[redbean]

So many complaints about high HDB prices!

It is so pathetic, so ridiculous, for Singaporeans to be complaining about high HDB prices. They cost only a few hundred thousands, so cheap, so affordable. Why are Singaporeans making so much noise for cheap quality housing?

I just visited The Sail over the weekend. A unit with the equivalent floor area of a 5rm flat is asking for $3m to $4m. And all sold out. What is a few hundred thousands by the way? Singaporeans should know the real market prices of quality housing and be grateful that they are getting HDB flats at such affordable prices.

Incidentally when I was there, there was hardly any hardup Singaporeans in sight. Oh my host was one of the rare Singaporean specie that could afford to buy a unit there.

Be grateful huh.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Petition on high HDB prices

There is an online petition seeking support and signatures at

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/lower-hdb-valuations-or-build-more-affordable-hdb-housing-for-singaporeans

More than 850 signatures have been collected over the last few days.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Whose view matters?

The govt, or Mah Bow Tan said in Parliament that HDB flats are affordable. HDB also said so and explained why they are affordable. The Straits Times went one step further with its reporters making in depth analysis and reports on why HDB flats are affordable. And in today's Editorial, it again confirmed that they are affordable, and those who insist that they are not affordable have only themselves to blame. They are unyielding, selfish, suffered from an odd mentality that new towns are 'ulu', insensible, obstinates and quirks.

On the other side of the fence the voice of unhappiness and grief is getting louder. And there is now a petition by the unhappy, insensible, obstinates and quirks calling for signatures to support their perceived grievances. The petition now has more than 900 signatures.

The HDB flats being affordable side is obviously right according to their logics and reasons. And they are getting very annoyed by these unreasonable demands of the people.

Are the unhappy voices unreasonable and illogical? Officially it is. So, no matter how many signatures were collected, their cause is a lost cause. Their views, their interest, their unhappiness are not important. They don't matter.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

GIC proven critics wrong

Splashing across the front pages of our major newspapers is the news that GIC has made $2.3b profit after selling half of its stakes in Citigroup. And it is sitting on a similar profit on paper, maintaining its 5% share in the bank. 'GIC chief investment officer Ng Kok Song said the "good outcome" was down to judgement calls which "turned out to be right".'

Other anaylsts are also showering praises on how GIC managed to turned around and '...getting out of jail free.'

All the critics who disparaged GIC and Temasek for buying high and selling low will now have to eat their own words. They have been proven wrong. The strategy and investment decisions of GIC and Temasek were well conceived and right from the beginning. And with more profits coming in, it is time to make more investment decisions.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Thursday, September 24, 2009
Who is responsible for GIC's profit? (A tale of 2 news paper report.)

Who is responsible for saving GIC's hide? Lee Kuan Yew and his team of fund managers or Barrack Obama and his team of advisers? If the US govt decided not to approach GIC to convert to common stock in Feb, do you think they would have recouped their losses and managed a profit?

Their original conversion price was $26.35 not the $3.25 they received in Feb. The Straits Times is bragging that GIC had the foresight to invest in banks that were too big to fail. That is very dangerous- betting on what the Federal government decided to do instead of market and company fundamentals. GIC was lucky this time. But what about UBS? Is it making a profit?

GIC should thank their lucky stars that Lehman collapsed before Citi. The sudden collapse of Lehman made the Federal govt realise that they had to intervene and bailout the banks....

The above was copied from an article posted in http://singaporeanskeptic.blogspot.com/. It presented another version of the truth.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

I am terribly disturbed

I am very disturbed by the way Singaporeans look at problems and their inability to shift out the truth from all the information available. Many Singaporeans are complaining about the high property prices, especially of HDB flats. And we all know what is the main cause of the high prices.

Now what is the problem? I have read letters and suggestions that in order to bring down the prices, HDB should build smaller size flats or build basic flats with bare concrete and bare fixtures like in the 60s/70s. Are these the cause of high prices?

Don't Singaporeans know or understand that the high prices are caused by market pricing and the notion of affordability? If the supply and demand, and market pricing dictate so, if the affordability fiction says so, no matter how small is the flat, or how basic it is, it can go to $1m for a 300 sq ft unit.

Come on Singaporeans, stop being silly. Stop being foolish.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

HDB releasing 7000 units of flats in next 3 months

What a big deal. Is it enough? The pent up demand and frustration of our young men and women waiting to buy a public housing flat is threatening to blow up. Many have been waiting for years only to see their dream flat disappearing further and further into the distance. And they were told, patronisingly, that they should scale down their expectations and go for something they could afford. This means smaller and smaller flats, and further and further away from the city..

What have caused these problems? High demand, including new citizens and PRs and a flawed policy of building flats when there is enough demand as if HDB is baking cakes, ready in 30 minutes. Hey dummy, 3 years to wait and many things can happen. One thing for sure, some would have found that during their search for a new flat, their income has gone pass the $8000 ceiling and they would be kicked out of the queue. Not eligible anymore. And if they have only worked for a few years, there will not be enough savings to plonk as deposit for even a small and cheap private condo.

How is HDB going to appease this restless and angry group of young people whose incomes just exceeded the $8000 limit but without a fat savings account to pay for private flats? Would there be any changes in HDB’s ruling to accommodate this new sandwiched class of first time home buyers? Force them to buy from t resale market, and not eligible for subsidies, at market prices?

Many young couples are getting a starting salary of more than $3k on graduation and will be hitting a combined income of $8k in two or three years. How realistic is the $8000 ceiling when applied to these young people? Or is HDB so rigid, a huge mammoth that cannot change or would not change simply because it is the authority, another weeny warlord, and when it says it is fair, it is fair, like market pricing?

There is nothing wrong with comparing the prices of 20 years ago as long as the basis is reasonable and logical. Nobody is saying that when it was $7k for a 3rm flat, we should be selling it at that kind of prices. We should be comparing affordability by comparing income over price. And it is very wrong to use recent data to justify that the prices are affordable when the basis is wrong.

Why is a 30% expenditure of income be reasonable and affordable over 30 years? Why not 30% over 10 years or 10% over 30 years? Who should be the best judge of what is affordable, the buyer or the seller?
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Stupidity or good business sense?

The football fans are fuming at the recent successful bid by Singtel to host the EPL. They have to switch programme provider and inconvenience and cost immediately become an issue. It was reported that Singtel paid a bomb of $400m for the rights, more than Starhub's $212m. The fear of having to pay more by the consumers is justified. Singtel is not going to do charity and will have to recover the cost from somewhere, sometime.

But the fear may be unfounded. Singtel said that the aggressive bid was done with the 'intent to hold retail prices stable'. So the consumers need not fear. They should cut out this phrase from the newspaper and paste it over their TV screen and when the time comes to pay more, they can bring this up to Singtel. But of course by then the circumstances will have changed and all the additional costs could be justified by many other reasons.

Having said that, consumers and the public should praise Singtel for its successful bid and for its well meaning intent to keep cost stable. OK, I confess that I am not sure what is the definition of the word 'stable'. Just like the word affordable, it can mean anything to anyone.

All things will come to a happy ending, stupidity or clever business strategy, someone will have to pay for it.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Salary cap for head honchos of State Owned Enterprises.

China has initiated a cap on the salaries of the CEOs of their SOEs. At the moment the highest paid CEO from China National Offshore Oil Corporation, CNOOC, earns $2.5m. The next highest earns half of this amount. And the third is only paid less than $300k a year. Other perks not included.

Given the scale of their operations and revenues, the salaries earned were peanuts. The head honchos should submit an appeal to compare their salaries with those CEOs of similar industries to get a fair salary. They are obviously very underpaid for the responsibilities they are shouldering. Or at least they can compare their salaries with our CEOs to give a picture of how lowly paid they are.

They can quote Singapore as a role model of transparency and good corporate govt and we are paying should be fair and good. And they have been copying Singapore in many things and copying the way we pay our CEOs is only natural. And after the comparison, the CEO of CNOOC could easily be in the region of $10m or more.

How could they justify to curb their CEO's salaries when they are so indecently underpaid? If they do that, they must be prepared for more corruption in high places.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Speaking through two holes

HDB has revealed that the take up rate at Punggol Breeze and Fernvale Residence were only 69% and 55% respectively. And according to HDB, the reasons were long waiting time, 3 to 4 years to build, choice units taken up, and maybe distance from MRT stations.

But according to HDB, this is a sign 'that first time buyers still have plenty of choices despite the high demand for flats in some areas'. Wow, really ah!

And it is good news that HDB will proceed to build these flats as they are confident of sustained demand for public housing. I can give a personal guarantee that all the flats will be taken up when completed. Just turn off the supply. It's elementary Watson!

What other reasons for not taking up the BTO flats? I am still scratching my head. Damn difficult to find out the truth.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Housing shortage problem solved!

50 to 60% of BTO applicants did not take up the flats offered to them. And the excuses they gave for not taking up the flats were more spurious than genuine. The conclusion, first timers applying for flats, most or almost all, will be successful. So there is no shortage of public housing problem. And I would suggest that there is no need to put up more BTOs in a hurry. What for, when there is no real urgency? Putting up more will only lead to a glut and over supply.

Come to think of it, under the BTO scheme, if anyone applies for it and failed to get a flat, then something must be seriously wrong with the system. It is built on demand. And application is submitted 3 or more years in advance. How can any applicant failed to get his flat?

The failings are first timers who needed a flat fast, not having to wait 3 or more years. This is the crux of the problem. In 3 years, many things can happen. The marriage may even be called off, or the couple may strike lottery or their income gone above the $8k ceiling, or they may inherit the flats from their parents or someone else.

Anyway, the public outcry for shortages in public housing is a hoax, imagination, biased and unfair demand for attention.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Unappreciative and ungrateful Singaporeans

I read in some blogs and forums that Singaporeans are getting more angry with HDB inspite of the revelation that all the complaints about first time buyers not getting their flats were ridiculous. Mah Bow Tan has also quoted statistics, statistics, to prove the HDB case that the complaints were unjustified.

And some were so angry to even call for voters to vote out the govt. So serious meh? Can't they see that Mah Bow Tan and the HDB were working their guts out to make sure that HDB flats are affordable and available to fit everyone's budget? There is an affordable flat somewhere for everyone. Just don't be choosy.

Now which side of the story deserves more merits?
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

19,000 applicants for 2,100 flats

The latest exercise for the sale of balance flats by HDB saw a 9 times over subscription for the 2100 flats available. Assuming that each batch of flats put up for sale is 2000, to clear this 19000 applicants will take another 8 sales exercises. And if the sales are done twice annually, it means it will take another 4 years to satisfy all the applicants.

Of course this will not be the case. But one thing for sure, if these 19,000 applicants are real, then many will need to apply and apply and apply again before they can get to their dream flats. How many will get their flats on first time application?
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Imminent collapse of American financial system

Obama is going to slash the pay of the top 25 wage earners in corporations that received financial aid from the govt. And fear is spreading across corporate America, not fear by the affected executives whose pay will be cut, but the fear of them quitting to join other organisations or fleeing to other countries. America will lose its super talents and the American financial system will collapse. America needs them to save their own financial organisations.

This is the biggest bull that the American public is being made to believe. It is exactly this same bunch of idiots that caused the financial collapse of the American corporations and nearly the whole world. These are no talents but super crooks and thieves. I doubt any country with govt that has intellect that is better than kids will want to recruit these crooks to mess up their financial system. American shall say good riddance to them.

Imagine the trillions of dollars poured into the financial systems of all the countries to avoid a total collapse of the world economy, and these crooks are starting to pay themselves astronomical salaries and bonuses again just because they cooked the books to register a few hundred millions in profits. What about the billions and trillions lost? When are they going to pay back?

America will not collapse without them.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Speaking in a private or personal capacity

Is this a new style, to speak in one’s private capacity as an individual? I think it is perfectly alright if the president of a brothel or casino were to speak in his private capacity about the green movement or about saving the earth. But what happens if the president of a brothel were to suggest how he thinks the brothel should operate, or the president of a casino were to comment on how a casino could be better managed?

This is akin to a president of a country saying that something is wrong in the country and such and such a thing could have been done to make it right. Then he turns around and says, hey, speaking only in private capacity and not as a President. And mind you, if these presidents were all collecting their dues as incumbent presidents, be it a brothel or casino or a country, then what can the people make out of it?

Why don't they make the changes when in office?
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.