End of property boom in sight?

[mr funny]

March 31, 2008

SINGAPORE

End of property boom in sight?


WHAT IT IS

FLASH estimates of the property market's showing in the first three months of the year will be released by the Government tomorrow.

The figures, released quarterly, track prices and rents of HDB flats and private property. They are based on caveats lodged in the first 10 weeks of each three-month period.

Fuller figures and more detailed information will be given out on April 25.

WHY IT MATTERS

This round of figures is expected to shed light on the million-dollar question: Is it the beginning of the end for the housing boom?

The last set of numbers showed that a stellar rise in home prices over the last two years was starting to slow.

Since then, the market has reached a virtual standstill.

Property developers have delayed launches as buyers, spooked by the worsening global credit crunch stemming from the US, are holding off buying.

Individual home sellers convinced of Singapore's economic fundamentals, meanwhile, are refusing to lower their prices.

If tomorrow's data shows prices have plateaued or even dipped, it will be welcome news for homebuyers.

FIONA CHAN

[Unregistered]

Yes the end is not in sight but is here already.

[Unregistered]

Yes! Yes! Death to all property speculators. Burn and die!

[Unregistered]

Yes! Yes! Yes! Stucked! Stucked! Stucked!

[Unregistered]

Monday March 31, 3:43 AM
Markets brace for slump in Japanese business confidence

A key survey of corporate Japan is expected to show that business confidence has plunged to a four-year low on worries about high oil prices, a stronger yen and a weak US economy, analysts predict.

The Bank of Japan's closely watched "Tankan" report, due out Tuesday, is likely to show companies are scaling back their profit forecasts and investment plans as a result of the tougher operating environment, they said.

"The deterioration of the profit environment, stemming from a slowdown in overseas economies and surging crude oil prices, as well as the appreciation of the yen, have dealt a huge blow to corporate sentiment," Mitsubishi UFJ Securities senior economist Tatsushi Shikano said.

"Reflecting a slowdown in overseas economies, some companies now face the need to reduce production to deal with unexpected rises in inventories," Shikano said.

Economists, on average, predict the headline index of confidence among major manufacturers slumped to 12 in March from 19 in the December Tankan survey of more than 10,000 companies, according to a survey by the Nikkei business daily.

That would be the lowest level since March 2004. Confidence has already fallen from a two-year high of 25 seen in December 2006 but it is still much higher than a low of minus 38 struck six years ago.

Sentiment among big non-manufacturers is expected to have deteriorated to a reading of seven from 16 in the December poll.

The indices represent the percentage of firms experiencing favourable business conditions minus the percentage of those seeing unfavourable conditions.

Japan's corporate sector has been a key driver of the recovery in the world's second largest economy after a decade-long slump.

Helped by a weak yen, companies have racked up record profits in recent years that allowed them to invest heavily in new equipment and factories.

But many firms are now looking to scale down capital spending to cope with an expected drop in earnings.

In mid-March, the dollar fell to a 12-year low of 96 yen, far below the level companies had been preparing for at the time of the December Tankan.

Economists are also expecting a worsening of sentiment in the March quarter among smaller companies, which employ most of Japan's workforce, due to growing profit concerns and sluggish domestic demand.

Japan's economy is on the mend after a slump stretching back over a decade, but sluggish consumer spending has raised concern that the country's export-led recovery is vulnerable to a global economic slowdown.

Although core inflation hit a decade high of 1.0 percent in February, Japan's central bank is seen as unlikely to raise its super-low interest rates from 0.5 percent any time soon, with some analysts even predicting a rate cut.

Goldman Sachs Securities chief economist Tetsufumi Yamakawa is predicting a rate cut by the Bank of Japan at one of its two meetings in April.

"The Tankan is likely to show an accelerated decline in sentiment across the broad front, forcing the BoJ to revise its economic view and scenario, which is already distant from the perception shared by the market," Yamakawa said.

The BoJ raised interest rates in 2006 for the first time in almost six years. It hiked rates again in February last year but has held them steady since then amid domestic political uncertainty and financial market turmoil.

[Unregistered]

Yes! Yes! Death to all property speculators. Burn and die!

Speculators have already made tonnes of money in the last three years.

Definitely will not "burn and die!".

An average speculator who bought just one average condo worth $1.5 million three years ago would have earned around $1 million.

$1 million is equivalent to approximately 20 years of "sour grape" salaries.

If speculators who've earned $1 million will "burn and die", then what more for sour grapes who are still working very very hard everyday and yet to earn this amount of money?

So if the speculator lives a "sour grape" lifestyle, e.g. stay in HDB flat, take public transport and eat at hawker centres ... that should last 20 years.

[Unregistered]

Yes! Yes! Yes! Stucked! Stucked! Stucked!

Poor sour grapes are stuck at the bottom of society.

[Unregistered]

Yes! Yes! Death to all property speculators. Burn and die!

You have such a deep hatred for people you don't even see and know. You must be very miserable and living a life like hell right now. Poor soul.

[Unregistered]

Yes! Yes! Yes! Stucked! Stucked! Stucked!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

[Unregistered]

Poor sour grapes are stuck at the bottom of society.

Thats why these people will continue to stay in HDB and will continue to KPKB and continue to be sour grapes. I was once like them, but have decided that enough is enough and started to take some calculated risk and started vested in private property. Looking back, no regrets. The only regrets that I've got was, I should have started much earlier.

[Unregistered]

Speculators have already made tonnes of money in the last three years.

Definitely will not "burn and die!".

An average speculator who bought just one average condo worth $1.5 million three years ago would have earned around $1 million.

$1 million is equivalent to approximately 20 years of "sour grape" salaries.

If speculators who've earned $1 million will "burn and die", then what more for sour grapes who are still working very very hard everyday and yet to earn this amount of money?

So if the speculator lives a "sour grape" lifestyle, e.g. stay in HDB flat, take public transport and eat at hawker centres ... that should last 20 years.

Can smell of burnt flesh..hahahahaha....burnt ass I guess. Speculators being fried.

[Unregistered]

a lot of sour grape eaters .......

wahahahaha

[Unregistered]

a lot of sour grape eaters .......

wahahahaha

Not sour grape anymore but SOUR DURIAN!!
Have you ever eaten a sour durian?? yacksss!!pui

[Unregistered]

European Stock-Index Futures Retreat; BNP, UBS May Decline

By Adria Cimino

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- European stock-index futures fell, following U.S. and Asian markets lower, as concern deepened that losses in the credit markets will hurt economic and profit growth.

BNP Paribas and Fortis may decline after their U.S.-traded securities dropped. UBS AG will probably slip as Merrill Lynch & Co. said the region's biggest bank by assets may have more writedowns. Vodafone Group Plc might drop after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock. Goldman, Sachs & Co. advised investors to sell shares of British Airways Plc.

Futures on the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 Index, a benchmark for the euro region, fell 23, or 0.7 percent, to 3,539 at 7:05 a.m. in London. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index may decrease 21, according to Cantor Index, a betting firm.

``The markets seem incapable of shaking off concerns about U.S. investment banks and the depth of this current U.S. recession,'' Oliver Stevens, head of dealing at IG Markets in Melbourne, wrote in a note to clients.

U.S. stocks on March 28 extended the worst quarterly slump since 2002. Asia's benchmark today had its biggest drop in two weeks.

Europe's Stoxx 600 has fallen 16 percent this quarter, headed for its worst quarter since at least 1987, on concern credit-market losses will erode earnings. The financial industry worldwide has already reported $208 billion in losses related to the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market, according to Bloomberg data.

Analysts have slashed profit-growth estimates for Stoxx 600 companies. Earnings will rise only 1.9 percent on average this year, down from 11 percent predicted at the end of 2007, Bloomberg data show.

BNP, UBS

American depositary receipts of BNP, France's biggest bank, ended 1.3 percent below the close in Paris last week. ADRs of Fortis, Belgium's largest financial-services company, also finished 1.3 percent lower.

UBS may have a further $11 billion in writedowns in the first quarter and report a 2008 loss, Merrill said. The brokerage cut its 2009 earnings-per-share forecast by 6 percent.

Separately, UBS may ask shareholders to approve a capital increase of as much as 16 billion Swiss francs ($16.1 billion), the Sonntag newspaper reported, citing people it didn't identify.

Credit Suisse Group, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, may retreat. Merrill reduced its 2008 earnings-per-share forecast by 13 percent and its 2009 forecast by 4 percent.

U.K. banks forecast that credit market turmoil will last at least until the end of the year, twice as long as they predicted three months ago, according to a survey by the Confederation of British Industry.

Lending conditions will worsen in the next six months, leaving banks with ``significantly'' higher borrowing costs, according to the quarterly survey of financial firms.

Vodafone was downgraded to ``underweight'' from ``overweight'' by Morgan Stanley, which lowered its share-price estimate by 21 percent to 170 pence.

British Airways, Europe's third-largest carrier, was cut to ``sell'' from ``buy'' at Goldman Sachs.

Tesco Plc, the biggest supermarket chain in Britain, has put the expansion of its Fresh & Easy stores in the U.S. on hold for three months to allow the business time to ``settle down.''

[Unregistered]

March 31, 2008

SINGAPORE

End of property boom in sight?


WHAT IT IS

FLASH estimates of the property market's showing in the first three months of the year will be released by the Government tomorrow.

The figures, released quarterly, track prices and rents of HDB flats and private property. They are based on caveats lodged in the first 10 weeks of each three-month period.

Fuller figures and more detailed information will be given out on April 25.

WHY IT MATTERS

This round of figures is expected to shed light on the million-dollar question: Is it the beginning of the end for the housing boom?

The last set of numbers showed that a stellar rise in home prices over the last two years was starting to slow.

Since then, the market has reached a virtual standstill.

Property developers have delayed launches as buyers, spooked by the worsening global credit crunch stemming from the US, are holding off buying.

Individual home sellers convinced of Singapore's economic fundamentals, meanwhile, are refusing to lower their prices.

If tomorrow's data shows prices have plateaued or even dipped, it will be welcome news for homebuyers.

FIONA CHAN

unless they want to manupulate number....
If not Q1 price index for property should be up & higher...
because CPI & inflation for Jan & Feb are 6.7% due to food & property price.
If property price & CPI not tally, they will have to find reason to cover....next time find another reason to cover this....

[Unregistered]

All the bad news are as a result of US con men.Big economic tussle between West and East.

[Unregistered]

unless they want to manupulate number....
If not Q1 price index for property should be up & higher...
because CPI & inflation for Jan & Feb are 6.7% due to food & property price.
If property price & CPI not tally, they will have to find reason to cover....next time find another reason to cover this....

woooooohahahahahaha are you joking? property tumbling. go check with your agent.

[Unregistered]

European Stock-Index Futures Retreat; BNP, UBS May Decline

By Adria Cimino

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- European stock-index futures fell, following U.S. and Asian markets lower, as concern deepened that losses in the credit markets will hurt economic and profit growth.

BNP Paribas and Fortis may decline after their U.S.-traded securities dropped. UBS AG will probably slip as Merrill Lynch & Co. said the region's biggest bank by assets may have more writedowns. Vodafone Group Plc might drop after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock. Goldman, Sachs & Co. advised investors to sell shares of British Airways Plc.

Futures on the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 Index, a benchmark for the euro region, fell 23, or 0.7 percent, to 3,539 at 7:05 a.m. in London. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index may decrease 21, according to Cantor Index, a betting firm.

``The markets seem incapable of shaking off concerns about U.S. investment banks and the depth of this current U.S. recession,'' Oliver Stevens, head of dealing at IG Markets in Melbourne, wrote in a note to clients.

U.S. stocks on March 28 extended the worst quarterly slump since 2002. Asia's benchmark today had its biggest drop in two weeks.

Europe's Stoxx 600 has fallen 16 percent this quarter, headed for its worst quarter since at least 1987, on concern credit-market losses will erode earnings. The financial industry worldwide has already reported $208 billion in losses related to the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market, according to Bloomberg data.

Analysts have slashed profit-growth estimates for Stoxx 600 companies. Earnings will rise only 1.9 percent on average this year, down from 11 percent predicted at the end of 2007, Bloomberg data show.

BNP, UBS

American depositary receipts of BNP, France's biggest bank, ended 1.3 percent below the close in Paris last week. ADRs of Fortis, Belgium's largest financial-services company, also finished 1.3 percent lower.

UBS may have a further $11 billion in writedowns in the first quarter and report a 2008 loss, Merrill said. The brokerage cut its 2009 earnings-per-share forecast by 6 percent.

Separately, UBS may ask shareholders to approve a capital increase of as much as 16 billion Swiss francs ($16.1 billion), the Sonntag newspaper reported, citing people it didn't identify.

Credit Suisse Group, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, may retreat. Merrill reduced its 2008 earnings-per-share forecast by 13 percent and its 2009 forecast by 4 percent.

U.K. banks forecast that credit market turmoil will last at least until the end of the year, twice as long as they predicted three months ago, according to a survey by the Confederation of British Industry.

Lending conditions will worsen in the next six months, leaving banks with ``significantly'' higher borrowing costs, according to the quarterly survey of financial firms.

Vodafone was downgraded to ``underweight'' from ``overweight'' by Morgan Stanley, which lowered its share-price estimate by 21 percent to 170 pence.

British Airways, Europe's third-largest carrier, was cut to ``sell'' from ``buy'' at Goldman Sachs.

Tesco Plc, the biggest supermarket chain in Britain, has put the expansion of its Fresh & Easy stores in the U.S. on hold for three months to allow the business time to ``settle down.''

Oh pain increasing.......

[Unregistered]

Thats why these people will continue to stay in HDB and will continue to KPKB and continue to be sour grapes. I was once like them, but have decided that enough is enough and started to take some calculated risk and started vested in private property. Looking back, no regrets. The only regrets that I've got was, I should have started much earlier.

yaya, dun be too happy yet. wish u bankrupt by the end of the year. let see

[Unregistered]

Thats why these people will continue to stay in HDB and will continue to KPKB and continue to be sour grapes. I was once like them, but have decided that enough is enough and started to take some calculated risk and started vested in private property. Looking back, no regrets. The only regrets that I've got was, I should have started much earlier.

what done is done. what stuck is stuck. regret for what.

[Unregistered]

Oh pain increasing.......

Pain increasing?

Then why is this man so happy?



I think the stupid sour grapes will become even more sour when they read the news below ...

Business Times - 31 Mar 2008

Banyan Tree to close Vietnam fund by end 2008

SINGAPORE - Singapore resorts and hotels group Banyan Tree hopes to close a fund aimed at raising up to US$400 million for investments in Indochina by the end of this year, as market turmoil has boosted investor interest in Asian real estate.

'The response from potential investors has been stronger than we expected given that we're in the midst of a liquity crunch,' Banyan Tree Executive Chairman Ho Kwon Ping told Reuters in an interview on Monday. 'There's now an aversion to high-risk, high-return types of financial investments and a correspondingly greater interest in previously unsexy stuff like what we are doing, which is a plain vanilla type of development fund.'

The company, which owns luxury hotels and resorts under the Banyan Tree and Angsana brands, is also planning a China fund next year to raise up to US$700 million to develop over 10 sites across the country, including two in the Tibetan city of Lhasa.

Mr Ho said the company was monitoring the unrest in Tibet before firming up plans for the two new Lhasa projects but added that he does not see business affected at its two existing resorts in neighbouring Yunnan province. -- REUTERS

Copyright © 2007 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Unregistered]

Pain increasing?

Then why is this man so happy?



I think the stupid sour grapes will become even more sour when they read the news below ...

wooooohahahahahaha face reality not talk. anyone can talk. go out in the market place and check. virtual STAND STILL. panicky speculators s******* in their pants.

[Unregistered]

Pain increasing?

Then why is this man so happy?



I think the stupid sour grapes will become even more sour when they read the news below ...

You will be happy too like him if can sell your Singapore property earlier and invest in other countries. But too late now, no buyer around, you are stucked, Mr. Speculator.

[Unregistered]

wooooohahahahahaha face reality not talk. anyone can talk. go out in the market place and check. virtual STAND STILL. panicky speculators s******* in their pants.

Friend what stand still? Boom over. Price falling. Can't you smell the burning smell?

[Unregistered]

wooooohahahahahaha face reality not talk. anyone can talk. go out in the market place and check. virtual STAND STILL. panicky speculators s******* in their pants.

This guy is really very pitiful and needs a psychiatrist immediately before worms start crawling out from his sour (or rotting) grapes!

STAND STILL -- he obviously is illiterate and therefore did not read the West Coast Crescent and the Yishun Ave 4 sale.

[Unregistered]

Friend what stand still? Boom over. Price falling. Can't you smell the burning smell?

Please see the ENT specialist immediately -- you are suffering from nose cancer and therefore cannot smell or distinguish between fragrance or burnt smell! Poor thing, another sour grape

[Unregistered]

Pain increasing?

Then why is this man so happy?
I think the stupid sour grapes will become even more sour when they read the news below ...

Man is happy since he can buy China stock now at half price.
He is also happy since in 6 months he will buy property at half price too.

[Unregistered]

Please see the ENT specialist immediately -- you are suffering from nose cancer and therefore cannot smell or distinguish between fragrance or burnt smell! Poor thing, another sour grape

Fragrance? Haha you must be talking of your agents perspiration. Thats what you smell now since you chase him to find buyer. wooohahahaha.

[Unregistered]

Yes! Yes! Death to all property speculators. Burn and die!

You have such a deep hatred for people you don't even see and know. You must be very miserable and living a life like hell right now. Poor soul.

If you stay at Pasir Ris and have to take a bus every morning to work at Pioneer Circle, and get tortured by the noisy TV mobile for the two-hour journey back and forth, you will also become equally miserable.

These are not sour grapes but bitter grapes.

Sour grapes at least have a Subaru to drive to work from their Seng Kang flat to town, and enjoy their favourite FM station along the way.

[Unregistered]

If you stay at Pasir Ris and have to take a bus every morning to work at Pioneer Circle, and get tortured by the noisy TV mobile for the two-hour journey back and forth, you will also become equally miserable.

These are not sour grapes but bitter grapes.

Sour grapes at least have a Subaru to drive to work from their Seng Kang flat to town, and enjoy their favourite FM station along the way.

Oh you drive a Subaru?