut tree in my yard fell and smashed my car into pieces due to soil erosion. What is the odd of having a car crashed by a tree? I read in the news that it is the same probability that a country gets flooded in multiple places consecutively for over a few months; this equates to once in 50 years. We must have been very unlucky then. After wearing the cone of shame, only recently that Pap started not to create any more such water catchment or retention areas. Again, we did not blame her, since we should have engaged an external party to make over the yard earlier, clear the drain more regularly and check the coconut tree for defects.
Despite our tender loving care, she has become insensitive to our feelings and less intellectual. We call for her but she does not respond to us anymore! She only responds to the Neighbour’s Shar-Pei from China. It seems like she enjoyed his company so much so that she let him through our doors and into her kennel! During times of his occupancy, she would guard the kennel and not let us go near. We would always have to wait for him to vacant the kennel before we can go clean up his waste. We would always complain to Pap about letting a stranger into her own kennel and she has to sleep without a roof over her head instead, but she would just stomped her foot and gave us a blank look as if expressing “I don’t know what to say”. She even let him eat her share of food and she only took whatever is left. We cannot blame her for doing so as she must be in heat and love is blind, and perhaps this may help us create an increasing population of new breeds! Regardless of origin, it has been recommended that the dogs cross breed and have multiple mates so as to increase the numbers of new breeds. We are also hopeful that we might even be rewarded and get sponsored for this breeding program, even though we might not be able buy a golden tap in my toilet, Herman Miller chair in my study room and CDPRO2 in the living room; at least we can get unlimited supply of peanuts to go with porridge. However, as the hard truth mentioned, not all breeds can integrate.
My home finance minister has been asking me to make a few major changes to my life so that we can keep Pap as long as she lives. She said that I have to forsake my plan of getting a Herman Miller chair in my study room as long Pap is sick. Not just that, she has also forbidden me to see my friends who are said to have visited the Integrated Resort and had most of their money disintegrated. She has been asking me to take the train to work instead of buying a car that comes with the paper that cost 5 figures and pay countless ERPs then still get stuck in jams, on top of that, also have to pay road tax and insurance. I am so sad, my spirit is strong but flesh is weak. I argued that the MRT line does not have wifi or 3G coverage for me to surf my iPad continuously but she countered that it will be installed in a few years’ time as someone complain about it in the papers already! She even asked me to reduce Ah Boy’s compulsory tuition from twice a week to once a week so that we can save some money. Her bet is that his school teachers would probably save him when he is at the verge of dropping out from the education system. She added that her only worry for Ah Boy is that his teachers better be sponsored scholars and not pedophiles. She also commanded me to surrender my growth dividends of few hundred bucks and reminded me to beg my boss for more bonuses. On what basis for more bonuses I asked her when my fellow colleagues from India and China are only drawing half of my salary and they cannot wait to take over my position even at a lower pay! She smiled and quoted that if our ministers are getting a total of 36.5 months of pay out mainly from bonuses plus their basic salary, you should too! Moreover, as inflation comes into effect repeatedly, salary should be adjusted upwards constantly! “We were lucky that the new ruling did not affect us! Maybe we can even sell our flat in Bishan for a half a million and make instant profit instead of collecting monthly rental. If there is a chance that Aljunied property price will fall if the opposition takes over, the same might happen to Bishan if what MM said is true! I was correct that the HDB flat prices will bubble and double when we bought ours in Bishan! I might be correct again to sell now…” she exclaimed. I was totally dumbfounded, do we really need to go to that extend for Pap? I cannot blame her, Pap has been her close companion for too long a time to let go so easily. The hard truth is that we cannot leave this to luck, even if we wish to win some fortune from 4D or TOTO, we still have to go to Singapore Pools to place a bet, just like how operators found their way to the heartland areas to ferry people to the Integrated Resorts to gamble. No matter what, we have to take a gamble to see the change.
Minister calculate wrongly because is “peanut” to himself. How much he earn for a month? He can retire now.