2/24/2014

Long winter for property market?

This is the headline of a report in the Mypaper today. It lamented that the hopes for some of the curbs to be removed did not materialized and the cold remains in propertyland. It said, ‘It was a letdown for property players, who were hoping to see policies such as the additional buyer’s stamp duty rolled back.’
 

Yes it is a letdown for the property players who had made a killing in the last few years. The property bull run lasted for more than 10 years and after a year of cooling measures when prices barely changed the property players are crying father and mother.
On the other side of the equation, ‘The non changing of the policies basically creates a buyer’s market for another one year or so…Serious buyers will be able to buy a property at a fair discount.’ Said Mohamed Ismail of PropNex.
 

Whose interests should the govt take care of first, the serious buyers that have been given the short end of the stick or the propery players that are gaming for more profits?
The fact is that even at today’s prices, the serious buyers are buying at a high with prices doubling or tripling for the last decades. What is another 10% or 15% fall in prices? I fully agree with Tharman’s decision not to remove any curbs as it is really too early to do so. The high prices only profit the speculators and hurt the serious home owners real bad. It also undercuts the quality of life when people are forced to buy smaller and smaller homes and paying more and more.
 

The policies for home buying must serve a national objective, the welfare of the people and the quality of life must be paramount. The drumming of property players must be the least of concern to a responsible govt that cares for the people.
What is this long winter shit?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

" The policies for home buying must serve a national objective, the welfare of the people and the quality of life must be paramount. "

And redbean thinks this is the top priority of the PAP government and PM Lee?
ROFL.

Government owned property IS the Singapore Reserves.
And 90% of Singapore property belongs to the government.
So why would PAP government want to raid the reserves by reducing property prices?

Anonymous said...

I agreed with anonymous 12.46pm that 90% of Singapore property belongs to govt as the value of the 99-yr leasehold properties will be ZERO at the end of their leases and have to return to govt. Believe me, the day will come! Be careful......

To survive in this cruel and uncertain world, we must be DEBT-FREE or at least DEBT-LOW.

It is no more cheap to live here anymore.

Never never never follow the crowds in chasing after properties which you can hardly hardly afford.

Going forward, simple living is the only answer, the only way.

Cheers.........

Anonymous said...

They may restart the programme to build dog's kennel as homes for the people. The property developers would love them. Profit per unit would be many times higher.

And when the price shoots up every property players will chion and no one will be complaining about winter.

Anonymous said...

Think they were enjoying the runaway prices until the people felt the pain and there were signs of VTO. They have woken up and trying to repair the damage done.

Must agree with what you people are saying and with so many properties in hand, they cannot afford to let prices fall much further or for longer. Things will be back to normal soon with prices up and up and every players happy again. Top on the list will be developers and speculators.

Anonymous said...

Who is the Biggest Realtor In Sin?

Anonymous said...

just look at the houses for sale and rental classified sections every Saturdays......

many many many units for sale, not sold or rental off.....

cannot sell, cannot rent out, but prices up and up......

how long can this goes on.....

how high can it goes up.....

how long can the people take it .......

b said...

"the value of the 99-yr leasehold properties will be ZERO at the end of their leases "

- the rulers will take flight before this happen. by then, they have squeezed enough blood from everyone one of us.

b said...

Look out for more price stability or even price fall. Many speculators will be caught their pants down. Owning the banks more money than they can even afford. The winners - banks and gov. The losers - as usual.

Anonymous said...

I own only one property where I live in. I hope the price will correct 30 to 40% for the sake of the young. Whether the price goes up or down does not impact me as I can't sell. In fact if the price goes down, my property tax should come down as over 20 years the property tax has doubled.

Though it will impact my friend who owns 4 properties but he collects about $30,000 rent per month so it's not going to kill him ns he bought the properties like 15 years ago.

Anonymous said...


Over a recent CNY dinner, a friend in real estate stressed that there is a very tricky situation here.

There are plenty of completed but unoccupied empty property units around but yet the property prices keep going up.

He said with new units completing from 2014 to 2018, he just cant imagine how the property market would be like. He hope that everyone will still smile.

It is like the musical chair game, see who is the last person with the ball!

Anonymous said...

When interest rate starts to go up, lifting the curbs will have little effects. Too many speculators at the moment in the market. Gov implemented those curbs toooooo late.

Anonymous said...

Some young couples buy expensive private property which they can't afford to impress friends who couldn't care.