Bloody hell, your assets appreciating right?Originally Posted by Happy Feet
Bloody hell, your assets appreciating right?
It has always been like that. That is human nature.
That's not true.
I'm a citizen of Singapore and I don't hope for a crash in prices.
Only the sour grapes are looking forward to a crash.
Govt should do the right thing for the country.
If they do otherwise because of vote, then sporean talents will migrate to support competitors market.
why can't the whole country work together to make a better country?
jealous & envy of sour grape want to stop progress of country.
3,000 apply for Boon Keng's condo-like flats, but only 460 sold
By Fiona Chan, Property Reporter
THOUSANDS of applications poured in for a condo-like Housing Board project in January - but as of last week, less than two-thirds of the flats had been taken up.
About 250 of the 714 units in City View @ Boon Keng remain unsold, said HSR Property Group, which is marketing the project.
These flats will be offered to the public, probably via a walk-in selection.
The leftover homes came as a surprise to market watchers, given that 3,500 applicants had vied for them.
This works out to five would-be buyers for each flat at City View, the second public housing project to be built by a private developer.
It boasts condo-like features such as timber floors, built-in wardrobes and air-conditioning.
All the applicants were given a chance to book the flats they wanted, said HSR project director Kellie Liew.
The selection process stretched over 20 days and ended last Thursday, with more than 3,000 potential deals falling through.
Developer Hoi Hup Sunway sold about 460 units, including six of the top-priced five-room units at $727,000 each, said Ms Liew.
But she added that some buyers backed out of their purchases due to the weakening property market, while others did not meet the required criteria to buy the flats.
Oh no takers coming..........tells you the state. Maybe speculators panicking.
Oh no takers coming..........tells you the state. Maybe buyers decide to buy a condo instead. Cos' they don't want to be staying in the same type of housing like you, the sour grape?
some did not meet the required criteria, how many?
Wait for STI to hit 3300 in 1-2 months time, people will start to camp outside HDB to grab those leftover units, real opportunists.
Another quarter of price increase. Yes!
Every quarter also increase what.
Don't keep saying that anymore.
The sour grapes will become even more sour.
OK OK.
Let's say something negative. They will like it.
SIBOR crash crash crash.
SIBOR burned burned burned.
SIBOR die die die.
URA will review Q1 data 1-2 weeks from now.
Based on CPI data, property price index is up.
People just ran out of money and realised it's pointless to burden themselves with a huge mortgage.
Some who have the money don't qualify. But they are squeezed because private property is too expensive for them.
The question is how big is the current spculative bubble and what will catalyse its bursting.
The speculative bubble was very small and government has bursted it by removing DFS and increasing DC. So we are in a very healthy state now.
Because of the sour grapes, we have a smaller rise this quarter.
Never mind, US housing sale has turned around, next quarter rise will be higher.
Wrong !!
People just realised that they are suckers to buy Boon Keng. Condo finishing so what ? The HDB flats just across the road is selling for 40% lesser. Use the difference of 40% for the renovation and you can build a luxurious-style setting in your home.
Re: Private fund buys remaining 53 Grange Infinite units
You can buy a LV Bag for a few k
You cab buy a LV Bag for less then hundred too
Both may look alike
but one is fake one hahaha
In your home? I can't see it so I ain't if you are bullshiting us.
Good idea!
Can't afford to stay in Orchard Road condo? Never mind, can also buy an HDB flat at Jurong West and replace all your windows in the house with Plasma TVs that show Orchard Road sceneries 24 hours.
Each 100" Plasma TV costs around $20,000. Even if you buy 10 of them, at most that's $200,000.
Master bedroom's window Plasma TV "looks out" towards Tang Dynasty building; Living room's window Plasma TV "looks out" towards Goodwoord Park; Kitchen window Plasma TV "looks out" towards Stevens Road.
At night, the Plasma TVs will change the "day sceneries" into "night sceneries" and the roads will light up with car headlights. Beautiful!
Somedays, can also change channel to the Manhattan skyline, or overlook Canary Wharf.
When the loan shark comes your neighbour's house, the Plasma TV at the door will replace his image to show a butler bringing a pig head to your neighbour "Madam! Your lunch is ready ..."
Since when 100 inch plasma tv cost $20,000? at least $80k above...
The STI stock market index has plunged about 20% from its peak, but the URA property index still seems to move up exponentially.
How can this be?
Let’s study the STI graph superimposed over the URA property index graph. Both graphs are scaled such that their time axes coincide, and their Asian financial crisis bottoms & dotcom peaks are at the same levels. STI is indicated by the dark blue line, while the pink line with blue crosses is for the URA index for condominiums (the other lines are for detached, semi-detached, terrace and apartments):
http://www.salary.sg/historical-prop...2008-large.gif
You should be able to see from the 2 graphs that the property bottom in end 1998 lagged the stocks bottom by about a quarter (i.e. 3 months). Similarly, the property peak in mid 2000 also lagged the stocks peak by about 1 to 2 quarters.
Now, fast forward to end 2007. The stock market has clearly tanked, amidst high inflation and comparatively stagnant salaries. But property is apparently still moving up, up and up! This can’t continue.
I hereby predict that property prices will plunge within the next 3 to 6 months. By at least 20%.
Want more evidence? In the last month (February), property developers were so spooked by the worsening economy that they launched only 343 units in the whole country, out of which only a miserable 170 got sold (excluding ECs). Oh yeah, maybe it’s the Chinese New Year.
References: URA news release and STI data in Yahoo! Finance.
Really pissed with all these speculators.
Burn them to hell.
SIBOR is going drop to 0.75% soon.
Let these speculators get a taste of their own medicine.
Get ready for the action.
When SIBOR hit 0.75%, there will be blood everywhere.
Kill kill kill! Die die die!
Ha ha ha!
Singapore interest rates likely to fall further
Fed cut and robust Sing$ could push interbank lending rate below 1%
Nicholas Fang
The Straits Times
Monday, 24 March 2008
Singaporeans can expect cheaper mortgages but lower savings and fixed deposit rates in the months to come.
This is after a move by the United States Federal Reserve to slash a key US interest rate last week.
The Fed had cut three-quarters of a point off its federal funds rate, bringing it to 2.25%, to fight a mushrooming credit crisis and a slowing US economy.
Economists in Singapore said the lowering of the Fed funds rate will have a knock- on effect in the Republic.
The Singapore Interbank Offered Rate (Sibor), or the rate at which banks lend to one another, tends to track the Fed rate.
Citigroup economist Kit Wei Zheng said: 'For Singapore rates, the trend is downwards. We expect the Fed to cut its rate to 1% and Singapore should follow with a lag.'
He lowered his forecast for the Sibor, estimating it would fall to as low as 0.75% by the end of the third quarter, down from an earlier estimate of 1%.
A recent report by DBS Group Research also forecast the Sibor would fall, to 0.83% in the second quarter, and remain at that rate through the second half before rising next year.
The three-month Sibor fell to a 12-month low of 1.25% last Monday, before recovering to 1.425% on Thursday, ahead of the Good Friday public holiday.
Mr Kit said Singapore rates were also affected by the Singapore dollar's appreciation against the US currency. He said the Singdollar is most probably at the top end of the secret trade-weighted band within which the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) guides the currency.
'With the Singdollar expected to continue appreciating, MAS will aim to moderate it by flooding the market with liquidity, which will in turn pressure interest rates downwards,' he said.
OCBC economist Selena Ling said another consequence of the strong Singdollar would be a high inflow of foreign capital into the Republic. 'This can also contribute to lower interest rates.'
For consumers, the net result is both good and bad.
Banks recently embarked on a mortgage loan war, with Maybank firing the first salvo last month with an aggressive three-year, fixed-rate package offered at 1.68% for the first year.
DBS Bank and United Overseas Bank (UOB) have also unveiled attractive packages. UOB has one that offers a zero rate in the first year.
And with Sibor-linked home loan package rates likely to head south too, it could be a good time to refinance mortgage loans, experts said.
A DBS spokesman said: 'DBS offers transparent mortgage rates pegged to the Sibor and the CPF Ordinary Account rate, so our rates will move in tandem with market forces.'
But there is also the possibility that savings and fixed deposit rates could slump as interest rates go down.
OCBC's vice-president for group wealth management, Mr Fabian Lum, said the bank would review its deposit rates to keep them in line with prevailing market conditions.
And while the bank has not changed its savings rate recently, it lowered its 12-month fixed deposit rate for amounts between $50,000 and $1 million to 1.2% a year from 1.4% earlier this month.
DBS said that its savings deposit rates had not been adjusted since 2005, but added that its fixed deposit rates are always pegged to the interbank rate and would thus be adjusted accordingly.
CIMB-GK economist Song Seng Wun said that the low interest rates did not reflect a lack of liquidity on the part of banks. 'The loans-deposit ratio is still very strong, so banks definitely have the money to lend,' he said.
'But I think there is greater caution now, after what has happened in the US with the sub-prime crisis, and people are much more cautious nowadays when it comes to borrowing and lending money.'
You analysis is over simplistic.
Have you asked yourself why there is a time lag between stocks and property prices?
Are property investors foolish not to see the trend and quickly buy when stocks go up and sell when stocks go down?
There is a reason.
Stock prices are very volatile. It can go up and down quickly depending on the news.
So what happens if you sell your property today and then in the next few months the stock index goes up again?
Each transaction (sell/buy) of property incurs substantial costs. Let's say you sell today. You have to pay legal fees approximately 0.5% and agent's fee 2%, total is 2.5%. Then in a few months if the market recovers, you have to buy back and incur another legal fee of 0.5% and stamp duty of approximately 3%, total 3.5%.
Each sell/buy costs you approximately 6%, not including the time and effort to scout around and bargain, which can be very time consuming and eats into your opportunity costs in your career/business, which can end up even more.
Furthermore, when you buy back during a rising market, prices can shoot up very fast and you may end up buying back an equivalent property at a much higher price.
Property is a long term investment (similar to insurance).
Just buy and hold it. That's the best strategy.
Consumer Confidence in U.S. Fell More Than Forecast
By Bob Willis
March 25 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. consumer confidence fell more than forecast in March as Americans' outlook on the economy dropped to the lowest level since Richard Nixon was in the White House.
The Conference Board's confidence index fell to 64.5, a five-year low, from a revised 76.4 in February, the New York- based research group said today. A separate report showed home prices in January fell by the most on record.
Declining stock and property values have also unnerved Americans, heightening concern spending will falter. Without consumers, which account for more than two-thirds of the economy, the slowdown triggered by the collapse in housing and credit markets is likely to deepen in coming months.
``Consumers are decidedly negative, suggesting a pullback in consumer spending and an economy in recession,'' Ethan Harris, chief U.S. economist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in New York, said before the report.
The Conference Board's gauge of expectations for the next six months slumped to 47.9, the lowest since December 1973, when the Watergate scandal rocked the Nixon administration and an embargo by a group of Arab oil exports was in effect, the report showed.
Stock prices extended declines following the report and Treasury securities maintained gains. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 0.4 percent at 1,345.0 at 10:05 a.m. in New York. The yield on the 10-year note fell to 3.49 percent from 3.56 percent late yesterday.
Forecasts
Economists forecast the Conference Board's measure would fall to 73.5 from a previously reported 75, according to the median of 61 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from 65 to 76.
Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in January by the most on record, a sign the housing recession is deepening, a private survey also showed today. The S&P/Case- Shiller home-price index dropped 10.7 percent from January 2007, after a 9 percent decrease in December. The gauge has fallen for 13 consecutive months.
The measure of present conditions declined to 89.2 in March from 104 the prior month.
The share of consumers who said jobs are plentiful dropped to 18.8 percent from 21.5 percent last month. Those saying jobs are hard to get increased to 25.1 percent from 23.4 percent.
Lowest Ever
The proportion of people who expect their incomes to rise over the next six months fell to 14.9 percent, the lowest since record keeping began in 1967, from 18 percent. The share expecting more jobs dropped to 7.7 percent from 8.9 percent.
Federal Reserve policy makers have lowered the benchmark interest rates and pumped money into the banking system to try to make it cheaper and easier for Americans to borrow and spend.
The central bank earlier this month carried out its first emergency weekend action in almost three decades and became the lender of last resort to the biggest dealers in government bonds. Two days later, it reduced the target interest rate by three-quarters of a point and acknowledged risks had increased.
``Growth in consumer spending has slowed and labor markets have softened,'' the Fed said after it cut the key rate to 2.25 percent. ``The outlook for economic activity has weakened further.''
`Serious Medicine'
The cuts ``are definitely serious medicine for the economy which is very sick,'' Michael Jackson, chief executive officer of AutoNation Inc., the largest publicly traded U.S. car dealer, said in a March 19 interview with Bloomberg Television. ``The consumer is under extreme stress.''
The number of Americans collecting jobless benefits swelled this month to the highest in more than three years as automakers, construction companies and financial firms fired workers. The economy lost 63,000 jobs in February, the most in five years, according to figures from the Labor Department.
More homes are also being foreclosed as the drop in values leaves owners owing more than a property is worth.
For those still in their homes, falling prices lead to a loss of wealth that makes Americans less inclined or able to borrow to finance spending.
What's more, regular gasoline rose to a record $3.28 a gallon on average last week and crude oil reached a record above $111 a barrel.
Spending is already taking a hit. Retail sales fell 0.6 percent in February, the Commerce Department reported last week, the second decline in three months.
Consumer spending may grow at an annual rate of 0.5 percent this quarter, the slowest pace since the 1991 recession, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed this month by Bloomberg News.
More and more economists are forecasting a recession. Martin Feldstein, the Harvard economics professor who heads the research group that determines when downturns begin, said this month that a contraction had already begun.
Merrill's 2008 Profit Estimate Cut 45% at JPMorgan
By Allen Wan and Aaron Clark
March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Merrill Lynch & Co. fell for the first time in three days after JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut its 2008 profit estimate for the third-largest U.S. securities firm by 45 percent on concern that further writedowns may reduce earnings.
Merrill slipped 73 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $47.65 at 9:41 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has fallen 44 percent over the past year, compared with a 27 percent decline in the Standard and Poor's 500 Financials Index.
Analyst Kenneth Worthington lowered his earnings estimates for this year to $2.75 a share from the previous projection of $5 a share. For 2009, he now expects New York-based Merrill to earn $5.09 a share, down from the previous estimate of $5.57.
``With the credit environment continuously challenging, we are less optimistic about a material recovery in 2008,'' Worthington wrote in a note dated yesterday. The analyst kept his ``neutral'' rating on Merrill.
Merrill may report a total of $5 billion in additional losses on collateralized debt obligations, so-called Alt-A mortgages and commercial mortgages, the New York-based analyst said. The securities firm has posted $24.5 billion in asset writedowns since the beginning of 2007.
Everything just start surging.
HK stocks end 6.43% higher in biggest one-percentage gain in 2 months
Reuters
Hong Kong
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Asian shares climbed on Tuesday, and the dollar held its gains, after JPMorgan raised its bid for Bear Stearns and US home sales rose unexpectedly, lifting expectations for a recovery in the US housing and credit markets.
Japanese government bond futures retreated, pulling away from last week's five-year highs, after US Treasuries slid on tentative hopes the world's top economy would weather the credit crisis.
Financial stocks, from Seoul's Kookmin Bank, to Australia's Babcock & Brown, rang up big gains after JP Morgan Chase & Co's sweetened offer for Bear Stearns signalled there was more value in financial assets than previously thought.
MSCI's index of shares outside Asia rose 1.9% by 9.50am Singapore time, the third day of gains, although the benchmark is still down around 16% this year.
Stocks on Wall Street rallied on Monday after a long Easter holiday weekend, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising 1.5% and the Nasdaq Composite Index gaining 3%.
Better-than-expected US housing data also helped to lift optimism over the economic outlook.
'If there's even a hint that the US housing slump might be coming to an end, and combined with an improved offer for Bear Stearns, it gives people hope that maybe the darkest period is over,' said Mr Hans Kunnen, head of investment markets research at Colonial First State in Sydney. 'But the market is just operating like a yo-yo within a band. I refuse to get carried away.'
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian share prices closed 2.4% higher on Tuesday due to the overnight rally on Wall Street, dealers said.
The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index closed up 28.93 points at 1,229.95, off a high of 1,234.58.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong stocks surged 6.43% on Tuesday, the biggest one-day percentage gain in two months, tracking Wall Street gains on improved investor confidence after JP Morgan?s raised offer for Bear Stearns.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index ended at 22,464.52.
The China Enterprises Index of Hong Kong-listed mainland companies, or H shares, finished up 8.22% at 11,727.00.
Shanghai
Chinese stocks ended higher on Tuesday, led by property and airline shares, as the main stock index rebounded from technical support to close almost unchanged after tumbling near a nine-month low in early trade.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which sank 4.49% on Monday, ended Tuesday up 0.09% at 3,629.619 points. It hit an intra-day low of 3,521.528 in the morning, just off last Thursday's nine-month low of 3,516.330.
Rising Shanghai shares outnumbered falling stocks by 639 to 242, but turnover in Shanghai A shares shrank to a thin 77.6 billion yuan ($15.23 billion) from Monday's 88.3 billion yuan.
The index's recovery during the day was its second bounce from near technical support at 3,561, the 50% retracement of its bull run from June 2005; the first bounce occured last week. So many analysts believe that area may be the bottom for the market in the short term at least.
Tokyo
Japan's Nikkei average rose 2.1% on Tuesday as Canon and other exporters climbed with the yen trading well off a near 13-year high posted last week against the dollar, easing some concerns about exporters' earnings outlooks.
Sharp gains in other Asian markets also gave a boost to the Tokyo bourse, where investors continued to pick up recently battered shares.
The benchmark Nikkei ended up 265.13 points at 12,745.22. The Nikkei ended near flat on Monday, snapping a three-day winning streak. The broader Topix index added 1.5% to 1,242.98. The index rose for the fifth straight session.
Look at HongKong HSI, up by 6.43%!!
Singapore is up too.
STI closes higher, above 3,000
The Straits Times
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
SGX Centre 1
Singapore shares ended higher on Tuesday with the benchmark Straits Times Index up 72.40 points or 2.47% to 3,000.19.
Want to know why some buyers backed out of Boon Keng HDB?
The prices are equivalent to private condos, but buyers must not earn more than $8,000 -- HDB ruling.
So with such low income and yet can afford to pay more than half a million bucks?
Buy one and you have IRAS going after your necks.
With resale HDB, it is different -- no income ceiling.
But resale HDB flat is old and more expensive leh.
CV @ BK is still cheaper.
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