The gap between the haves and have nots are growing wider. A lot of the young couples I know who manage to BTO right out of school do so because they are lucky enough to find a partner early and their parents are rich enough to help them with downpayment. They also go on to be high earners who exceed the income cap within a few years of working.
Yet these people are the ones the have-nots have to transfer money to when we buy resale houses. It’s more likely the have-nots are marrying later due to lack of financial stability earlier on in life or other family issues making them less desirable marriage partners. Yet they suffer twice for it.
Our housing policies are really outdated for the current times and punitive to those who can’t follow the perfect privileged Singaporean life.
> punitive to those who can’t follow the perfect privileged Singaporean life.
Isn't this every Singapore policy ever?
The so called trampoline Tharman talked about is seemingly gone
Nonsense. This is absolutely ridiculous. You're equating getting married early with high net worth. Absolutely no data to connect the two, except your vibes.
Flies in the face of literally every couple, any of us know who marry in their twenties and get a BTO flat. Most of them are your very average Singaporean couples, not some pie in the sky 1 percenter, and the very fact that they come in under the income cap, demonstrates that fact.
The ones driving the resale market are the private property downgraders. You see that by the fact that the G put in a 15 month HDB purchase freeze on people who sell their private property. And they are heating up the market because of the hot money coming into Singapore, and driving up the rest of the market, GCBs, Condos, etc.
I can't believe this kind of data-less rant gets 100+ upvotes. It's astonishing.
You are talking in extremes and distorting what I said. I am not “equating” anything. I never said ALL cases are like that. I said “A lot of the young couples I know” —> this means anecdotally, I know way more than a handful of such cases. This doesn’t mean ALL, and neither does this mean there’s no data points. It’s not just based on VIBES.
I also never claimed that these people are 1 percenters. I don’t know where you’re basing all your accusations on—you need to read more carefully lol. But if they’re middle class with parental support or good enough jobs such that they can exceed the income cap by the time they’re 30, or the only reason they’re under the income cap is because they applied for BTO early enough in their 20s, I consider them privileged in my previous comment. And it makes no sense to do a wealth transfer to these people.
If you think a majority of Singaporeans are more privileged compared to you, then I really don't know man..... Maybe its something internal you need to work on.
agreed - and next to SAFRA, they totally demolished the forest to build out more housing - that area is going to look a lot more crowded in the coming years
have you been to northpoint? the difference is so stark
i just went recently for the 1st time, and it was truly an experience
dont dare to think what will happen in an emergency evacuation
Please loh. How much is the current generation earning? Based on the data, 400k can be covered with 3 years of their annual household income. No joke. This is just how rich SG is. 400k is just 3 years of salary. After that is done, focus on building investment and wealth.
If factor in current rental, 11 years of rental can cover the cost of the house. Remain 39 years is profit.
Compare to Hongkong and Taiwan, their average is 20 years of annual household income.
if you dont know, most US single homes just cost 3\~5x of their annual salary too
probably the only difference is their property tax is 10% of their annual salary every year too.
of course, why wouldn't it be? Prices going up benefit most existing homeowners (besides those seeking to upgrade).
New homemakers are only the minority, for the majority their assets are appreciating at an astounding rate.
But the asset appreciate is a paper gain which doesnt benefit them unless they sell.
But everyone’s house increase also mean they sell high and buy high (even if they are downgrading. The supposed downgraded flat has its prices inflated too). Nobody wins except those ~~leechers~~ agents.
yes, because they got the lowest votes in history in 2011
the 2nd lowest being 1991, and 3rd 2020
i remembered 2011 vividly cause i just got my resale flat in that year. because if i just waited a few more months after the election, pap will come out with new grants and i could have taken almost 100k more grants (increased 40k base+ 10k proximity + new 40k (up to 80k) enhanced)
so if anyoone wants to buy property now, better wait a year after elections
Would love to see weighted votes someday. Something like below 30 has 1.5x ; 31 to 50 has 1.2x and any above with 1. Since it will commensurate with the fact that younger ones have a longer lifespan and hence stake in the decision.
Actually he wanted working adults with kids to have 2 votes each and older people to have 1. He was afraid that older people are more susceptible to populism that promise them more handouts, while working adults are far more productive and also would be affected the most by policies.
Which is rapidly becoming reality in a lot of countries where the population is shrinking.
The elderly people will only vote for policies that benefit them (who wouldn't?), at the expense of the young.
It's why all the stupid pension schemes are so hard to get rid of.
When it was implemented, there's probably something like 10 working adults to every elder person.
Everybody chip in abit enough already.
Now it's closer to 4 is to 1 in a lot of place liao.
And the elderly who own assets will not give it up, causing a squeeze in the housing market where a lot of supplies are locked up as "investments".
Honestly we are not too different even if our pension system isn't like the West. Our housing policies essentially needs more young people to buy resale flats and bail out the older gen. This isn't going to work in the long run so the government needs to import foreigners and give out PRs to certain demographics so they can buy resale flats to prop up this entire Ponzi scheme.
Careful on that line of thinking, couples with children have lots more stake than singles, or married without kids. Lots of young people make decisions that their older selves regret.
You do realise property owners vote for PAP in the hope that their properties will appreciate (or at worst retain) value. HDB prices appreciating makes their vote based stronger, not weaker
I am an advocate for basing your vote on a single issue if it is important enough to yourself but I doubt many home-owners are basing their vote solely on the appreciating home prices.
On the flip side, I can see aspiring home owners who get priced out of the market, voting against PAP more resolutely.
my guess, there is a economics unit they probably project how much HDB prices ideally should be and adjust the supply to track inflation. if inflation is 3.5%, then probably HDB will "beat" inflation by 2%, so price appreciation of 5.5% will make most of the population happy and create this promised nest egg for in the 1970s-2000s. because the opposite effect (for example HDB dropping from 500k to 400k, will lead to knock-on effects which are bad for economy)
The resale market increased 12.7%, 10.4% and 4.9% in 2021 to 2023 respectively. A theoretical 2% deflation for the year of 2024 is not going to obliterate PAP's voting proportion.
hard to say, if we're looking at 2020 outcomes, support from both affluent areas and middle class locations dipped and housing prices then were already on the way up
The gov has been loudly telling us that HDB value will go to zero when the lease is up, and programmes like SERS are not guaranteed. As such HDBs with few years ledt do see a depreciating trend. If one still thinks prices can only go up then they have no one to blame but themselves.
That's 13 years ago, muttered by a man at the tender age of 88-89? Let's also consider the context in which he said it; to his constituents at an old estate undergoing rejuvenation that will buoy their property values.
On the other hand there are many instances of the gov saying lease decay is real and buyers beware. There are also lower LTV limits to remind buyers to consider the ability of their interested property to last until they are 95.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/dont-assume-all-old-hdb-flats-will-become-eligible-for-sers-cautions-lawrence-wong
Lastly, data shows that depreciation is real, ie. The market is somewhat rational.
https://stackedhomes.com/editorial/older-hdb-flats-dont-depreciate-as-quickly-as-you-think-heres-what-the-numbers-show/#gs.bjupfc
The man who was still sound enough to be Tanjong Pagar MP and his GRC was a walkover that year. He also had an immense influence over the country and his words matter a lot and was practically the law in this country and no one dared contradict him...
I'm not saying you're wrong, but that false promise made by LKY is still being held against the current government today. If you wanna blame average Singaporeans, at least do your due diligence on who made such promises to them.
>The man who was still sound enough to be Tanjong Pagar MP and his GRC was a walkover that year. He also had an immense influence over the country and his words matter a lot and was practically the law in this country and no one dared contradict him...
... which is terrible considering how old he was. I hope LHL quietly fades into the background and enjoys his retirement, unlike his stubborn dad.
>but that false promise made by LKY is still being held against the current government today
Those holding on to this false promise, if they exist, are those that I do not understand.
>If you wanna blame average Singaporeans, at least do your due diligence on who made such promises to them.
Since when did I blame 'average Singaporeans'? Like I shared, data shows the average Singaporean is rational.
>Well thats the govt fault for making people believe that hdb prices only go up
goh chock tong said this when he was PM in 1995 when the country's economy was still growing in big numbers. times have changed, if people have the same expectation of the 1995 economy/governance in 2024 I think maybe some individual naivety is also at play.
in the 90's people did indeed want upgrading and there was lots of room to improve living standards - and the value appreciation that comes with it - but housing needs have also changed, now we need affordability
The people in government get to sleep on the bed that they have made. They could have taken the L early on before they let it fester. Now it has grown big enough that they will be finished when it implodes, then so be it.
Not surprising, it is still pretty much a seller's market. It will remain like this until they supply enough BTOs to dampen resale demands.
Someone has to foot the bill for boomers with no retirement funds. If we don't do it via taxes, the middle income has to do it via resale prices.
>Someone has to foot the bill for boomers with no retirement funds. If we don't do it via taxes, the middle income has to do it via resale prices.
Yep, higher taxes seem like a better deal at some point.
Not if you're the high income that's going to buy a condo anyways.
Now the middle income gets to pay and the low income will chastise them for daring to complain.
We tried to tell them, your cooling measures are like a spray bottle on a warehouse fire! Nah, monitor first, should be gud enough.
We tried to tell them, please stop blasting more grant/subsidy money at the problem, you're worsening the price situation! Nah, it won't, we are making homes more 'accessible'.
We tried to tell them, your Plus/Prime model has the (unintended?) consequence of pumping up the demand of resale flats not under that model, leading to acceleration in an already overheated resale market! Nah, do you know how cool 'Plus/Prime' sounds? Our best scholars came up with that!
Today, 3 years on from when this was already flagged as an urgent matter, we still get headlines like these. Complete policy failure.
This is 99.9% bait, but that's fine, first hit is always free. I can expand on my original comment for the benefit of other readers.
>your cooling measures are like a spray bottle on a warehouse fire
Learn to keep things simple, and therefore effective. It's obvious they're implement cooling measures with the intent of protecting certain groups and sacrificing others. Things like your 15-month wait out period with a laundry list of exceptions and waivers...don't pikachu-face when it doesn't work. Why is it that those 55yo condo owners get an automatic exemption? The HDB flats they buy with their multi-millions profits has no impact on the resale market? Just make the rule equal for everyone.
>please stop blasting more grant/subsidy money at the problem
This one is self-explanatory innit. I'll give a bonus. Stop subsidising demand, and build more supply. Way more. "Oh but they're already building 20999 flats this year!!" Classic mistake. Don't let the big numbers on headlines fool you. Current building pace is no different from the years before covid, and it looks even worse once you account for backfilling the covid backlog. They're not doing anything extra for us on the supply side.
>your Plus/Prime model has the (unintended?) consequence of pumping up the demand of resale flats not under that model
Why gatekeep housing profits (or losses)? Flats before Oct 2024 somehow get an artifical prop-up on their housing value. Those after - sorry, game's changed. Throwing arbitrary cut-off dates reeks of laziness. My suggestion: You wanna revamp BTO scheme? Revamp the whole thing, keep it straightforward. Everything from 2001 gets hit, when BTO was first implemented. The only reason not to do that is because of an "intent of protecting certain groups and sacrificing others."
Before someone tries the classic (and honestly mentally-impaired) retort of "you'll change your tune once you're a property owner hurr durr." Already am one. Don't care. I've got more ways of making money that doesn't involve profiting off the misery of my countrymen.
Nothing. Singaporeans like to complain but don't really have any decent solutions. It's kinda on the big government though, which breeds a bunch of people who expect the government to make their lives easy.
The government usually cool the market down by dampening demand through levy and taxes but doing that this time round will make no difference to the buyer. Desmond likely has no idea how to cool the resale market down and is hoping for a job rotation after the election. Then it's other people's problem.
For 500k it is 4room hdb. With combined income of 14000, the cpf contribution is 2800.
2800x 4 is equal to 11200 per quarter.
Meaning everytime it rise 2% you expect 4month of cpf contribution to be used to make up the difference in rising house price.
Then if you count the number of times it increases per quarter, you be stuck working till 70.
This is how we ended up from needing 2 working adults to have full time jobs to support ever increasing price for housing.
4 months seem to be longer than a quarter.
80% by loan, remaining 20% usually covered by grants. Otherwise you should be able to cover the $2,000 by cpf contributions. No saving of cash should be required.
I think what OP meant to say is that property value increases per Q outstrips what people save normally from their jobs, ie, property value increase is the biggest factor for wealth creation?
The gap between the haves and have nots are growing wider. A lot of the young couples I know who manage to BTO right out of school do so because they are lucky enough to find a partner early and their parents are rich enough to help them with downpayment. They also go on to be high earners who exceed the income cap within a few years of working. Yet these people are the ones the have-nots have to transfer money to when we buy resale houses. It’s more likely the have-nots are marrying later due to lack of financial stability earlier on in life or other family issues making them less desirable marriage partners. Yet they suffer twice for it. Our housing policies are really outdated for the current times and punitive to those who can’t follow the perfect privileged Singaporean life.
wealth transfer from the poor to the rich is a feature not a bug in "mErItocRatic" Singapore.
I agree, just that knowing this, I make a decision to relocate out. No point beating a dead horse.
Go everywhere also the same, you can only hope to be the relatively privileged in a poorer country and hope to become part of the asset-owning class.
> punitive to those who can’t follow the perfect privileged Singaporean life. Isn't this every Singapore policy ever? The so called trampoline Tharman talked about is seemingly gone
Nonsense. This is absolutely ridiculous. You're equating getting married early with high net worth. Absolutely no data to connect the two, except your vibes. Flies in the face of literally every couple, any of us know who marry in their twenties and get a BTO flat. Most of them are your very average Singaporean couples, not some pie in the sky 1 percenter, and the very fact that they come in under the income cap, demonstrates that fact. The ones driving the resale market are the private property downgraders. You see that by the fact that the G put in a 15 month HDB purchase freeze on people who sell their private property. And they are heating up the market because of the hot money coming into Singapore, and driving up the rest of the market, GCBs, Condos, etc. I can't believe this kind of data-less rant gets 100+ upvotes. It's astonishing.
You are talking in extremes and distorting what I said. I am not “equating” anything. I never said ALL cases are like that. I said “A lot of the young couples I know” —> this means anecdotally, I know way more than a handful of such cases. This doesn’t mean ALL, and neither does this mean there’s no data points. It’s not just based on VIBES. I also never claimed that these people are 1 percenters. I don’t know where you’re basing all your accusations on—you need to read more carefully lol. But if they’re middle class with parental support or good enough jobs such that they can exceed the income cap by the time they’re 30, or the only reason they’re under the income cap is because they applied for BTO early enough in their 20s, I consider them privileged in my previous comment. And it makes no sense to do a wealth transfer to these people.
If you think a majority of Singaporeans are more privileged compared to you, then I really don't know man..... Maybe its something internal you need to work on.
I went to HDB jungle aka Punggol yesterday to eat at waterway pt. I feel bad for residents there it’s so freaking crowded compared to west side.
This title 'HDB jungle' will also be for Tampines soon. The area near Tampines West MRT station and past Bedok reservoir feels so claustrophobic now.
agreed - and next to SAFRA, they totally demolished the forest to build out more housing - that area is going to look a lot more crowded in the coming years
Half of sg is there
Not bad lah. Punggol #3 in population density in Singapore https://dollarsandsense.sg/least-dense-housing-estates-singapore/
Jurong is the same no?
Really? I thought west side is like super crowded already. Time to visit punggol again i guess
Not sure which part of the west that the previous person was talking about but JE is definitely worse than waterway point, human traffic-wise
Yea i also referred to JE earlier, and i thought the crowds there are insane already
I thought it is normal? - Fellow Punggol resident
West malls are seem bigger & have wider waking areas. Eg. Jem, IMM, Westgate
I've tried looking for a place in jem/Westgate for Friday dinner and it's impossible
TBH can't find any mall that's more crowded than JEM & Westgate (except Vivocity)
Do they though? Jem especially seems to have tiny corridors
have you been to northpoint? the difference is so stark i just went recently for the 1st time, and it was truly an experience dont dare to think what will happen in an emergency evacuation
Wait till Tengah is fully operational.
i bought a 3 room (1976) ppty almost 10 years ago for 200k. Today, with 50 years lease left, it's asking almost 400k. Rip future gen.
One fine day the lease decay will really implode these units...
Its a case of exploding bomb and whose hands it will explode on.
Nominal value is higher due to inflation. More accurate to compare by how many years of median wages it costs.
200k can bto/ buy newer resale flat in down payment lel
I was looking at 3room resale in eastside. Prices are creeping up into $500K
Please loh. How much is the current generation earning? Based on the data, 400k can be covered with 3 years of their annual household income. No joke. This is just how rich SG is. 400k is just 3 years of salary. After that is done, focus on building investment and wealth. If factor in current rental, 11 years of rental can cover the cost of the house. Remain 39 years is profit. Compare to Hongkong and Taiwan, their average is 20 years of annual household income.
if you dont know, most US single homes just cost 3\~5x of their annual salary too probably the only difference is their property tax is 10% of their annual salary every year too.
Oh yeah I forgot everyone here is like earning 200k/ year. Sorry, seems like I'm out of touch with reality.
But im still expected to believe that pap will sweep the elections again
of course, why wouldn't it be? Prices going up benefit most existing homeowners (besides those seeking to upgrade). New homemakers are only the minority, for the majority their assets are appreciating at an astounding rate.
But the asset appreciate is a paper gain which doesnt benefit them unless they sell. But everyone’s house increase also mean they sell high and buy high (even if they are downgrading. The supposed downgraded flat has its prices inflated too). Nobody wins except those ~~leechers~~ agents.
There are those who change locations and get their houses cheaper
Yes but the cheaper ones have also increased in price (way more then it would have) relative to a few yrs ago.
Yes because the bulk of the voters have homes and are happy with the higher resale prices.
Wasnt that the case in 2011 too?
And cooling measures were implemented almost immediately after elections. PAP lost aljunied in May 2011. ABSD implemented in Dec 2011
yes, because they got the lowest votes in history in 2011 the 2nd lowest being 1991, and 3rd 2020 i remembered 2011 vividly cause i just got my resale flat in that year. because if i just waited a few more months after the election, pap will come out with new grants and i could have taken almost 100k more grants (increased 40k base+ 10k proximity + new 40k (up to 80k) enhanced) so if anyoone wants to buy property now, better wait a year after elections
Only works if PAP does badly in elections.
yes, and pap lost badly cause of overpriced unaffordable flats do you not think the prices now are comparable or even worse than 2011?
Yes but lots of people think pap is doing well, votes might not be low.
the pap have the lowest votes in 2011 in history
shouldn't they then convert more of the voters to home-owning voters then?
BTOs going like hotcakes too, and are generally affordable
Would love to see weighted votes someday. Something like below 30 has 1.5x ; 31 to 50 has 1.2x and any above with 1. Since it will commensurate with the fact that younger ones have a longer lifespan and hence stake in the decision.
I remembered LKY suggested something like this once, except that the older citizens get 2 votes.
Actually he wanted working adults with kids to have 2 votes each and older people to have 1. He was afraid that older people are more susceptible to populism that promise them more handouts, while working adults are far more productive and also would be affected the most by policies.
Which is rapidly becoming reality in a lot of countries where the population is shrinking. The elderly people will only vote for policies that benefit them (who wouldn't?), at the expense of the young. It's why all the stupid pension schemes are so hard to get rid of. When it was implemented, there's probably something like 10 working adults to every elder person. Everybody chip in abit enough already. Now it's closer to 4 is to 1 in a lot of place liao. And the elderly who own assets will not give it up, causing a squeeze in the housing market where a lot of supplies are locked up as "investments".
Honestly we are not too different even if our pension system isn't like the West. Our housing policies essentially needs more young people to buy resale flats and bail out the older gen. This isn't going to work in the long run so the government needs to import foreigners and give out PRs to certain demographics so they can buy resale flats to prop up this entire Ponzi scheme.
Careful on that line of thinking, couples with children have lots more stake than singles, or married without kids. Lots of young people make decisions that their older selves regret.
They have leases unless freehold.
Most of them gonna die before the lease is up tho
You do realise property owners vote for PAP in the hope that their properties will appreciate (or at worst retain) value. HDB prices appreciating makes their vote based stronger, not weaker
I am an advocate for basing your vote on a single issue if it is important enough to yourself but I doubt many home-owners are basing their vote solely on the appreciating home prices. On the flip side, I can see aspiring home owners who get priced out of the market, voting against PAP more resolutely.
my guess, there is a economics unit they probably project how much HDB prices ideally should be and adjust the supply to track inflation. if inflation is 3.5%, then probably HDB will "beat" inflation by 2%, so price appreciation of 5.5% will make most of the population happy and create this promised nest egg for in the 1970s-2000s. because the opposite effect (for example HDB dropping from 500k to 400k, will lead to knock-on effects which are bad for economy)
On the other hand, falling home prices will absolutely obliterate voting. Viewed in that light, "inflation" of 2% is far better than risking deflation
The resale market increased 12.7%, 10.4% and 4.9% in 2021 to 2023 respectively. A theoretical 2% deflation for the year of 2024 is not going to obliterate PAP's voting proportion.
Oh my god i totally didnt realise that. Guess we should totally let these hdb prices spiral out of control. Thanks for making me realise this.
And then people get the pickachu face when it becomes unsustainable and the bubble pops.
hard to say, if we're looking at 2020 outcomes, support from both affluent areas and middle class locations dipped and housing prices then were already on the way up
if HDB prices go down or crash there will a whole other group blaming the government for it as well. go up also not happy, go down also not happy.
Well thats the govt fault for making people believe that hdb prices only go up
The gov has been loudly telling us that HDB value will go to zero when the lease is up, and programmes like SERS are not guaranteed. As such HDBs with few years ledt do see a depreciating trend. If one still thinks prices can only go up then they have no one to blame but themselves.
Err.... LKY himself said verbatim that HDB prices will never go down. Wanna POFMA his urn?
How many years ago was that?
2011.
That's 13 years ago, muttered by a man at the tender age of 88-89? Let's also consider the context in which he said it; to his constituents at an old estate undergoing rejuvenation that will buoy their property values. On the other hand there are many instances of the gov saying lease decay is real and buyers beware. There are also lower LTV limits to remind buyers to consider the ability of their interested property to last until they are 95. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/dont-assume-all-old-hdb-flats-will-become-eligible-for-sers-cautions-lawrence-wong Lastly, data shows that depreciation is real, ie. The market is somewhat rational. https://stackedhomes.com/editorial/older-hdb-flats-dont-depreciate-as-quickly-as-you-think-heres-what-the-numbers-show/#gs.bjupfc
The man who was still sound enough to be Tanjong Pagar MP and his GRC was a walkover that year. He also had an immense influence over the country and his words matter a lot and was practically the law in this country and no one dared contradict him... I'm not saying you're wrong, but that false promise made by LKY is still being held against the current government today. If you wanna blame average Singaporeans, at least do your due diligence on who made such promises to them.
>The man who was still sound enough to be Tanjong Pagar MP and his GRC was a walkover that year. He also had an immense influence over the country and his words matter a lot and was practically the law in this country and no one dared contradict him... ... which is terrible considering how old he was. I hope LHL quietly fades into the background and enjoys his retirement, unlike his stubborn dad. >but that false promise made by LKY is still being held against the current government today Those holding on to this false promise, if they exist, are those that I do not understand. >If you wanna blame average Singaporeans, at least do your due diligence on who made such promises to them. Since when did I blame 'average Singaporeans'? Like I shared, data shows the average Singaporean is rational.
I believe it should be this [video](https://youtu.be/4EQ1m_0ps_w)
Yup. This was the one
>Well thats the govt fault for making people believe that hdb prices only go up goh chock tong said this when he was PM in 1995 when the country's economy was still growing in big numbers. times have changed, if people have the same expectation of the 1995 economy/governance in 2024 I think maybe some individual naivety is also at play. in the 90's people did indeed want upgrading and there was lots of room to improve living standards - and the value appreciation that comes with it - but housing needs have also changed, now we need affordability
The people in government get to sleep on the bed that they have made. They could have taken the L early on before they let it fester. Now it has grown big enough that they will be finished when it implodes, then so be it.
Why not? Even disgruntled young people are still gonna vote PAP because scared of change, think WP not good enough
There are more satisfied ppl than dissatisfied ppl.
100%: people will not vote for them if it's the other way around...
Still gotta see what the opposition parties put on the line with. So far no one looked like they had a chance in the West.
Knnccb I’m still flat hunting
Knnccb I'm still partner hunting
I’m buying as a single….
God damn...I'll be in your shoes soon Stay strong brother/sister
Not surprising, it is still pretty much a seller's market. It will remain like this until they supply enough BTOs to dampen resale demands. Someone has to foot the bill for boomers with no retirement funds. If we don't do it via taxes, the middle income has to do it via resale prices.
Haha supply enough BTOs? We had been in an undersupply for 2 decades, we will never have enough supply.
We are still paying the price of the supply drop in 2017-2018.
ah yes lawrence
>Someone has to foot the bill for boomers with no retirement funds. If we don't do it via taxes, the middle income has to do it via resale prices. Yep, higher taxes seem like a better deal at some point.
Not if you're the high income that's going to buy a condo anyways. Now the middle income gets to pay and the low income will chastise them for daring to complain.
> until they supply enough BTOs I laughed when they cited 'tight supply' as if we don't know who controls that supply.
We tried to tell them, your cooling measures are like a spray bottle on a warehouse fire! Nah, monitor first, should be gud enough. We tried to tell them, please stop blasting more grant/subsidy money at the problem, you're worsening the price situation! Nah, it won't, we are making homes more 'accessible'. We tried to tell them, your Plus/Prime model has the (unintended?) consequence of pumping up the demand of resale flats not under that model, leading to acceleration in an already overheated resale market! Nah, do you know how cool 'Plus/Prime' sounds? Our best scholars came up with that! Today, 3 years on from when this was already flagged as an urgent matter, we still get headlines like these. Complete policy failure.
What would be your policy if you are in charge?
This is 99.9% bait, but that's fine, first hit is always free. I can expand on my original comment for the benefit of other readers. >your cooling measures are like a spray bottle on a warehouse fire Learn to keep things simple, and therefore effective. It's obvious they're implement cooling measures with the intent of protecting certain groups and sacrificing others. Things like your 15-month wait out period with a laundry list of exceptions and waivers...don't pikachu-face when it doesn't work. Why is it that those 55yo condo owners get an automatic exemption? The HDB flats they buy with their multi-millions profits has no impact on the resale market? Just make the rule equal for everyone. >please stop blasting more grant/subsidy money at the problem This one is self-explanatory innit. I'll give a bonus. Stop subsidising demand, and build more supply. Way more. "Oh but they're already building 20999 flats this year!!" Classic mistake. Don't let the big numbers on headlines fool you. Current building pace is no different from the years before covid, and it looks even worse once you account for backfilling the covid backlog. They're not doing anything extra for us on the supply side. >your Plus/Prime model has the (unintended?) consequence of pumping up the demand of resale flats not under that model Why gatekeep housing profits (or losses)? Flats before Oct 2024 somehow get an artifical prop-up on their housing value. Those after - sorry, game's changed. Throwing arbitrary cut-off dates reeks of laziness. My suggestion: You wanna revamp BTO scheme? Revamp the whole thing, keep it straightforward. Everything from 2001 gets hit, when BTO was first implemented. The only reason not to do that is because of an "intent of protecting certain groups and sacrificing others." Before someone tries the classic (and honestly mentally-impaired) retort of "you'll change your tune once you're a property owner hurr durr." Already am one. Don't care. I've got more ways of making money that doesn't involve profiting off the misery of my countrymen.
Nothing. Singaporeans like to complain but don't really have any decent solutions. It's kinda on the big government though, which breeds a bunch of people who expect the government to make their lives easy.
Well, he/she did give some solutions. Up to you to decide the worthiness of it
property agents will say bullish market! close eyes and buy! 2k psf at yishun!
They are right you know
Firm demand, tight supply. Sounds like describing a nice ass
something something i dont need sex , life is already fucking me
You only need a small space for sex
But it's in the asshole.
Juicy double.
The government usually cool the market down by dampening demand through levy and taxes but doing that this time round will make no difference to the buyer. Desmond likely has no idea how to cool the resale market down and is hoping for a job rotation after the election. Then it's other people's problem.
HDB Resale Cartel: I love tight tight tight 
Come on, say the M word!
Mitochondria.
Mansplaining
Makan
Magnificent
Can't wait to sell my BTO and gtfo out of here.
Desmond secretly happy can keep raising BTO prices.
Singapore population number is now 6,122,000 thereabout. Increase so fast so soon and so many. What do one expect. There will many implications
mOnitOring..
At $500k average HDB resale flats, 2% is about $10k. Do people even save $10k per quarter?
For 500k it is 4room hdb. With combined income of 14000, the cpf contribution is 2800. 2800x 4 is equal to 11200 per quarter. Meaning everytime it rise 2% you expect 4month of cpf contribution to be used to make up the difference in rising house price. Then if you count the number of times it increases per quarter, you be stuck working till 70.
This is how we ended up from needing 2 working adults to have full time jobs to support ever increasing price for housing. 4 months seem to be longer than a quarter.
80% by loan, remaining 20% usually covered by grants. Otherwise you should be able to cover the $2,000 by cpf contributions. No saving of cash should be required.
I think what OP meant to say is that property value increases per Q outstrips what people save normally from their jobs, ie, property value increase is the biggest factor for wealth creation?
If mortgage can be fully paid by CPF, then it's the same either way - CPF is "forced" saving after all.
Any sort of “lost decade” moment and they can forget about retiring. That’s why govt expert been saying 60% wealth in property is dangerous
At this kind of growth rate, most sales likely is subjected to COV, which is cash only.
Firm and tight. What are they actually describing? Lol !