Probably no property bubble here yet, says MM Lee
July 20th, 2010 | 
Author: Dear MM Lee,
I refer to your statements made at a dinner hosted by the Association of Banks in Singapore as reported by Straits Times on 26th Jun 2010.
You said the sharp property price rise is part of the total liquidity in the whole world and that foreigners see Singapore properties as cheap. But Malaysian properties are even cheaper, yet we don’t find the same sharp rise there. Why did the total liquidity in the whole world came flooding here instead of flooding Malaysia for example? So you cannot attribute our sharp property price rise solely or primarily to the total liquidity in the whole world. Because the total liquidity in the whole world doesn’t explain why Singapore property prices have shot up so much but not those of neighbouring Malaysia.
Ultimately, you cannot avoid answering the question of why there is a real underlying demand for residential property despite prices being as sky high as they are now. The answer as everybody now knows is the half a million or so people you have added to Singapore in a short span of just a couple of years without a concomitant increase in the number of houses being built. This episode clearly demonstrates the government’s utter lack of foresight that you so often tout about.
If investment return is what the Indonesians, Thais or Malaysian Chinese are coming for, they must surely know that there is an abundance of foreigners here who would readily pay a premium to buy or rent from them because of the acute shortage in housing now. Thus, no matter how we look at it, we can always trace the problem to the same root cause which is the severe imbalance between supply and demand for housing caused by inappropriate and inadequate government policies.
Thank you
Ng Kok Lim
Posted in 32 Responses to “Probably no property bubble here yet, says MM Lee”
Loading ...
Alex Tan Allan Ooi AWARE Chee Soon Juan Chiam See Tong Claire Lee David Widjaja DBS Dr Allan Ooi Dr Silviu Ionescu Dr Vivian Balakrishnan Foyce Le Xuan highnote5 Hong Lim Park Jack Lin Xinli Jack Neo Jack Neo affair Jack Neo scandal Josie Lau Josie Lau Meng Lee Lee Kuan Yew Lehman brothers Lighthouse Evangelism MAS minibonds Miss Singapore World NTU stabbing PAP Pastor Rony Tan Ris Low Romanian diplomat in hit-and-run Rony Tan S-League silviu ionescu Singapore Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games Tan Kin Lian Thio Su Mien Tiger Woods affair Tong Kok Wai Top 8 Vivian Balakrishnan Wendy Chong Y O G Youth Olympic Games
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck and Luke Morton requires Flash Player 9 or better.
He is old already, can no longer think properly.
This old demon is out with his daft fairy tale again solely to cover up his mistakes and placate the ill inform citizenry which always bear the brunt of his mistakes.Much harms have been inflicted on the citizenry from the years of his autocratic rule and his day is numbered as his evil will drag him down to hell!!!!!
When is the old fart going to roll over and die and leave us all in peace?
An old man over 80 has ABSOLUTELY no business meddling with political affairs of a nation.
We need BETTER, FASTER and CHEAPER ministers than the old fart.
Time to import some chinese mainland PRC imports to replace the old fart.
when did that old fart ever tell the truth other than boasting that his bank account has many 0s
MM Lee likes to play with bubbles. He is a bubble head.
Talking nonsense again.
Paul the German octopus can easily replace him.
Cheaperer, Betterer and Fasterer.
But then Paul knows when to retire gracefully.
Some day, the law might be amended to allow these millionaire ministers to outsource their post to cheaper intellects from PRC & India while they go shopping or golfing. Their perm secs will be checking on them.
Maybe outsource PM Lee’s position to Mr. Clinton or Mr. Bush…cheaper and still got 50% leftover
LKY still protecting his lover boy MBT lah.
rephrase~….
“Probably property bubble here not burst yet, says MM Lee”
he definitely don’t know anything about economy , property , gay iuuse , homo issue , human language etc etc . he can say whatever he want and get away with it … mm = pele .
According to the report, MM did not say “there IS NO property bubble.” He said “there is probably No property bubble”. So there might or might not be a property bubble – either way he is not wrong.
Who says there is such as thing as EXPANDING BUBBLE, it is only a “bubble” after it is DEFLATED, not before – just like the US Sub-prime.
Old Forecaster predicted all things wrong:
1.Said Obama is “flash in the pan” candidate sure lose but he won!
2.Act as Adviser to JP Morgan, Citigroup leading to USA financial historical crisis!(therefore he got no acumen or foresight)
3.Singapore’s declining birth rate and aging population he didn’t
foresee problem(but had to “import foreign citizens” by millions)
4.Spend more time in “fixing”or demolishing political rivals in opposition (but forget to “fix” more crucial policies cockup)!
5.Most time invested in wrong overseas deals losing billions of taxpayers money (due to poor judgment)!
Any more you can think of..?
Lately LKY is known for his inaccurate prediction. From investing with Citibank and Bank of America to the oil and gas company BP.
Just for thoughts, Since LKY predicts that there is no property bubble there might be a HIGH chance that he could be WRONG and the bubble is coming soon?
I will send a massive bubble up the old fart’s ass and see what happens.
Hope bubble will burst soon or the impact will be too big if the bubble continue to expand at the current rate for a prolong period! PM Lee, are you sleeping on your job ?
yeah right, better start bursting now than later when the entire property market expanded fully, then the whole nation will plunge, “boooooooooom” big time, finito, kapoot! all bankcrupt . . . . and you think he cares? dream on!
Ho hum… Like what he forecasted to be Singapore’s Golden Era in 2008, just before the biggest financial crisis in 80 years, the steepest decline in S’pore GDP since independence?
Maybe he learnt his lesson liao … now every forecast he make he will add the word “Probably” in front.
Probably no housing bubble.
Probably we will have golden era.
Probably no more floods.
Probably Singaporean median income will be $3100 in 2020.
Probably HDB will be affordable.
Probably there is no homeless in Singapore and destitute will probably have free roof over their heads and free meals delivered to them.
Probably the MRT and bus system is not crowded and is the best in the world.
Probably the ministers will get 40% bonuses and pay increments.
Probably PAP will still win GE and be the dominant govt for next 50 years.
All I can say is Problem leh … Big Problem!
hello, property no bubbles in malaysia because foreigners are not allowed to buy low and medium cost housing, built by developers, not hdb.
can you imagine housing to rise the level like simpopo with that kind of restriction,…..
bring in more foreigners and you’ll see the burst, not the bubble..
soon, we’ll have to fight for duckrides, so little ducks on the road….or maybe not as word goes around, simpopo is swimming, YOG,,,,anyone ????
I read that TH is getting funding from EU market:
“Temasek had launched and priced a dual-tranche offering of 12-year and 30-year sterling-denominated bonds worth a total of 700 million pounds.”
Is it not true that TH primary funding is from CPF – provided to them by our MIW government? Does this means that we are running out of money in our CPF? Can TR shine some light into this?
From the reading below, it seems to me that our government has a huge public debt (at 130% of our GDP) – we were ranked top 8 in a list of 130 countries – is this true that our government borrowed most of this money from her citizens?
“This is a list of countries by public debt as listed by CIA’s World Factbook 2010. It is the cumulative total of all government borrowings less repayments that are denominated in a country’s home currency. Public debt should not be confused with external debt, which reflects the foreign currency liabilities of both the private and public sector and must be financed out of foreign exchange earnings. The figures here are represented as a percentage of annual gross domestic product.
Rank Country % of GDP[1] Date
1 Zimbabwe 282.60 2009 est.
2 Japan 189.30 2009 est.
3 Saint Kitts and Nevis 185.00 2009 est.
4 Lebanon 156.00 2009 est.
5 Jamaica 124.50 2009 est.
6 Italy 115.20 2009 est.
7 Greece 113.40 2009 est.
8 Singapore 113.10 2009 est.
9 Iceland 107.60 2009 est.
10 Sudan 103.70 2009 est.”
My mistake – the Singapore Government internal debt should be 113% of GDP.
reallyconcerned:
July 21, 2010 at 5:36 pm
“My mistake – the Singapore Government internal debt should be 113% of GDP.”
And in Down Under…
“There is virtually no net public debt in the country at all in contrast to much of the developed world,” Mr Stevens said in answer to a question after a speech to the Anika Foundation.
“The most recent figures out of Canberra was a peak of five or six per cent of GDP. So far from that being the highest in history, it is closer to the lowest.”
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/virtually-no-public-debt-rba-chief-says-20100720-10j9g.html
First merlion kena lightning. Next the flyer kena lightning. What or who is next to kena lightning??Any guesses?No prizes for guessing correctly.
uk also high public debt.
so PM Cameroon cuts his own pay and that of his colleagues.
true gentlemen,true blue ministers.
singapore,public debt also high.
but,PM Lee wants to increase his multi-million salary and that of his colleagues.
true greedy men,true blue MINSTRELS.
what a shame,what a sham!
babasa:
July 21, 2010 at 11:59 pm
First merlion kena lightning. Next the flyer kena lightning. What or who is next to kena lightning??Any guesses?No prizes for guessing correctly.
the first 2 cases were only “tes-runs” to check its prowess, the 3rd one will be “napshot” choon choon one, sure kena chiak lat right straight on target, cannpt run, sure die one, no escape, chow tar, fully-cooked . . . . . you all know who, right?
Yr wife ok? U joining her soon?
It’s very easy to put the controversy of the cause of the rise in
property prices. Just publish the number of properties sold to
citizens and foreigners. There is absolutely no harm in publishing
such information. Unless they are hiding something.
MM Lee and the rest of these yaya-PAPayas have forgotten one small detail, viz,
The billions of CPF savings ploughed into HDB and private residential property (not to mention the interest that would otherwise have accrued) – all by courtesy of PAP’s socio-political policies.
Perhaps in Singapore’s context – property is “too big to fail” – but sometimes it is hard to control the genie once it is out of the bottle.
The Pariah, http://www.singaporeenbloc.blogspot.com
Govn. debt 113% of GDP
External Debt only 11% mah
Govn. owe you money ah. HAHAHAHA. When and how they going to pay back.
Also GDP is bullshit. Its fucking easy to play with GDP figures.
Year on Year growth. Fuck la just increase govn. spending and like magic Year on year growth. Increase GDP = Higher Stardard of living
Yeah!!!! Everything increase in price. Next year cycle continues.
Yup great idea. All the while everyone thinking these increases are fantastic. Singapore very rich country.
Year on year growth = every year print more money
Print more money = value of money decreases.
This entire game is meant to fuck you over. Keep playing folks.
By the way folks, those of you who remember 1996. Welcome to it all over again.
Howdy, i study your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just wondering if you get a lot of spam comments? If so how do you prevent it, any plugin or anything you can advise? I get so much recently it is driving me mad so any assistance is really much appreciated.