During the last term of Mah Bow Tan, there was continuous good news of property prices and that they were very affordable by the way they computed affordability. When Boon Wan took over, there was continuous good news of property prices too, from building more flats to some changes in HDB policies and priorities for first timers. And the people were equally happy.
Yesterday there were two charts in the media, one on property price index over 11 years and one on HDB resale price index for 5 quarters, 2 from 2010 and 3 from 2011. The first chart showed that property price index was almost flat from 2001 to 2006. Only in 2007 that it started to shoot up and this uptrend has been consistent till today for HDB resale price. What this means is that the prices are still going up at the same pace, no letting up.
From a base of 172 in the 4th quarter of 2011, the HDB resale price index has gone up by 1.6%, 3.1% and 3.8% in the third quarter of 2011. Yes, it is going up, regardless of the number of new flats that Boon Wan is going to build. And the good news is ‘Good progress in meeting flat demand.’ Nothing about the price.
Using the 172 base, HDB resale price till the third quarter has gone up by 15.1 points to 187.1 or 8.8%. By end of the year it could easily cross the 10% mark. Again looking at the first chart, the index was at 150 at end of 2009, or an increase of 37.1 points or 24.7% by the third quarter of 2011. These must also be good news for the property owners. For the buyers or potential buyers, it can also be good news as it means that at whatever price they are going to buy their new flats, they can expect the price to go up by more than 10% per annum or doubling the price in 10 years. In reality, with the compound growth effect, the price could easily double in less than 10 years.
What more good news can one ask for? And better still, with a decreasing lease life but rising prices.
10/06/2011
What’s the message?
I was watching this new police TV serial, EU or Emergency Unit, from Hongkong showing in Channel U. It ended last night. It was about the police against crime and triads. The triads are still there even after 1997. The serial was about the good, the honourable versus the crooked and dishonourable. The young police officers who found taking down drug traffickers and triad bosses a heroic thing to do, despite the low salary and status as police officers. Even the senior officers were devoted to their duties in service to the people, the citizens. There were risks, the young officers went undercover and giving up their lives in the course of duty.
Such admirable traits and values can only be seen in celluloid, not in real life. Hongkong used to be a very corrupt place during the colonial rule. Corruption in the civil service was rampant all the way, particularly the police force, from the little Ah Sirs walking the beat to the angmoh superintendents and higher. Money was spread all round by the triad bosses. Hongkong today is the other extreme. Corruption and triad activities have been brought down to a level unknown in its history.
I think the message of the Hongkong serial, and the MediaCorp, is that there are still idealistic young and old civil servants, and uniformed personnel, who would find duty and honour more important than just money, or to quote David Marshall, the joy and excitement of serving the people and country. The message is timely, as such virtues are now taken very lightly, seen more as desirable and idealistic but not practical in the real world. And those who want to live their lives through such values, good, though privately seen as rather daft. There is a better and real world where money and self interests are everything. Sacrifices and heroics are good to have for other people, but can live without for the practical and smart people. Only fools believe in such ideals and virtues today. The Hongkong serial is pure fiction. Agree?
PS. I think I am continuing my lecture in National Education and conducting the course here.
Such admirable traits and values can only be seen in celluloid, not in real life. Hongkong used to be a very corrupt place during the colonial rule. Corruption in the civil service was rampant all the way, particularly the police force, from the little Ah Sirs walking the beat to the angmoh superintendents and higher. Money was spread all round by the triad bosses. Hongkong today is the other extreme. Corruption and triad activities have been brought down to a level unknown in its history.
I think the message of the Hongkong serial, and the MediaCorp, is that there are still idealistic young and old civil servants, and uniformed personnel, who would find duty and honour more important than just money, or to quote David Marshall, the joy and excitement of serving the people and country. The message is timely, as such virtues are now taken very lightly, seen more as desirable and idealistic but not practical in the real world. And those who want to live their lives through such values, good, though privately seen as rather daft. There is a better and real world where money and self interests are everything. Sacrifices and heroics are good to have for other people, but can live without for the practical and smart people. Only fools believe in such ideals and virtues today. The Hongkong serial is pure fiction. Agree?
PS. I think I am continuing my lecture in National Education and conducting the course here.
10/05/2011
Sushi any one?
Or would you prefer a half inch thick medium rare Kobe beef, where the cows were fed with beer and given massages under the watchful eyes of their caregivers?
There is now a furore over the dolphins in RWS. And many people are crying foul, for keeping free living dolphins in captivity and putting them under a lot of stress with tough trainings to perform acts to please. And RWS has replied that they are committed to marine conservation and research and the knowledge learnt from the captive dolphins would be used to make life better for the dolphins and marine life. Sound convincing?
I think the Japanese were much better in telling the world that their cullings of tunas and whales were strictly for research as well. And they are killing them by the millions annually. And no one says the Japanese were lying. How’s that compare to the 10 or 20 dolphins in RWS that are kicking and swimming and alive? How’s that compare to the hundreds of dolphins in other parks around the world? Sure some will die naturally, in captivity or in the wild. Nothing beats what Nature makes them to be.
The tunas and whales have an easier time. They need not suffer the pain and stress of training and performing to crowds. They just ended at the dinner table. Oh, training and performing are bad for animals. I will support the banning of all animal shows, including circus and dog shows. The owners and trainers thought it was fun and very clever to make the animals do all those tricks. But the animals were also put through many painful and stressful lessons to learn and practice them.
All animals should be free in their natural environment, not in captivity, not in HDB flats. And also not on the dinner table. Now, what am I ranting about? It is all garbled. I also want to save all the animals and the world. Incidentally, I am half vegetarian. I still eat killed animals on alternate days and cooked vegetables for the other days.
There is now a furore over the dolphins in RWS. And many people are crying foul, for keeping free living dolphins in captivity and putting them under a lot of stress with tough trainings to perform acts to please. And RWS has replied that they are committed to marine conservation and research and the knowledge learnt from the captive dolphins would be used to make life better for the dolphins and marine life. Sound convincing?
I think the Japanese were much better in telling the world that their cullings of tunas and whales were strictly for research as well. And they are killing them by the millions annually. And no one says the Japanese were lying. How’s that compare to the 10 or 20 dolphins in RWS that are kicking and swimming and alive? How’s that compare to the hundreds of dolphins in other parks around the world? Sure some will die naturally, in captivity or in the wild. Nothing beats what Nature makes them to be.
The tunas and whales have an easier time. They need not suffer the pain and stress of training and performing to crowds. They just ended at the dinner table. Oh, training and performing are bad for animals. I will support the banning of all animal shows, including circus and dog shows. The owners and trainers thought it was fun and very clever to make the animals do all those tricks. But the animals were also put through many painful and stressful lessons to learn and practice them.
All animals should be free in their natural environment, not in captivity, not in HDB flats. And also not on the dinner table. Now, what am I ranting about? It is all garbled. I also want to save all the animals and the world. Incidentally, I am half vegetarian. I still eat killed animals on alternate days and cooked vegetables for the other days.
Of course it is a thoroughbred!
Who says the horse is sick? Who says it is a workhorse, a farm horse? It is every inch a thoroughbred, and a winner. This is the other side of the coin. I read somewhere that several hundred companies are queuing up to list in the SGX. With all the listing fees, the bottom line of SGX will be extremely healthy.
I think every little company here or in China or anywhere in the world would want to be listed here. It is quite easy to raise several millions or tens of millions when liquidity is plentiful. After collecting the largesse, the viability of the company is a different story. Many unforeseeable events can happen quickly and the business could easily fail.
Nevermind, can always start another new company and a new listing. And there are still plenty of willing investors with plenty of money waiting for new IPOs.
There were horror stories of foreign companies running road, with their top management disappearing into thin air. There were stories of companies being scavenged and only a shell was left. But they were not many enough to turn into a horror serial. It is normal for such things to happen.
SGX is the best run Asian stock exchange and competing with HK as the number two biggest exchange in terms of capitalization. Never mind if it hosted a large number of penny stocks in its main board. There will be more companies from the second board being elevated to the first board to make up for the losses.
And the volume of trades is increasing to the region of billions daily. At $1b trades a day, at 0.3% commission rate, that is a cool $3 million revenue to be spread among the industry players. Divide by a workforce of 6,000 heads, that will give an average of $500 per head daily. It is a very healthy industry.
If they can get all the companies waiting in the pipeline to be listed, the industry should be able to absorb another 1,000 staff with more money to spread around.
It is definitely not a sick horse. Just another side of a story. Look at the volume and volatility over the last few days! This is great time for stock trading with great opportunities to make a pile. Just keep selling, no need to think, and sure to make profits. The banks have lost something like 30% of their values and the major shareholders must be licking their wounds. But for traders, especially big funds and their wonderful high speed computers, they must be making a killing.
For small investors, sell the blue chips, or if not, wait for a while longer, they will soon become penny stocks. Then go in and scoop them up in buckets and wait for another 30 years. Sure to go back to $30. Our stock market is doing excellent and many traders and investors are making plenty of money. Good times are here again.
With the volumes in the billions, SGX must be collecting quite a lot of clearing fees. Broking houses must also be harvesting a lot of commissions. The industry is well and alive, and kicking.
I think every little company here or in China or anywhere in the world would want to be listed here. It is quite easy to raise several millions or tens of millions when liquidity is plentiful. After collecting the largesse, the viability of the company is a different story. Many unforeseeable events can happen quickly and the business could easily fail.
Nevermind, can always start another new company and a new listing. And there are still plenty of willing investors with plenty of money waiting for new IPOs.
There were horror stories of foreign companies running road, with their top management disappearing into thin air. There were stories of companies being scavenged and only a shell was left. But they were not many enough to turn into a horror serial. It is normal for such things to happen.
SGX is the best run Asian stock exchange and competing with HK as the number two biggest exchange in terms of capitalization. Never mind if it hosted a large number of penny stocks in its main board. There will be more companies from the second board being elevated to the first board to make up for the losses.
And the volume of trades is increasing to the region of billions daily. At $1b trades a day, at 0.3% commission rate, that is a cool $3 million revenue to be spread among the industry players. Divide by a workforce of 6,000 heads, that will give an average of $500 per head daily. It is a very healthy industry.
If they can get all the companies waiting in the pipeline to be listed, the industry should be able to absorb another 1,000 staff with more money to spread around.
It is definitely not a sick horse. Just another side of a story. Look at the volume and volatility over the last few days! This is great time for stock trading with great opportunities to make a pile. Just keep selling, no need to think, and sure to make profits. The banks have lost something like 30% of their values and the major shareholders must be licking their wounds. But for traders, especially big funds and their wonderful high speed computers, they must be making a killing.
For small investors, sell the blue chips, or if not, wait for a while longer, they will soon become penny stocks. Then go in and scoop them up in buckets and wait for another 30 years. Sure to go back to $30. Our stock market is doing excellent and many traders and investors are making plenty of money. Good times are here again.
With the volumes in the billions, SGX must be collecting quite a lot of clearing fees. Broking houses must also be harvesting a lot of commissions. The industry is well and alive, and kicking.
Shsssssh…Don’t tell anyone
When one has some money, it is better to keep quiet and don’t let anyone know. The moment words get out that someone has a pile of money, soon the money will be gone, if he is lucky. If not, his life too may be gone with the money. For those people still trying to ask GIC and Temasek to reveal how much they have in their kitties, please don’t. It is not so much about the big funds raiding them or attacking them in the stockmarkets. The things that would happen would be very simple and innocent, and with good intention.
Remember the American financial crisis? No, nobody remembers. They only remember the Global financial crisis. But it is the same thing. It was the American financial crisis that turned global, affecting the world. The main causes, subprime loans, housing price collapsed, CDOs, CDS, toxic notes, leading to the collapse of several major American banks and the rest of the financial world. They would not want to admit or lend the name America, to the worst financial fiasco in modern history.
What happened was that they knew GIC and Temasek got plenty of money and came to talk to them nicely. Citibank, Merrill Lynch, UBS, Barclay etc etc were queuing up at the door, like the Europeans now in China. GIC and Temasek were just too polite to say no. After all they just had too much money and lending some money to them was nice and proper, and good investments if they turned out to be good. The results, probably tens of billions down the drain.
This is the biggest danger in telling people that you have plenty of money. It stimulates people to think of ways to have a share of it.
Domestically the same story was repeated several times. The people have plenty of money in the CPF. This one unfortunately cannot hide. Public knowledge. So when people got so much money in the CPF, they can afford to buy a lot of things. And HDB flats were then sold to them, at market prices, according to their affordability, ie how much they had in their CPF. So a flat can be sold at $100k became $200k, became $300k, and still very affordable viv a vis the CPF savings. The rest is history. The CPF savings were depleted.
Then the medical professions also wanted a share of the money in the CPF kitty before it was emptied. They came out with a Minimum Sum Medisave Scheme, and a chunk was taken from the kitty for this noble cause. Cannot touch except for them or until mati.
Wait wait. The insurance man came and said I also want some. And CPF Life was born. Did anyone say money for gambling chips?
Anymore money left in the CPF kitty? See how dangerous it is to let people know you have money in the kitty? This is grandma’s wisdom.
Remember the American financial crisis? No, nobody remembers. They only remember the Global financial crisis. But it is the same thing. It was the American financial crisis that turned global, affecting the world. The main causes, subprime loans, housing price collapsed, CDOs, CDS, toxic notes, leading to the collapse of several major American banks and the rest of the financial world. They would not want to admit or lend the name America, to the worst financial fiasco in modern history.
What happened was that they knew GIC and Temasek got plenty of money and came to talk to them nicely. Citibank, Merrill Lynch, UBS, Barclay etc etc were queuing up at the door, like the Europeans now in China. GIC and Temasek were just too polite to say no. After all they just had too much money and lending some money to them was nice and proper, and good investments if they turned out to be good. The results, probably tens of billions down the drain.
This is the biggest danger in telling people that you have plenty of money. It stimulates people to think of ways to have a share of it.
Domestically the same story was repeated several times. The people have plenty of money in the CPF. This one unfortunately cannot hide. Public knowledge. So when people got so much money in the CPF, they can afford to buy a lot of things. And HDB flats were then sold to them, at market prices, according to their affordability, ie how much they had in their CPF. So a flat can be sold at $100k became $200k, became $300k, and still very affordable viv a vis the CPF savings. The rest is history. The CPF savings were depleted.
Then the medical professions also wanted a share of the money in the CPF kitty before it was emptied. They came out with a Minimum Sum Medisave Scheme, and a chunk was taken from the kitty for this noble cause. Cannot touch except for them or until mati.
Wait wait. The insurance man came and said I also want some. And CPF Life was born. Did anyone say money for gambling chips?
Anymore money left in the CPF kitty? See how dangerous it is to let people know you have money in the kitty? This is grandma’s wisdom.
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