Marbok Tan, Marbok Tan, he is having fun.
Regardless of the board he goes, he’s bound to make it rich…hey!

COE, ERP, now is HDB,
Affordable is the word he loves,
He don’t give a damn abt you..

(Chorus)
COE’s affordable
ERP’s affordable
COV is so cheap cheap cheap,
You just need time to find…

COE’s affordable
ERP’s affordable
HDB is so cheap cheap cheap,
Just pay until the day you die…Hey~!

I am in singapore for the past 8 years, even though Singaporeans are quiet brilliant in job they build to be blind in the govt issues. Here what i see as i am not build blind !

1. Singapore is very very different from other country for real estate. The TRUTH is its not a Real Market, its just pretend to be real market only.

2. What is meant by real market ? Real Market will obey fundamental laws of supply and demand and will adjust automatically for the market situation.

3. Why singapore is not real market? Singapore almost all housing have supply by govt and demand also is from govt only. They can control demand by controlling number incoming foreign talents. If govt want to increase or decrease the price they can easily do it. So its just a blind game to say real estate investment in singapore.

4. Example: why the HDB price went up crazy for the past three years ? Because govt increased its demand by pumping huge number of people inside singapore… but its just kept its supply very low (purposely) ..so nothing wonder the price will be of course crazy.

5. As singapore is not a Real market that’s why it didn’t even react for the world recession

My fiance and I have been sourcing for private home for quite a while now (our monthly income >8000, but 8,000 monthly. Right now, albeit a slow and ardously painful income increment over the years, there are increasing proportion of middle income family that found themselves stuck nowhere. Ironically, those on the streets are well-off singapore who aren’t eligible for subsidies/grants from government and yet not wealthy enough to fend for themselves!

Compounded by influx of foreigners who inevitable stresses the housing situation, we also find a certain group of singaporean turning to snapping up new private properties to earn extra quick cash from rentals. Not only this spurs the property market, it creates a disillusion that singaporeans are more wealthy but in fact majority of those occupying the private estates are foreigners.

My fiance and I are professionals, trying to create a family in Singapore. The proposal of migrating was once a distant thought but has gradually present as a viable solution to our problem. Indeed right now is not the right time, but after our careers finally take off, chances are migration would be an attractive option. Grass is not necessary greener over the other side, but we are seeing more weeds here, whether we like it or not. It really doesn’t matter anymore, if Singapore suffers from a brain drain in the future, as the situation is currently correcting itself with the foreign talents. No, I am not lamenting or complaining about the foreign talents, but such a decision came about from a wider perspective which I would not indulge here but surely housing is a major consideration.

Perhaps in the future when Singapore sees more doctors/lawyers/engineers/executives leaving for greener pastures or rather leaving a barren land, it would look back and say … ‘maybe houses then are a tad too ex…’

MIT centre for real estate has a good critique of the cost:income measure of affordability and proposes and alternative; extract below:

How is Affordability Measured in the HAI Index?

“In determining whether individual households can afford adequate housing, there are three dimensions of affordability that are considered in the current literature: adequate structural quality, the specific needs of varying types of households (especially differences in size), and commuting costs.

Many of the existing measures of housing affordability are indicators of so-called “rent burdens”—a ratio of monthly housing costs to incomes—computed using a simple ratio of median rents or house prices to median incomes. This approach, while mathematically simple and based on readily available data, obscures the true questions of affordability.

Reports using medians fail to identify an acceptable level of housing quality or town level public amenities (such as school systems). In addition, the median house price in many well-to-do areas is likely to reveal little about the distribution of acceptable housing units that cost less than the median in that town. Furthermore, households eligible for affordable units neither earn the median nor seek the median housing unit.

Some of the median-ratio statistics are also created by using an individual town’s median house price and the same town’s median income. Those who already live in the town can most likely afford to live there. It is more appropriate to consider a metropolitan-wide distribution of households who need to live somewhere. Finally, because the median measures fail to incorporate structural characteristics they provide little useable information to households of different sizes.

The HAI Housing Affordability Index is a powerful alternative to previous measures of affordability. One of its greatest strengths is its ability to capture the Total Cost of Ownership of individuals’ housing choices. In computing the index the obvious cost of rents and mortgage payments are modified by the hidden costs of those choices. The Housing Affordability Index adjusts the nominal Total Cost of Ownership by factoring in the opportunity costs associated with access to employment, the quality of public schools, and environmental conditions. Inexpensive housing built with little or no access to employment imposes high commuting costs on households with less capacity to absorb those costs. The Index’s innovation in affordability measurement is its incorporation of job accessibility as an important aspect of the economic health of the region. Likewise, poor schools and environmentally fraught neighborhoods also impose costs on residents that are not entirely reflected in the price of housing. The Index modifies each community’s rents and housing values to reflect these costs using a sophisticated multivariable regression to generate an adjusted distribution of the housing stock.

In addition to more accurately describing the total cost of housing in a town within its local metropolitan region, the Index allows for the varying needs of different sized households and imposes a minimum standard for structural quality. Different indexes can be computed for specific household incomes and household sizes, taking into account the variety of groups who have a stake in area affordability. The flexibility and rigorous approach of the HAI Index make it a powerful tool for helping to address the current challenges to providing affordable housing.”

who seriously wants to work until they’re 80?!?

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/lower-hdb-valuations-or-build-more-affordable-hdb-housing-for-singaporeans

the way i see it, buy high is ok as long as it doesn’t fall when you need to sell. if the gahmen can ensure a stable market, i think we should be contented.

but if you buy high and force to sell low because our gahmen has mismanaged the property market, you may have to find another quick exit because the mrt will soon be installed with new glass barrier.