Woooohahahaha read between the lines. Pathetic. It is going down for sure.Originally Posted by Unregistered
Woooohahahaha read between the lines. Pathetic. It is going down for sure.Originally Posted by Unregistered
Balance between AUD Euro and US$.Originally Posted by Unregistered
It came with very very small volume. Really dont know where those buyers from ? My guest, most of them are sell high buy high buyers or "dont know market price" foreigners (they cheong when they see statement like "cheap sell, below valuation, very low price etc.."adv on paper.Originally Posted by Unregistered
Yes no volume at all.Originally Posted by Unregistered
AUD $3 million x 8% = $240000
devided by 12= AUD$20000/ months.
no condo rental can beat this!!. ANY???
No point playing the tug and war waiting game with rich Singaporean/foreigners and big time developer. During the toughest of time , the big time developer held on to their landbank for period 3-10 years. This time around, they can hold it out. They hold prices and hold back all the launches and holding cost now is 3% versus 20+% in 19997/98/99 period. Go figure out. There are simply too many millionaire private/HDB landlords today in Singapore.Originally Posted by Unregistered
Its true a lot of foreigners being ceated for the price. pityfull.Originally Posted by Unregistered
All the millions is in the air. One big drop and millions wiped out in no time. Better to have real hard thousands than paper millions.Originally Posted by Unregistered
Some U.S. Homes Worth Less Than Their Copper PipesOriginally Posted by Unregistered
The New York Times
By REUTERS
Published: March 31, 2008
Filed at 8:14 p.m. ET
BROCKTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Shards of broken glass outside the basement window of 31 Vine Street hint at the destruction inside the three-story home.
Thieves smashed the window to break in and then gutted the property for its copper pipes -- a crime that has spread across the United States as the economy slows and foreclosed homes stand empty and vulnerable.
"They cut it here and then pulled it right out of the wall," real estate broker Marc Charney said, pointing to broken plaster near a wrecked baseboard heating system in the 2,774-sq-ft home in Brockton, Massachusetts, a working-class city of 94,304 people.
Similar stories are unfolding nationwide as a glut of home foreclosures coincides with record highs in the price of copper and other metals. Real estate brokers and local authorities say once-proud homes coast-to-coast are being stripped for copper, aluminum, and brass by thieves. Much of it ends up with scrap metal traders who say nearly all copper gets shipped overseas, much of it to China and India.
In areas hit hardest by foreclosures, such as the Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, copper and other metals used in plumbing, heating systems and telephone lines are now more valuable than some homes.
"We're in an incredibly unfortunate time where the nonferrous metals commodities market for scrap is at an all-time high. Houses are getting stripped pretty quickly once they go through the foreclosure process," Cleveland city councilor Tony Brancatelli said.
"We're seeing houses sold for $100 that are distressed houses that should not be recycled," he said. Some boarded-up homes in his Slavic Village community have "No copper, only PVC" painted on the boards to stop would-be thieves.
In Brockton, which suffered 400 foreclosures last year, blamed largely on predatory lending, and which is bracing for another 400 this year, Charney said the thieves inflicted about $15,000 of damage on the home on Vine Street.
"I had this property under agreement. We negotiated. The offer was accepted. The buyer came back to the property three weeks later only to find they had gotten in and stolen the copper, so we had to go back to the bank and renegotiate," said Charney, president of CharneyRealEstate.com.
After haggling, the bank shaved $5,000 off the $105,000 price.
"The problem is there's almost no security. Does this look like anybody lives here?" he said, gesturing to the boarded-up home with chipped yellow paint and a "notice of foreclosure" letter affixed to its door.
"It's like a big billboard saying 'come and take me,"' he added. "It's an epidemic."
DEPRESSING HOME PRICES
Jonathan Osman, a broker in Charlotte, North Carolina, said growing numbers of banks are balking at lending to prospective buyers of foreclosed homes that are stripped of copper pipes and other metals, further depressing housing prices.
"If the appraiser spots something that is not right, like copper tubing lying on the floor or something missing a lot of wiring, that's a red flag to the buyer's bank. That will essentially melt down any transaction you've got," he said.
"They don't want to make a $200,000 loan on a house that has serious problems in case the buyer defaults and they are stuck with it," he said in a telephone interview. "It stinks for the banks that have foreclosed on the property because they now have a house that they really can't sell. They have nothing to do but auction it off for whatever they can get for it."
Along with copper, he often sees air conditioners and garbage disposals torn out. "I don't know what the solution is other than for the banks to not put a sign in the window saying the house is vacant," he said, "or maybe keep tenants there."
At least 15 U.S. states -- from California to New York -- drafted legislation in the past year to deal with the problem, from tighter regulations on scrap metals' traders to tougher penalties for metal theft, local authorities and metals industry officials say.
"In my district, we've got a lot of foreclosed homes and we've got a ton of people who are breaking into these homes, stealing the copper wiring right out of the walls," said Andy Meisner, a lawmaker in Michigan's state Legislature who plans an April 15 hearing on two bills intended to tackle the issue. "It is a problem that is really affecting us throughout the whole state," he said. "When all the copper is taken out, the house basically becomes a knock-down. It then has a depressing impact on property values."
He said authorities in Hazel Park, a city in his district, ran a clandestine sting operation on a metal trader. "They saw a guy literally walking down the street with bundles of wire in each hand. They saw him walk into a scrap yard and walk out having sold this scrap he had obviously stolen," he said.
EXPORTED TO CHINA
Several scrap traders contacted by Reuters said they had measures in place to identify metals stolen from homes.
"If somebody looks suspicious we don't buy the material," said Marc Kaplan, one of the largest scrap metals traders in New Jersey. He said scrap copper sells for about $3.50 a pound -- against 70 cents just three years ago.
He and other scrap traders estimate that more than 80 percent of recycled copper is exported to China and India.
Warren Gelman, president of merchant broker Kataman Metals Inc in St Louis, Missouri, said illegal trade is just a small fraction of the scrap metals business.
He notes that the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, an industry body, sends frequent alerts to all scrap traders on metal thefts in an attempt to stop illegal deals.
"If local law enforcement has a theft, they report it to us and we then turn around and package it for our members in the region," said the institute's spokesman, Bruce Savage.
"This problem has been gathering a certain amount of momentum over the last year as you've seen commodity prices spike up to record highs at the same time you've got an economy that's teetering domestically," he said.
But real-estate brokers say more needs to be done to stave off further damage to areas hit hard by waves of foreclosures.
"It's happening in too many places throughout the country for people to be saying that they are policing who they are getting it from," said Bill Collins, president of the New Jersey chapter of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers.
(Reporting by Jason Szep; Editing by Eddie Evans)
Well, the return is superb. But then, tell me brother, how many people have $3 mil?Originally Posted by Unregistered
The news say it is still going up.Originally Posted by Unregistered
Did I missed anything?
I'm confused by you, maddog.
Originally Posted by CNA
Originally Posted by Unregistered
This is the best prove & official of property market trend.
this are flash estimates, lets's see the actual figures, which will be release officially 4 week later.....Originally Posted by Unregistered
Do you hedge on the exhange risk?Originally Posted by Unregistered
Yes volume would be a handful of units.Originally Posted by Unregistered
I don't find this forum useful at all.Originally Posted by Unregistered
Since I started visiting this forum in November last year, until now, many people here say that their agents told them that the market has crashed and sellers are desperately looking for buyers.
How come home prices are still going up? I feel deceived.
[/size]UBS Says Ospel Resigns After $19 Billion Writedowns [/size]
By Elena Logutenkova
April 1 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG, struggling to stem damage from the U.S. subprime meltdown, reported a second straight quarterly loss after an additional $19 billion of writedowns and said Chairman Marcel Ospel will step down.
The bank will seek 15 billion francs ($15.1 billion) in a rights offer to replenish capital, after already raising 13 billion francs from investors in Singapore and the Middle East. The writedowns will lead to a first-quarter loss of 12 billion francs and further job reductions, Zurich-based UBS said today.
Ospel, 58, who led the creation of UBS in a merger a decade ago, will be succeeded by 58-year-old general counsel Peter Kurer. Rising U.S. mortgage defaults have caused about $230 billion in credit losses and writedowns at financial companies, and Deutsche Bank AG said today market conditions have become ``significantly more challenging'' in recent weeks. UBS rose as much as 10 percent in Swiss trading today on optimism the largest Swiss bank will recover from its subprime losses.
``It may not have seemed so, but behind closed doors they have been cleaning up very swiftly and the capital increase will put them back onto a solid foundation,'' said Joerg de Vries- Hippen, who oversees about $26 billion, including UBS shares, as chief investment officer for European stocks at Allianz Global Investors in Frankfurt.
UBS rose 1.82 francs to 30.68 francs by 10 a.m. in Zurich. The stock has fallen 41 percent this year, cutting the bank's market value to 63.7 billion francs and making UBS the second- worst performer on the 60-member Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index.
UBS Departures
The first-quarter writedown is greater than the $11 billion estimated by analysts at Merrill Lynch and Oppenheimer & Co.
UBS said its Tier 1 capital ratio, a key measure of solvency, will be at about 10.7 percent after the rights offering is completed.
Losses already cost the jobs of former CEO Peter Wuffli, finance chief Clive Standish and investment banking head Huw Jenkins. Ospel, who was supposed to stand for re-election at the shareholders meeting on April 23 for a shortened, one-year term, helped arrange the previous capital increase.
``I ultimately take responsibility for the bank's situation,'' Ospel said in a statement. ``With the measures that we have already taken, the proposals we are submitting to the annual general meeting and the processes we have put in place to deal with lessons learned, I believe that I have made all necessary contributions.''
U.S. Expansion
Kurer, who joined UBS in 2001, has been a member of the executive board since 2002. Before joining the bank, he worked as a lawyer at Homburger Rechtsanwaelte and Baker & McKenzie in Zurich. Ospel told journalists on a conference call that Kurer was chosen because he ``has a profound knowledge of global financial markets and of course of our bank.''
Ospel, a native of the northern Swiss city of Basel, has been UBS's chairman since April 2001. He also was the driving force in the merger of Swiss Bank Corp. and Union Bank of Switzerland. Over time, Ospel solidified his grip on power at the bank even as fellow executives left after losses from the Long-Term Capital Management LP hedge fund in 1998 and the debacle surrounding the bailout of Swissair Group in 2001.
Throughout his years at the bank, Ospel spearheaded UBS's expansion to raise profitability levels closer to competitors in the U.S. In 2000, UBS bought New York-based broker Paine Webber Group Inc. for about $16 billion to build its equities business.
Record Loss
After years of lagging behind competitors in business with fixed-income securities that drove earnings to records across Wall Street, UBS set off on an expansion plan at the peak of the U.S. housing market, only to join the list of investors burned by bets on U.S. mortgages in 2007.
UBS reported a 12.5 billion-franc loss in the fourth quarter, the biggest ever by a bank, and Chief Executive Officer Marcel Rohner told reporters 2008 will be ``another difficult year.''
UBS said in its annual report, published March 27, that it put in place new models for risk management and the valuation of U.S. residential real estate assets at the investment bank in the first quarter.
The bank also set up a group about 50 traders in January, whose task is to manage and reduce more than $70 billion in debt assets affected by the subprime crisis. UBS said today that it will set up a separate unit for the group to ``reduce the effect of distressed market conditions on the core businesses.''
Rohner told journalists on a conference call today that the bank doesn't intend to conduct emergency sales of securities at ``distressed or inappropriate prices.''
Deutsche Writedowns
``UBS is aiming to put a line below its risk exposure problem and refocus on operational businesses,'' Kian Abouhossein, an analyst with JPMorgan Chase & Co. said in a note to clients. ``We expect risk exposed banking peers will follow leading to a potential clearing price environment for the structured credit assets.''
Deutsche Bank, which operates Europe's biggest investment bank by revenue, said today that it expects to book 2.5 billion euros ($3.9 billion) in first-quarter writedowns on leveraged loans, commercial real estate and residential mortgage-backed securities.
UBS's holdings of subprime assets fell to about $15 billion by the end of last month from $27.6 billion on Dec. 31, and Alt- A assets, which fall between prime and subprime, were cut to about $16 billion from $26.6 billion. Auction-rate securities positions, which are also subject to valuation uncertainties, rose to about $11 billion from $5.9 billion.
Terms of Bond
Raising capital again will mean UBS has to renegotiate the terms of the mandatory convertible bond it sold to Government of Singapore Investment Corp. and an unidentified Middle Eastern investor.
Under the terms of the bond, the maximum conversion price for the shares may be lowered if the bank sells more than 5 billion francs of new shares or equity-linked securities at lower prices or with a higher interest payment during one year following December's announcement of the agreement.
New York-based Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. said in January they will receive $14.5 billion and $6.6 billion from investors respectively, after getting $7.5 billion and $5.6 billion cash infusions in November and December.
Yeah, i felt deceived also. Personally, I dun think the market had crashed, it is just very quiet these few months, with buyers waiting and seller maintaining their prices. It is a matter of who give in first....Originally Posted by Unregistered
Yes you should go out and check to get more details of how much it has crashed by.Originally Posted by Unregistered
[b]Deutsche Bank to Write Down Record 2.5 Billion Euros[b]
By Aaron Kirchfeld
April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's biggest bank, will write down a record 2.5 billion euros ($3.9 billion) in loans and asset-backed securities for the first quarter and said markets have deteriorated.
Deutsche Bank will cut the value of leveraged-buyout and commercial real-estate loans and residential mortgage-backed securities, the Frankfurt-based company said today.
The reduction in loan and asset values exceeds the 2.3 billion euros of markdowns Deutsche Bank reported for 2007. The bank said a week ago its 2008 pretax profit target is under threat. Swiss rival UBS AG said today Chairman Marcel Ospel will step down after reporting an extra $19 billion of writedowns.
``The subprime crisis is catching up to Deutsche Bank,'' said Konrad Becker, a Munich-based analyst at Merck Finck & Co. who recommends holding the shares. ``This means that Deutsche Bank is at risk of reporting a first-quarter pretax loss, and the full-year target is obsolete.''
Deutsche Bank rose 0.9 percent to 72.31 euros at 10:10 a.m. in Frankfurt trading, and has dropped 20 percent this year.
Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann, attending a banking conference in London today, wouldn't answer questions.
Deutsche Bank spokesman Christian Streckert cited last week's annual report when asked today about the 2008 pretax profit forecast of 8.4 billion euros, which excludes one-time effects. The bank on March 26 said writedowns and a worsening economy would ``adversely affect our ability to achieve our pretax profitability objective.''
`More Challenging'
Deutsche Bank said today markdowns on assets backed by residential mortgages ``principally'' involve 7.91 billion euros of so-called ALT-A mortgages, which fall between subprime and prime.
``Conditions have become significantly more challenging during the last few weeks,'' the bank said.
The German bank boosted profit last year after skirting the worst of the U.S. subprime mortgage market meltdown that left Zurich-based UBS and Citigroup Inc. of New York with record losses.
Deutsche Bank reported no net writedowns from debt holdings in the fourth quarter and marked down less than 50 million euros on loans for leveraged buyouts.
The world's largest banks and securities firms have posted writedowns and credit losses of more than $208 billion since the beginning of 2007. Germany's financial regulator BaFin forecast such losses could reach as much as $600 billion.
I u feel deceived, pls dun come in., u must be an agent to talk like tat.Originally Posted by Unregistered
Buyers dun rely on words of agents. agree?? u think agent are smarter than buyers???? it is the money of the buyers who are making the risk not cheap words form agent. Agent till now never say crash, u say only that cos agent not stupid to kill his own trade by saying crash. and if u think prices still up, u go buy la. dun mislead readers here.
In one word - volumes.Originally Posted by Unregistered
Very very few units have been sold. The few that have sold might have been choice units or the last panicking buyers. These would show the price as going up.
The rest are waiting and watching.
The 2007 boom was in large part encouraged by agents - who get their cut when transactions happen. If 800K becomes 700K, it doesn't make too much of a difference to their commission. But if 10 sales in Dec become 1 sale in Jan, they have a 90% drop in their income.
Many owners it seems have holding power and aren't interested in selling at lower prices. If prices remain stable and a few people buy, the lower number of transactions won't benefit agents.
But if any owners get concerned and lower their prices to get rid of their properties, many will follow. This would benefit the agents again.
To really understand the panic in the market, you need to see the number of transactions in the last quarter - around 300+, and see the number of agents - probably a few thousand. Then you realize that many of these agents wouldn't have closed any transactions in the past quarter.
Originally Posted by UnregisteredOriginally Posted by UnregisteredWho ask you to listen to Maddog? He is not trustworthy.Originally Posted by CNA
He just make sweeping statement such as "it is going down for sure" without even checking the facts.
Both sides are playing the waiting game, as what MM Lee said: let the dust settle down first. Btw, if u are renting, suggest you buy now. Else, be patient, wait for the full report end of the month.Originally Posted by Unregistered
I have a house costing $200k and I want to sell $1m. Sure it is my right to sell at any price. BUT GOT BUYERS INTERESTED OR NOT. Thats the point.
I must say that is a good point you brought up.Originally Posted by Unregistered
Originally Posted by Unregistered
It's not you are deceived.
You live in denial, so many people in this forum told you so, you refused to listen & accept.
Hold on to your property, a good run like last year will be here again, look at Shanghai now,
上海楼市行情反弹
上海楼市量价齐涨重演去年反弹行情http://www.sina.com.cn 2008年04月01日 02:18 中国证券报-中证网
□新华社记者 徐寿松 蔡国兆
“人们最担心发生的某种情况往往真的会发生。”墨菲定律在上海楼市再次得到印证。进入3月以来,上海商品房成交量骤增,单日成交突破千套,房价亦随之上行。去年春夏之交的楼市“报复性”弹升行情又将重演吗?
成交急速放量
上海市房地产交易中心数据显示,3月28日上海市一手房签约1059套,这是最近十天内(19日-28日)新房日成交量第四次突破千套大关。3月25 日成交1032套、3月24日成交1071套、3月19日成交1024套,成交面积均在9万平方米以上,其中八成以上是住宅。
进入3月份以来,上海楼市成交日益放量,从日成交不足400套一路走高。记者对3月前28天的数据统计显示,一手房总共成交近2万套,日均成交710套。
值得注意的是,成交量日渐放大的势头非常明显:3月第一个完整周(3日-9日)成交3985套,第二个完整周(10日-16日)成交4581 套,第三个完整周(17日-23日)成交5260余套。3月最后一周的成交量更是骤增,日均成交套数已接近900套,是去年底至今年2月日均成交量的3 倍。
就交易量而言,上海楼市已然回暖。上海佑威房地产研究中心主任薛建雄指出,成交量频频突破千套,即使在房地产市场行情很好的时候也是较为少见的。
据分析,促使近期上海房地产成交量大幅上扬有两方面因素:一是新盘扎堆上市、供应量上升;二是政府动迁配套房成交增多。即便剔除配套房因素,市场化住宅成交快速攀升仍是势不可挡。上海佑威房地产研究中心的数据显示,在3月11日-25日这半个月内,商品住宅供应量环比(2月25日-3月10日)飙升 125%,成交量上升51%,平均成交价格涨近两成。
跳价卷土重来
伴随交易量的上升,开发商似已探明消费者的心理底线,热点地区的一些楼盘开始提价。
在3月中旬的春季房展会上,一些楼盘见展会期间人气很旺,即低开高走。展会首日,某楼盘报价每平方米2.25万元,第三天报价涨至每平方米2.3万元,而此前一周其最低售价还只有每平方米2.1万元。
3月中下旬新上市的楼盘价格更是普遍上涨。据上海市网上房地产公开信息统计,在曾有前期推盘的15个楼盘中,13个楼盘价格比上一批房源价格明显上涨,只有2个楼盘价格微跌,跌幅不过每平方米一二百元,而涨幅则在每平方米一两千元。
楼市回暖甚至出现热销的势头给了开发商再度涨价——或者说执行“低开高走”销售策略的信心。一些房地产企业在内部定价会上明确,销售部门可根据市场情况,自行上浮5%至10%。
不仅仅是新的商品房市场在涨价,二手房市场的跳价更为“露骨”。某楼盘一套73平方米的小居室3月上旬还挂价130万元,等到下旬记者再次询问,房东已跳到160万元。
Those homebuyers lah who bought $4m-$10m condo.Originally Posted by Unregistered
Those $10m condo some of them dont even fetch SG$25000/month.
Originally Posted by Unregistered
The last two times property market caught fire in Singapore, it ended up burning everyone with extreme crashes.
Once it was the Asian Financial Crisis. Other time was SARS.
This time you have the global financial crisis. Last time Ringgit being devalued caused such a problem in the region. This time the US$ is going down and we have a food shortage. I feel that this time its going to be much worse and the effects will be just as bad. OK so the IR and F1 are coming, but if high-rollers have lost their money, who is going to come and spend here on those items.
Also consider the price of properties in relation to people's incomes. A million dollars is a million dollars. Very few countries in the world can afford house prices at that level. Do Singaporeans have enough per capita income to support these prices?
Haha Dont worry I will still be around and happily shopping for a 2nd pte property if the crash does come. So dont worry for me. If the crash doesn't come, the cash will just sit around in the other investments options available.Originally Posted by Unregistered