7/01/2010
Getting carried away with delirium
A housing agent, Vincent Kang, was so piss off with the way the policy on public housing is heading that he wrong a personal letter to the Today forum to vent his anger. To him, and I agree with him, public housing is to provide a roof over the heads of the average citizens that could not speculate on properties to get rich.
That was the original objective which people were generally happy with though there were a few of grouses for not being able to speculate with public housing. Now, when the policy has changed, anger is coming out instead of grouses. For every dollar someone speculates on and profits, someone is gonna pay for it. And that someone is also a Singaporean.
The down spiralling of a good policy started when things got to go wrong, when CPF savings was not enough, high cost of housing and high cost of living. This led to finding new ways to squeeze money from nowhere. So the most precious item, the HDB flats, become a commodity, to be traded, to be used to generate income, to keep up with the high cost of living.
Some thought it was clever. And clever it was indeed. Those who profitted were laughing, for a short while. Then when the little windfall was not enough, they could end up living in the beaches or the parks
High public housing prices and high cost of living are never good. They put stresses and demands for higher income to sustain the useless and unproductive assets appreciation. The people must not be misled into thinking that they are wealthy when in fact they got poorer instead.
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10 comments:
Mr. Bean,
We Singaporeans are a pretty stupid lot.
Ever wondered why well known hawkers are laughing all the way to the bank? That's because we support his arrogance by joining in the queue for his food even though it's only mediocre. We are besotted by the restaurant syndrome. When you see people clamouring for something, you automatically think it must be good. There are thousands of other alternatives. Just look for it.
If an HDB in Queenstown costs $900k, do you really have to live there? What is so special about the place? There are lots of HDB apartments in myriad estates going for a fraction of the price.
There is no way you can fight the supply and demand equation. Fools inflating demand must pay through their nose for the limited supply. As simple as that.
Hehe.
Singaporeans are pretty stupid is an understatement.
Many years ago, some mediocre and discarded Taiwanese singers came here to perform. When they returned to Taiwan, they tell their own people over there that Singaporeans are plain stupid, paying such money to listen to their singing, which were substandard in Taiwan.
I take back my words.
Singaporeans are the stupidest lot and when they raise the prices of everything THEMSELVES they whine and rant. Just stop buying all those overpriced stuff and prices will come down like a ton of bricks. Well, that's what they really in fact are. Just tons of bricks!
When there is a sob story and played to the gallery by our MSM, "kind hearted" stoopid Singaporeans give and give. Little boys and girls also break their piggy banks to give to the con artists who are now living in luxury as Lords of the manor back in their home country. Hehe, how stupid can you get?
Not forgetting that with my utilities bill, I also received an appeal from some community hospital for donations and guess what? That foreign talent who lives in a condo but rented out his HDB works there.
Since I am less stupid than the typical stoopid Singaporean, I threw that appeal leaflet into the trash bin where it rightfully belongs because I do not want to contribute to the salary of someone who takes advantage of our lax HDB rules on renting out SUBSIDIZED public housing.
See? I am taking steps to being less stupid and practising what I preach.
Hehe.
I agree that Singaporeans themselves are to blame for pushing up prices of everything.
Simple reasoning will tell them that if they stop buying those overpriced stuff, the prices will come down to earth. Sad to say, their ego is more important than their sensibilities.
And I also agree that what is perceived as underprivileged people here are much better off than others elsewhere.
In Myanmar, underprivileged children in charity homes wished for pencils, erasers and exercise books. Here, they asked for things that I myself would consider as luxury items like toys, computer games etc, things that they choose, to fulfil their wishes.
This is not simply supply and demand when supply and demand are being controlled.
But they bullshit the people by saying it is all market forces.
If the only builder refuses to build and increases the demand by bringing in more and richer foreigners, and tell you the price is not going to come down but go up, you better pawn everything and grab one while it is still affordable.
HDB keep on pumping out more flats and yet resale prcs are still going up. The problem here is not about releasing more lands but curbing population growth with massive influx of foreigners and new citizens. You don't need to ne a rocket scientist and paid millions to see the actual problem.
The way housing prices are going up when there is no bubble, as pronounced by the mental one, what will it be like if there is a bubble, I dread to think.
Some are waiting for the big crash. By then, you could really see people being carried away, not with delirium, but on stetchers, victims of heart attacks.
But the HDB and the Government, who owns the land, will still be waiting to laugh all the way to the bank again, because they will start the selling, bidding and building cycle again and again.
And still the suckers will come and some will be born every minute.
HDB is pumping up more HDB flats. I am still wondering whether they really study the demands or just go by trial and error when launching new flats. Are the number of flats being offerred enough to meet the demands or they are still guessing?
This high demand for public housing must have caught them off guard as well. But I shouldn't say that. I think they know exactly what is happening and the high prices are good for the people, especially those who already bought their flats.
For a tiny city, me says make all properties to be owner occupied only and make it mandatory. Exception only for commercial properties.
patriot
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