2/25/2010

We never learn1

Everyone seems to be blowing the property bubble and fanning it. High prices are good. We can hedge against inflation and our savings for old age. I don't believe people can be so simplistic. The series of repercussions and consequences are unimaginable when asset inflation leads to asset deflation. During the last financial crisis, many people went bust, bankrupt. Many lost their jobs, many could not service their mortgages, many properties were forced sold, many ended with negative assets. And of course many downgraded. Just because things were looking better, and the property prices have recovered, with some making profits and some lowering their losses, we should continue to blow the bubble. The next crisis can come even sooner than expected and the impact could be worst when the loans are getting bigger. 90% of our people lived in HDB flats. This is their home, the roof on their heads. When HDB flats become an element in the speculative circus of boom and bust, when it busts again, and serious enough, we are going to have many frustrated and angry people. And if they cannot afford to have the roof over their heads, we are going to have a real social problem of our own creation. As we keep feeding the unsatiable appetite of the developers and the speculators, we may want to ask why or what for? Making all those profits for what? To make developers and speculators rich and happy? To make foreigners coming here to swoop up the properties rich and happy? Our main concern, or the main concern of both the people and govt is good homes for the people. Not 'AFFORDABLE' homes that are not affordable. But looking at today's news, the two launches of BTO flats are 10 times oversubscribed, saying that they are indeed affordable. And is there a high demand or the demand is fictitious? Many of these buyers are still frightened that if they can't get one now, the next one will be more expensive. Many needed a home, genuine buyers, but the supply is coming in in drips and draps. If they don't register, no building of new flats. The frenzy to grab anything that is available is hot. Who dares to wait when the mantra is that property prices can only go up and up and away? I really hope that another big financial crisis hits us soon and this time people really learn that playing with people's homes and blowing the property bubble is dangerous and bad. The flat is the people's home and should not be a factor in the housing casino.

8 comments:

Wally Buffet said...

I pray everyday that the world will go bust and this bubble madness will end and Redbean will stop talking about it like an old grandmother.....:-)

Then, paupers like me still staying put in my tent at Changi Beach end will have the last laugh! I am sure my tent is not a bubble!

Hehe.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Hi Wally,

Can you help grandma by suggesting some interesting things to write about?

And make sure your tent is not made of rubber. Don't ever pray for a major disaster, our few hundred billions in investment may become toilet papers overnight.

Anonymous said...

Lets just wait and see when bubble will burst.....hotspot in middle east is getting hotter.Unthinkable will happen if Israel attacks Iran nuclear sites. It is not a questions of "if" but "When?".

Anonymous said...

I am still waiting for the Mother of all financial crisis to shake up and wake up Singaporeans. Only then can they regain consciousness from the heavy dose of PAP BS.

Anonymous said...

Singaporeans will not wake up. They are too intoxicated with properties, casinos, shares, blowing bubbles and PAP indoctination.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

> I really hope that another big financial crisis hits us soon and this time people really learn that playing with people's homes and blowing the property bubble is dangerous and bad. <

With big time sovereign defaults afoot, you will get your wish. It will crash.

However, people won't learn. Count on it.

Anonymous said...

Just make your profits and move off, take the opportunity before it is lost.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Actually better don't wish that it will happen. All our eggs are in one basket, ie invested everywhere. I can't imagine how much we will lose if there is a major crisis. A few hundred billion at one go is sup sup sui if we can remember the financial crisis or the subprim crisis.

And mine, what about our savings in the CPF?