APEC 2024 Peru. Biden shafted to a corner in the back row. Xi in front row next to Peru's President
10/20/2010
The housing predicament - What we do not know
One thing for sure, we do not know that we have limited land, that land is scarce. We do not know that we should not be selling our landed properties to foreigners, like selling Alaska, gone forever.
We do not know that property speculation is bad, as a home is a must have essential asset, a roof over our heads.
We do not know that prudence is good, or at least until yesterday.
We also do not know that the laws of demand and supply can wreak havoc to our property market. We do not know that allowing private property owners to buy public housing will inflate property prices, and that is bad.
We do not know that allowing more foreigners into the island will result in high demand for property prices and high speculation.
And we also do not know who is the main cause of high property price.
Maybe now we know, or do we?
"EVERY EVENT IS A NEW LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR US. This rainfall was totally unexpected, I can be very honest about it. If you look at rainfall patterns, we've never seen such a pattern," -Dr Yaacob of the A Team
ReplyDeleteTut tut redeban. You shouldn't forget to take your meds -- it'll keep the psychosis in check.
ReplyDeleteThe Housing Game will always be a hot, contentious, angry, hostile play. Booming population. Booming economy. Many people making lots of money which means they have to spen it somewhere -- and culturally real estate has been "the game" to play in Singapore.
Doesn't matter if you are a small-timer HDB 3 or 4 room owner. Even if you rented out the rooms, you could get > $1000 per month per room. Your "small-time" HDB is a motherfucking gold mine lah -- 12,000 or more extra yummy, filthy, disgusting, sexy dollars every year.
Now imagine the "medium" and the "big time" property players.
Property is to woven into the culture. Owning a "chunk" of Singapore is on everybody's mind -- everyone from the manual laborer to the CEO's and top tier govt criminals.
Singaporeans are conditioned and due to sheer numbers, this conditioning becomes culture. The conditioning starts from young. The Children are exposed to S'pore PMS (Property Madness Syndrome) through the mania of their parents -- property always on their minds, always wondering and worrying about what the government will DO to ENHANCE their property interests.
But there are also those young buggers -- all ready to go and take life by the balls, and they are also victims of PMS because they have to shell out their lives plus take out huge debt, for a long time to even have HOPE of getting into the action anchored in the terrifying fear of not being albe to own anything at all in your own motherfucking cuntry!
It's a culture redbean. A sickness and a culture.
Sorry hor, I was fast asleep all this while.
ReplyDeleteNow that I've been a fan and avid reader of your blog, I suddenly realised what you say has a sliver, nay a hell of a lot of truth in it so I've gotten my team to put on their thinking caps and see what we can do to soften the landing when the day of reckoning comes and all our useless, opportunistic foreign trash exit in droves from Changi Airport.
Thanks for reminding me again. Now, I know but please bear with me. I will come out with more tweaks, a screw here, a screw there and see if we can go back to the good old days when young men fresh out of the Uni can get married straightaway and get their brand new HDB without going through the admittedly devious charades we now have. Though it is staring me in the face, I didn't know that Singapore's population will keep falling because these young men and women has got no place to get married and make babies. Doing so in Hotel 81 or the in laws' place not so nice and convenient mah.
Once again, keep writing about this property thingy on your blog. I will have to depend on you to give me tips on how to handle this messy pile of shit although sometimes when you write in riddles, I catch no balls, neither can my overpaid minions. So also, just a humble request from me, keep your posts direct in simple singlish. Though it pains me to read it but I guess it's for the better of everyone in Sinkapoore.
Now, where the fuck is that ball? Caddieeeeee............
Reminds me, if we can turn all these hole in one useless playground land for the rich and flabby,to build more HDB flats for the poor Sinkapoore sods, maybe I will go down in history as the best loved man in this claustrophobic island.
Hmmmm...........can consider or not huh, my idol?
Hehe.
They knew but pretend not to know.
ReplyDeleteWe knew, but there is nothing we can do.
80% + another about 15% would want their properties to go up higher. 95% can sell their Sin properties and move to London, Oz, N Zealand, Toronto, Ottawa, some can become maharajahs in India, Nepal and Bhutan. Some, emperors in Mongolia, Xinjiang and Lijiang.
Only 5% are left in the lurch, 95% gain and 5% lose only mah. If the Leaders are willing to care for the 5%, which is chicken to Sin, problem solved liao!
Why kpkb ? For what ?
I have to agree with Matilah about Property Madness Syndrome in Red Dot.
ReplyDeleteNot only are children exposed to the mania through their parents, but the whole preoccupation of the people of this country is anchored in property acquiring culture, widely promoted by the rulers and frenzy feeding by foreigners.
In the process, we have citizens working their guts out right to a ripe old age, and indeed some are even left carrying a millstone round their necks right to their graves.
What is to come for future generations? I shudder to think. No wonder young people are not having kids.
I remember someone shouting that we have plenty of land. And I believe him. It all depends. You put one person in a football field, he will run around gasping for air. Too much land.
ReplyDeleteYou squeeze 300 people in the football field, they will start to stare at one another in the face wherever they turn. Too little land.
Trying to squeeze 5m people here, and this would not stop when we hit 6m, it will keep going, 8m, 10m...We create our own problem of not enough land.
With property prices going out or reach to many people, and with property taxes going to cause a bomb, eventually they either remove property tax altogether or the rich scions who could not pay the taxes to maintain their expensive properties will have to lose them.
Some may think they have plentiful properties to pass down. The main question is whether their children or grandchildren are smart enough to hold on to them. You need an exceptionally big income to live in multi million dollar properties.
Yes, we heard them shout 'we have plenty of land'.
ReplyDeleteBut, who is shouting? Who owns almost all the land? When your HDB's 99 year lease is up, it goes back to the Government, to be sold again, at higher and higher prices to be borned by your children and grandchildren. The Government, in fact, already owns you, your children and grandchildren as well. Yes, you! And that includes your CPF, which is already theirs to keep.
Red bean,
ReplyDeleteOne day we are being told by the government that HDB is our nest egg. The next day the government tell us that HDB is only strictly meant for owner-occupied purpose.
One day we are being told that the rising HDB price is good for us. The next day, sorry... U-turn on the government policy.
I am very confused... How are we suppose to take care of ourselves at our old age after paying throughout our whole life for a ridiculously high upfront price for a new HDB flat purchased from HDB???
If HDB is meant to be owner occupied, it MUST be heavily subsidized by the government.
If the government is going to charge the buyer of HDB flat based on "market prices" less so call "subsidy" but subject the sales of HDB to many rules and conditions that does not apply to non-HDB dwellers. Then, the rules of the game is extremely unfair and the monetary gain ONLY goes to the government instead of the HDB owners.
rookielim: of course you are confused -- you give too much credence to what comes out of the govt's mouth.
ReplyDeleteHow are you supposed to "look after" yourself?
The same way everyone else does: you use your noodle to figure it out.
The People get the government they deserve. The People also get the government "help" they deserve, when they badger their govt for "solutions".
Matilah, your mindset is one for minimal govt intervention and the people fend for themselves.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, we have a pain in the arse govt that wants to intervene in everything to justify their huge pay packet. They did some good and some atrocious things.
You can't blame the people for making demands on a govt that wants to mess around with everything do you?
If the govt leave the people alone, the people will have to find their own ways. But in that case the govt will have lesser things to do and lesser reason to ask for more plates of char kway teow.
redbean, what you've just illustrated is the conundrum of the state -- the govt.
ReplyDeleteEveryone needs help -- that is a given...no one except for the most robust can survive let alone prevail "alone". But whether the "help" we all need at some time or another should come from the state (i.e. the people who run the state -- the government) is NOT a given. The popular culture just jumps to that conclusion EMOTIONALLY: i.e.
"We need help. Therefore it is the government's job to 'help' us".
Can you see how the logic is just 'skipped' and the conclusion arrived without any rational process?
Therefore because of that thinking, the government validates itself and the reasons for its existence.
It is not my place to "blame" the people for their follies -- I couldn't care less about their "bad choices" resulting from their "fucked thinking" and struggle to keep my own shit together in my finite, occasionally tragic life -- which if I don't pay attention to will crumble into a steaming shit pile.
The People get the government they deserve -- so it is a situation beyond my control, and thus I wouldn't even bother wasting my time and energy "blaming" the idiots.
Do you see the neurosis? It is unbelievable: the people want the govt to help them, then when the govt helps them -- at a high price of course -- the people complain that the govt is interfering with their freedom and posing enormous extra burden on their lives and minds.
This kind of lunatic thinking can only result in an ongoing saga of mad people vs mad people.
No sane man wishes someone else to rule over him/her.
ReplyDeleteYes, the world should be borderless, colourless and dumb.
That should be the ideal.
Leave this man-made world if one dislikes it.
Somewhere there is heaven.
Heard only, hearsay la !
I am just wondering. Is it lunatic people make lunatic govt or lunatic govt makes lunatic people?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately in red dot, the people voted, with the mentality that help must always come from the Government (the PAP), that is why they fear to change their voting patterns all these years.
ReplyDeleteIs it lunatic people make lunatic govt or lunatic govt makes lunatic people? <
ReplyDeleteTo get a clearer understanding of how humans -- the social animal -- quickly morphs into humans -- the political animals, you have to study the behaviour of apes.
We are primates, aka apes but with big brains, well-developed symbolic language which allows us greater complexity in abstract thinking, weapons design and better "strategy" when it comes to deception and cunning.
Some also say that life is just a game. Some enjoy playing it, some don't. Eventually it will come to nought. And if there is afterlife....
ReplyDeleteI think you guys are truly wonderful. I was fortunate enough to stumble across your site and will most certainly use it again in the future. Your replies were frequent and informative.
ReplyDeleteProperty Agent In Singapore