[redbean]

Lower income groups are having it so good

It is reported that their income increased from $1,200 pm in 2006 to $1,310 pm in 2008, a whooping increase of $110 in 2 years. Wow, wow, their lives must have been made better by the $110 pm raise. And it is computed that 3 roomers enjoyed a real wage increase per annum of 3.5% after factoring in inflation.

And with all the govt support, handouts, give aways, etc, etc, what more can one ask for. The only people probably will be complaining are those earning $100k pm or more. For the economic crisis cuts across all income groups and the higher income earners were not spared. I can hear them cursing that their income increased only by $100k instead of $200k.

For the lower income group this is something to celebrate and pop the champagne comes National Day.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

What charity or charity from who?

While some quarters of the population are heaving a sigh of relief with the handouts from the govt, one may want to ask what charity and where were the money coming from? From taxation, profits from ministries, stats boards, GLCs? From CPF?

Imagine a pool of 2 million workers contributing an average of $500 pm to the CPF, from both employer and employee, this will come to $1b a month or $12b a year!(on a 12 mth basis). And this money is to be kept almost forever, or at least some, till the contributor is dead. Put it another way, it is the people lending money to CPF/govt. After knocking out the interests of 2.5/4%, if there is a profit of 2%, that is $240m annually. Ok, after the recent debacle, there could be negative profits or even losses. But if there is no unduly high risk investment, a 2 or 3% profit over the interest payable to the contributors should not be an issue.

The point I am making is that the people is contributing to their own charity just by the CPF contribution alone, not even touching on the revenue of the state which is also the people's money.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Foreigners are grabbing properties again!

I was wondering whether to put this in the thread, 'Signs of Progress' or 'Signs of Decline'? Property prices are sure to surge. Property developers will be laughing all the way to the banks. The govt will also be laughing as it will be able to launch more new sites for sales. Property owners, especially the private properties, will be in glee. This will trickle down to the HDB owners. Yes everyone will be happy if they are already property or HDB flat owners. Can charge higher rentals too.

What about those young people who have yet to buy a HDB flat? No worry. If cannot afford 3rm, buy 2 rm flats. Buy according to how deep is your pocket. See, everyone will have a roof over their head. And it will be still Swiss standard, though smaller. And the advantage is that smaller area to clean.

Progress!
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Is building 2 and 3 rm flats a sign of progress?

How many of you agree that building more 2 and 3 rm flats is a sign of progress? To me it is the clearest indicator that we are going down, getting poorer as a people. For those who are living in private properties, good luck to them. They are the people who are living well and progressing.

What on earth is happening that we keep crowing about how rich we are and how much reserves we have and we are now launching a new batch of smaller and smaller flats? The uplifting of the lives of the people must be across the board, not just for the elite and the well endowed.

As I have mentioned earlier, we went through a phase when everyone is thinking of buying the next bigger flat. There were hopes and aspirations. HDB even had to put into the back burner its building of smaller flats. The aspirations of the people is for a better and comfortable life, better and bigger housing. Today, the sentiment is reversed. A number of people are thinking of downgrading and many are actually downgrading. Even Wally Buffett is thinking of downgrading. And at the same time, people are buying their 10th or 11th property for their grandchildren or grandchildren's children. The divide is getting wider and wider.

Many factors contributed to the people being unable to afford better housing. We all know why. Land is the most precious part of our limited resources. And if we keep on building to sell to foreigners and leaving the 2 and 3 rm flats for out citizens, will this lead to our own people being displaced or feel displaced in their own country? Are we for the betterment of our people or foreigners? What is the point of selling land and properties to foreigners, more profits for what?

PS. Wally, the hell in Jalan Kukoh is not just the structural design. It is social, the people who are being displaced, who are desperate and with a mentality that can be dangerous to you and your family. Not all are like that, but all you need is a few and your life will be turned into hell. And in this modern slum of our first world city, the proportion of desperados are more than in other areas.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Property sales and prices going up

These must be good news. And the better news is that more of the buyers are HDB upgraders, 46% of them. The actual number is 673 for the 2Q of 2009. It is good to note that HDB upgraders are able to move on to the private property market, thanks to the higher resale values of their HDB flats.

The other side of the coin is that with resale prices going up, prices of HDB flats, new and old, will also move up accordingly. While the upgraders have the benefit of owning flats that are appreciating in price, the new buyers, those who have yet to buy a flat will have something to worry about. And with their income not keeping pace with the rising prices, the new flats that they are going to buy are going to cost them more.

But they should not worry as there will be more new flats being built in the new towns. And if they cannot afford 4 rm flats, go for cheaper 3 rm or 2 rm flats. They must tailor their expectation according to their income level. This is only a reasonable advice.

Would we reach a stage when our young graduates could only look forward to buying a new flat in a new town, and probably a 3 rm one as their income will not be enough for the bigger flats? We used to have graduates being seen as someone who have made it and on a career path that will lead to a better lifestyle. With the rising HDB prices keeping up with market prices, future graduates should attune themselves by lowering their expectation of bigger HDB flats or private properties in their first buy.

Things are different now, and they got to get use to the higher cost of everything.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Putin was furious

Putin has been on a warpath against the high cost of living in Russia. He yelled at the grocer for selling sausages at $11! To him it was too expensive though the grocer told him it was good quality. He was on a rampage and took it personally to bring down the high cost of living.

I was wondering what would he say if he knew that the flats at Duxton Pinnacles that could be sold at $300K was sold at $500k because the market forces said so, because people were willing to pay for it?

Maybe if he were a Singapore leader he would say differently, and said, 'Very clever!' Or 'Good for the economy.'
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Electricity tariffs up effective today

'Electricity tafiffs will increase by an average of 7.15% or 1.26 cents per kWh for the quarter 1 Jul to 30 Sep 09 due to higher fuel costs. For households, the increase is 6.93%.'
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Properties are up for grabs

Melvin Chua, a businessman, sold his 4rm flat in Jalan Membina for $550K and bought a 5rm for $638K. He only needs to top up $88K for a bigger flat. No sweat for a successful businessman. Sales of HDB flats have surged due to demand from young couples, upgraders, downgraders and PRs. It looks like the prices of properties will continue to rise, fuelled by demands from people who can afford them. The prices must therefore be reasonable.

In the facing page of the ST was an article by Fiona Chan asking whether the property rally is sustainable? I can simply answer that with an affirmative yes. The pool of flats built by HDB is stable, no new flats are being built unless they have been booked in advance. This is a new concept compare to the old when flats were built ahead of demand leading to oversupply at times. And if the locals are not there buying, the huge influx of PRs and new citizens will be there to make up for the slack. We need them to shore up the CPF scheme.

Anyway, what is $500k or $600k? Jet Li bought a bungalow for $14m or $16m. And in the Life page there is a huge bungalow of 7,500 sq ft sitting on 16,000 sq ft of land or the equivalent of 15 5rm HDB flats. The value could be more than Jet Li's. The PR hedge fund manager owner did not disclose the price but it is a handsome house in the choicest corner of Singapore.

The rich are living very well here. And so are the average Singaporeans in their affordable 5rm flats. Those who cannot afford it, the losers, need not fear. The govt will look into their needs and build more affordable 2 and 3 rm flats to suit their pockets. And for the real losers, there will be more rental flat built specially just for them.

Actually we should not be wasting our time talking about the losers. They make their lives that way, lazy, stupid, and failed to seize the golden opportunities to make more money to buy bigger and affordable flats or landed properties.

Shall we say good riddance?
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

We are still waiting?

I thought I remember that people are looking into the motor insurance and workshop repair scam. Now, how many days have passed? Is the issue dead, resolved, or is it water under the bridge? Or is it that since no one is talking about it, the scam is now acceptable and nothing needs to be done?

Motorists better make more noises before you start to pay another hefty insurance premium to fatten the crooks in the scam. You need to complain louder to be heard and to be taken seriously for things to happen.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

The people were delirious

Big savings come with new hospital subsidy plan. Since July, the 3 tier hospital subsidies of 25, 50 and 75% have been changed to an 8 tier plan ranging from 10 to 75% depending on the family income levels. This means that some patients that were cut off by the 3 tier plan could now enjoy a higher level of subsidies. And they were delirious as they could now save several hundreds or thousands of dollars from the medical bills.

Wow. This is the good news part. The bad news part is that some hospitals had already raised their fees because of increased in operation costs and ‘patients had to pay between $300 to $1,500 more for a typical month long stay in the subsidised 8 bed wards.’

LPPL.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Time for celebration

Singapore is officially the 2nd most expensive Asian city after Tokyo. Bring me my wine, or champagne better, for such a great achievement. And with our salaries also at record high, property prices at record high, Singaporeans are a lucky lot to be able to afford such high living.

How do I conclude so? No Singaporean is complaining. So all is fine. And foreigners are flocking here in bigger numbers, all laughing to the banks. There are plenty of money everywhere. A modern day Eden.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Petrol price up, petrol price down

The frequent fluctuation of petrol prices is now like the prices of meat or vegetables in the market. We can expect the stalls in the market to vary their prices daily in line with the suppliers. Also these are produces that are not bought in huge amounts and store away. The buying and selling prices fluctuates daily is normal.

I am wondering if the petrol companies also go to the market daily to buy their petrol and thus the pump prices also vary accordingly. Or do they buy forward, in bulk, kept as stock to hedge against the daily price changes?

One forumer wrote to the ST complaining that pump prices were up more quickly with rises in price but down more slowly when prices are down. Can the authority put in place some measures to ensure that petrol companies are not taking advantage of the consumers by raising prices too quickly and lowering them at grandfather's pace? Can there also be a transparent formula to govern such price movements?

PS. We still did not hear anything on the car insurance scam and the high premiums forced on to the car owners.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

She is rich, at least worth $300k!

Most Singaporeans owning a HDB flat is worth at least a couple of hundred thousand bucks. An owner of a 3 rm flat should be worth about $300k. Now that kind of wealth could make the person live like a rich gentry in many countries.

In paradise, some of these people are living the life of vagabonds, scrapping a living collecting tin cans and scrap boards. This is real, no imagination. There is such an old woman shown on video. What she needs is to get a financial adviser to manage her wealth, turn the piece of asset into an income and live better.

Or maybe she was just trying to keep herself fit and collecting scrap boards is just a form of exercise.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

If we don't do anything now....Obama

This is what Obama warned the Americans in his medical reform speech. If the American govt does not do anything now, the insurance premiums will continue to go up. In our home front, if the motorists don't do anything now, they must be prepared to pay higher premiums. Period.

No one sees any urgency in trying to curb this excessive and unreasonable rise in motor insurance fee. And we all know why it is going up. Anyone responsible or looking into this matter? Oh, forgotten liao. That's the fact here. KPKB for a while and all will be forgotten.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.

[redbean]

Electricity tariffs up 12.7%

This is the amount of increase household has to cope with in their electricity bill from October 09.

I have lost track on how much housing prices, both public and private, have gone through the roof. But thank god, the people are saved by the subsidies provided by the govt. So the high property prices are still affordable.
_________________
what i posted is just my personal view. feel free to disagree.