7/02/2013

Striking rich for selling a HDB coffee shop


There is another good piece of news that someone out there has made a fortune through HDB’s generosity. A coffee shop in Hougang is sold for $23.88m! Wow, so easy to make a fortune. Buy a shop from HDB, sit it out and when the time is ripe, sell it and retire rich and happy.

For every one to make it rich this way, someone else must pay for it right? The buyer of the coffee shop, the Broadway Group, is not going to throw the $24m away for nothing. How is the group going to recover the money back and with profits of course?

Your guess is as good as mine. Someone, or many people, will have to pay for the windfall. It has to be. The stall holders are worried that their rent will shoot through the roof through. I say, no worry lah, just past the cost to the consumers mah, easy what.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I say, no worry lah, just past the cost to the consumers mah, easy what.
RB

That's provided they are the only coffee shop for miles around lah.

So although they sell their coffee and food very expensive, they are still the cheapest available lah. So consumers bo pian (no choice) mah. Bcos if you don't cook yourself, you have to buy your food what, tio bo? You cannot don't eat what, can you?

Just like PAP is the best available party to be govt mah. We also cannot bo cheng hu (no govt) what, tio bo?

Anonymous said...

Tio
Tio-ed tow peo
Boh beh teoh boh beh peo
Boh PAP, boh Chenghu.
Boh Chenghu, buay wak.
Longchong si.

Wu yia boh ?

Anonymous said...

Economic growth often is also about buying and selling.

The computed values likely used say for the investment and consumption components of AD ( Aggregate Demand ) are probably the latest sale price of say a new project launch.

Meaning a high elevated value would likely be reflected in the next GDP computation.

So if vehicle coe super high, it is somehow reflected in the GDP figure as well showing very "high growth rate".

That's why GDP growth rate used as a measurement of sol ( standard of living ) is at best a not so accurate estimate and in some ways rather misleading.

Also, though 2011 and 2012 registered positive nominal GDP growth, the real rates are actually negative once inflation rates are subtracted. Worst still, GDP does not work in longer hours worked or the much higher stress faced by all workers. In other words, despite nominal GDP "artificially" showing positive growth, actual real sol is declining and in fact economy as a while is going backwards in a way.

When you put engineers and hard sciences people in charge of the economy, sometimes this is the outcome lah! Not sure how much all these people know about the nuts and bolts of economics. In any case, if engineers and hard sciences people can be economics experts leading the way, why should society be spending billions churning out people trained in economics. In that logic, trained economists can also be engineers and scientists lah. Tio bo? Agree, sila kee 2 chius and 2 kahs! Kns

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

24 mil would just about buy you a so-so decent bungalow in district 9, 10 or 11.

At current prices, and a slightly cooled up trend, I think they got a good buy. They's better hope the market doesn't tank.

Anonymous said...

During the 1997/ 1998 financial crisis, the aftermath was the "luxury" of coffee shop assistant aunties and uncles sitting in taxis driven by bankrupted ex-multi-millionaires property owners.

There is a saying that in the past few millenniums, history tends to repeat itself.

Hope the scenarios in the late 1990s would not be repeated if ever the current property bubble burst in the foreseeable future .......

If it happens, it would be the most chilling scene one would ever see in a movie ......

Maciam 911 people jumping out from more than 80 storeys New York World Trade Centre buildings when two planes crashed into them ......

Most horrifying and scaring scenes ......

Unlike the 1990s, now sg has a jungle of super tall buildings like the Pinnacle @ Duxton, MBS Sky Park and countless super tall condos in the central core, outer core and suburbs regions.

Wonder whether such people would have the courage and gumption to carry on lives as bankrupted taxi drivers driving aunties, uncles, ah nehs, pinoys, ah tiongs, drunks, red light district workers etc etc around from pt A to pt B to Pt C to Pt D bk to pt A then to pt Z everyday day in day out 365 including holidays Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year and staying in dilapidated 1 or 2 or 3 room HDB flats?

Sad scene ......

More good years and 1999 Swiss Standard of Living? Thank you multi-millionaires woody char tao and fellow cohorts! A million million thanks .....,,,

Anonymous said...

Economically, sg economic size is negligible in the global scheme of things.

If overseas mega economies such as PRC tank, one can't see how sg can as the Chinese saying goes "hold up the sky with one hand or even two hands"....... indefinitely without "bleeding to death" .......

Investors beware .......

Anonymous said...

no matter what price the stall holders charge for the food they sell, even shangrila hotel prices also cannot reclaim the $23 million. this new buyer sitting on it for a few years before he let go to another fool for $30 million. i doubt though he'll ever can sell it at that price.

Anonymous said...

@ Anon 12.52pm

Talking of tall buildings, you may have overlooked MBFC ........

Incidentally, if not wrong, our dear author --- the highly acclaimed and renowned Mr Chua Chin Leng aka Red Bean worked in one of those towers ..........

Rt, Redbean?

Anonymous said...

@ Anon 12.52 pm

How about super tall and gigantic ivory towers?

Mb we have the "tallest" ivory towers globally .......

Yeh! Sg everything also #1! Ivory towers also "tallest", #1 in the whole wide world ......

Gan bei, yam seng, cheers ........

Singaporeans future very bright in the horizon bcos golden glittering years ahead .......

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

I am on the lower floors, so not so dangerous.

In the last housing bubble bust, a friend of mine had 14 properties in hand. Another more than 20. Both ended up in the same boat.

Many are speculating on leveraging on loans, waiting to resell or to rent out to service the loans. In the early days of the bubble, all will be sitting on very handsome profits. If they can get out in time before the next bubble bursts.

Anonymous said...

Ha ha @ anon 2.03 pm

So like dat if sg economy tanks and property market crashes and a lot of multi millionaires bankrupt, the people in the ivory towers responsible for policies need commit "hari kiri" from their tallest ivory towers in the world .......?

What do you think?

Anonymous said...

'just past the cost to the consumers mah'

- lky mentioned sinkies are very daft one lah. they think that so long as they do not get a car, they do not pay coe. they do not understand how those up there can easily pass down the costs to them.

- what and where is mbfc?

Anonymous said...

Thanks to the foreigners and 6.9m population. Some are being made multi millionaires by selling highly inflated assets.

Veritas said...

We are heading for trouble. Not all foreign talent are Jim Rogers type that can afford to pay anything to get a roof.

In fact all economy are driven nerd type talent. Today, many PRC are already back home because we are too expensive. Tomorrow, no one other than those from worst slump in India will come.

If a economy is able to offer cheap housing with reasonable salary, Singapore will experience a brain drain of nerd type talent.

And if PRC manage to build a socialize healthcare and lower its property by 50%, the nerd type will flock to PRC.

Many PAP policy today will end up very badly for future Singaporeans.

FUCK PAP.

Anonymous said...

This coffee shop's kopi must be priced as high as coffeebean. Think cannot afford to buy kopi kau for you there. But here can buy you plenty of kopi kau kau.

Cheers.

Anonymous said...

Redbean, economically, a firm can only pass cost to consumer if first of all they have some sort of monopoly power either in technology, market power, control of supply, sole producer, star attraction, die die also must eat there pull factor, chio bu beer gals, only eating place within 1,000 miles radius etc .........

Looking at the coffee shop landscape in that district, its probably much nearer in finding one than a MRT station.

Thus, it would go against all proven behavioural economics concepts if ever the proprietor can pass this $24 million cost to consumers, mb just marginally but not fully or substantially .......

Being just one among many providers in this market segment, the price elasticity of demand for whatever the coffee shop can possibly offer within the authority permitted guidelines would dictate that it would likely be relatively high unless they have some special tricks ( eg. special biz ideas etc ) up its sleeve ....... which is unlikely .......

Thus it would be interesting to see once they are operational, how is it going to affect their bottom and top lines numbers in the succeeding few quarters of financial results ...... ?

Anonymous said...

Is the Coffee Shop the One that the Opposition Party Supporters used to gather and also used for victory celebrations?

Anonymous said...

Got correlation meh?

Anonymous said...

The new owner will not try to recover cost. doing charity lah. sell kopi cheaper than nearby kopitiams some more.