More choices for 'sandwich class'

[EnSabahNur]

Arthur is right - there's nothing to really benchmark the cost of resale and new HDB flats, unless you use land cost. HDB refuses to reveal the actual costs incurred in building a flat, so there's no way to know if they are really being "subsidized".

Latest news is that Mah Bow Tan has appeared on TV to announce proudly that COV has fallen yet again from $23,000 to $20,000. Maybe someone should remind him that $20,000 is still a very hefty amount to pay for a flat!

A fall of 3K is just 1 percent if the price tag is 300K. less than that if its 400K and above.

Does anyone know how the valuation of the flat is derived?

[brattzz]

mbt is spinning positively for the election, else ah loong will kanna votes less > 66.6%.... :O

[Musicwhiz]

mbt is spinning positively for the election, else ah loong will kanna votes less > 66.6%.... :O

He has to be perceived as welcoming a challenge. But I think he's probably pretty nervous.....

[brattzz]

He has to be perceived as welcoming a challenge. But I think he's probably pretty nervous.....

haha!

he deserves to lose. he play too much liao...wish i can vote in tampines... too bad i'm in the west!

:O

[koh_52]

He has to be perceived as welcoming a challenge. But I think he's probably pretty nervous.....

haha!
he deserves to lose. he play too much liao...wish i can vote in tampines... too bad i'm in the west!:O

I pray hard ah loong (his long time class/schoolmate since Catholic high & RJC) kick him to contest in Single ward...then hor say liao, let Sylvia lim slaughter him into meat ball...die die i never vote him...Sh**! can put pantry at TPY = daylight robbery, each time i travel the wrong road kena shoot by his ERP machine gun i dream of throwing rotten eggs at him..

[koh_52]

Must read article about Maboro Tan.

What is a General Election about?
December 8th, 2010 | Author: Lee Chong

Mr Mah Bow Tan, the Minster for National Development, certainly confuses me. All along I thought a general election is the time when the country and its people take stock of the past and signal what they want of the future. It is also the time when the voters of a constituency assess the candidates offered to them and give their verdict. If there is an incumbent, it is also a report card on their past performance.

It is, therefore, very strange that Mr Mah should come out and declare that a general election is not about me, an individual minister or an individual MP. Its really about the residents themselves.

Where in the world has an election been about the residents and not the candidates?

I believe this slip from the Minster of National Development is the result of undue pressure since it has been reported that his constituency is the target of a few opposition parties, including the National Solidarity Party, the Worker's Party, the Singapore Democratic Party and the Reform Party. With such huge interest in Tampines, Mr Mah cannot be faulted if he should suddenly feel vulnerable.

However, whatever he says about elections being about residents themselves, the National Development Minister will be judged for his work as a Member of Parliament and a Minister. The Minister Mentor understands this. That is why he said, ¡°If Mr Mah is unable to defend himself, he deserves to lose.

So a General Election is not about the residents. It is about the candidates. Mr. Mah should know this. When he contested his first General Election in Potong Pasir, his excellent Senior Cambridge examinations results were compared to that of Mr Chiam See Tong's relatively mediocre results. This was to try and show he was the more qualified candidate.

Similarly, in a recent Singapore Perspective Forum, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also touched on the importance of judging a candidate in a General Election. Referring to the trend of scholars joining the opposition parties, he said that ¡°we hope Singaporeans will judge individuals like that as rigorously as they would judge individuals who join the PAP side.

Let's look at the person, not what degrees he has, but what he is able to do for Singapore.

All said, a General Election is about the candidate and not about the residents themselves.

Thus, in the coming General Election, the voters of Tampines will judge Mr. Mah for what he has done for them as a Member of Parliament. It is also natural that the opposing candidates will also want the voters to give their verdict on what he has done as the Minister for National Development.

When the Housing and Development Board was formed in 1960, its task was to tackle the acute housing shortage problem in Singapore as well as to get rid of its slums. It was meant to provide affordable housing to the citizens. It has done so admirably until recently when prices of HDB flats sky-rocketed.

The Minister should know that if ever the prices of property go beyond the reach of the average worker and the asset inflation pushes up the costs of living for the low income group, there will be unwanted social consequences. An underclass will be formed and the poor, the destitute and the very low income groups will be slowly pushed out of the mainstream of social and economic life. As we have no countryside where the poor and destitute can go to, this underclass will have to form slums to manage their lives of despair.

At the moment, the prices of flats are slowly going beyond the reach of many young Singaporeans. This is not because these Singaporean have become lazy and not competitive. In truth, most workers still work beyond their normal office hours. Many do make frequent trips abroad, separated from their loved ones, to earn their keep. Some even stay overseas for a lengthy posting when their duty demands. Our students are still scoring the As in examinations and many are still sacrificing their youthful adult lives doing night courses to better themselves.

The reason why houses are slowly going beyond the reach of young working Singaporeans is that the wages they are getting are not keeping up with the escalating price of housing.

When property prices are high and our workers are paid reasonably, they can still manage to pay their mortgages and own a home. However when the prices of flats are high, pushed up by the demands of a sudden increase in population, and the worker's wages are depressed because of the great influx of cheaper foreign labour, the dreams of the young in wanting to own a home must be shattered.

30 years ago, the moment a young person comes out to work; he can confidently start looking for a flat even on one income and a loan for fifteen years. Nowadays, a young couple would need a dual income and a loan of thirty years and a very tight belt to just barely make it.

The PAP government has always used asset-enhancement as a way of making Singaporeans feel rich. Since 80% of Singaporeans live in HDB flats, enhancing the price of HDB flats serves this policy. However, this only makes Singaporeans rich on paper and poor in cash, a situation they have to pay for because high property prices also make life more expensive for everyone.

No, Singaporeans have not yet become lazy. However, they will, when the prices of flats go beyond their reach. What's the point of hard work if your dream is beyond your reach? Why care about family, friends and community when it is better to grab everything when you can? Why bother to help the poor? Better to use the time and effort to make your buck as soon as you can.

There is a real problem. If this problem is not solved, the next generation of Singaporeans and their children are the people who are going to suffer for it.

The opposition is, therefore, right in wanting to Mr. Mah, as Minister of National Development, to defend his policy in the coming General Election. If he cannot defend his position in a constituency that he has nursed for 22 years and whose residents have already bought flats at an affordable rate long time ago, then his opponents deserve to be congratulated.

Author: Dr Wong Wee Nam

[brattzz]

MBT deserves to lose!!! Boooo!

[arthur]

Koh San. That's a nice article about MBT. Not nice article about HIM but nice article regarding about his capabilities. Hahah.

Dr Wong is absolutely correct to point out the discrepancies in avg workers salaries and price of HDB.

That there's nothing wrong with asset price enhancement provided wages follow on accordingly. But its not.

Imagine the median salary range for "Singaporean" is $2710 and that term Singaporean includes PR, whom we have to take into account that they have some educational level thus in reality,able to find jobs easier.

I have pointed out that at an inflation rate of 3% yearly for HDB, in 24yrs time, a 4 room flat at 350k will be 700k.

Question is.. Will our median salary goes up to $5400?

If the govt answer is yes. HOW they are going to do so? Create more IRs, more property agents and bankers to serve the rich? If this is route, we are doomed as a nation. There is nothing left for our children to work as except those service centric jobs. We don't need good education for these jobs. A smooth mouth and a pretty or handsome face is all we need.

The top honchos has to start thinking of a new direction for the citizens. Starting with leading by example. Top pay = best talents? Straight As scholars are confirmed good? FTs in high mgts are needed bcos locals are stupid?

I admire the Chinese way of promoting their locals up and making use of the best Western ideas, preserve on while creating their own version out. They need not bow to the Westerns, they believed their citizens can do it. And look at how China has evolved.

We must start believing in our citizens bcos this is the only way we as a nation can evolve to greater heights. Never mind we are small, never mind our geographical locations, never mind we are lacking in natural resources. Bcos the day we look up and believe in ourselves, is the day we will start to stand and walk and emerge stronger.

We must do this or die doing it.

There is no more Asian tigers miracles era for Singapore.

Perhaps it's not about "refusal to quit". It's more about investing and focusing on the business, rather than the stock. And of course, in a bear market, over-leveraging kills......those are the lessons we can learn from this article by Dennis Chan.

Oct 24, 2010
small change
Harsh lessons from Asian stock crisis
By Dennis Chan, Deputy Money Editor

A recent Me and My Money column about grooming consultant Genecia Luo's fear of the stock market struck a chord with me.

Ms Luo, 28, told The Sunday Times that she considered investing in shares a risky business and steered clear of them. Her father had lost his life savings in the stock market during the Asian financial crisis in 1997. Her family's traumatic experience meant she had to earn her own pocket money from a young age. She started teaching aerobics, yoga and line dancing at the age of 16.

Those of us who were heavily invested in stocks can testify to the heartache and pain of losing our shirts during market crashes.

I can empathise with Ms Luo as I was similarly affected when my father lost his fortune during the Asian crisis. Like most novice investors at the time, Dad was sucked in by the monstrous 1993 stock market rally the likes of which have not been seen since.

The period from 1993 to 1996 was the golden age for stock investments. There was so much easy money to be made that everyone wanted to have a piece of the action. Prices climbed to dizzying heights, some quadrupling in one year. The market craze grew to such an extent that, at some wet markets, you could not get decent meat or fish by mid-morning because butchers and fishmongers would have packed up and left to be at the market opening at 9.30am.

In those pre-Internet days, you had to park yourself in front of giant screens set up at the stockbroking houses to keep up with stock price movements. And if you were chummy with your remisier, he might even have let you sit beside his trading terminal.

I did not know much about the stock market. Occasionally, I would run some errands for Dad, shuttling between home and the stockbroking house to fetch cheques and shares scrip.

But I could tell it was an exciting place, judging by the nervous energy from the crowds of mostly middle-aged men and retirees who nested daily in the stock-viewing gallery. Every now and then, some numbers on the screens would flash, invoking 'oohs' and 'aahs' around the room a la Mexican-wave style.

I had no clue what that was about.

To compensate, I smiled a lot. It wasn't hard. Everyone seemed to be having a good time.

Their beaming faces formed a lasting memory, for I have no recollection of the haunted mien of these investors when the bad times rolled by. I had a proper job by then. But I remained in the thick of the action, reporting on the financial mess for The Straits Times as a business reporter.

What a mess it turned out to be, with benchmark stock prices falling by as much as 80 per cent from its peak on February 1997 to its trough in October 1998. It was the biggest crash I have experienced, dwarfing even the 2008 sub-prime crisis in the United States that threatened to engulf the world in a financial meltdown.

We know now how bad the Asian crisis was. But only in hindsight. When stock prices started falling in early February 1997, no one recognised it as the bursting of a bubble. 'A healthy correction' and 'Market is taking a breather' were some popular refrains.

It did not help that the crash was not a spectacular one but came in dribs and drabs, akin to a frog that is slowly being boiled alive.

It was a slow, lengthy tumble that was punctuated by bouts of short, sharp gains as bargain hunters repeatedly plunged into the market. They were hoping to make a quick profit from a market rebound.

But the trouble was that stocks became cheaper and cheaper and the gungho investors soon lost heart. By the time prices hit the floor, investor confidence had been torn to shreds.

Ever the cockeyed optimist, Dad's propensity to take big risks with borrowed funds proved to be his undoing. He tried to recoup his losses by doubling up his bets as the shares fell, employing a trading technique known as 'averaging down' in order to lower the cost of his share ownership.

This idea has its merit. However, he was too eager and waded into the water when the worst of the storm had yet to come. Bad timing alone would not have been a fortune breaker. But he was also overleveraged and could not stave off the numerous rounds of margin calls from his broker. Consequently, he was forced to liquidate all his shares at a huge loss.

Fortunately, Dad is tough and he took the blow with equanimity.

Unlike Ms Luo, I was not put off from investing in the stock market by the debacle. Perhaps I was able to deal with the fallout better because I was much older than she was when our fortunes were lost. It also helped that Dad was then no longer the sole breadwinner of the family.

Nonetheless, I'm sure my conservative approach to investing is shaped by his failures. I tried to learn from his mistakes. He bought speculative counters like Renong, Idris Hydraulic and Promet. I prefer blue chips like Sembcorp Marine, OCBC Bank and StarHub. He treated debt like a bosom mate while I look at it as a dirty word. He watched the market like a hawk and was an active trader, changing and chopping positions regularly. I am a passive investor who buys shares to keep and seldom transact.

In enunciating our differences, I'm not laying claim to being superior in my investment style. Financial management textbooks tell us that no single investment approach can consistently outperform another. In some years, a passive approach that replicates the performance of an index may provide superior returns, whereas in other years, an active approach in stock picking may be the better alternative.

Choosing a strategy to adopt is often determined by the stage of the stock market's boom-bust cycle which, frighteningly enough, has become shorter and occurs with greater regularity than in the past. Knowing when to quit is key in today's fast-changing investment climate.

I consider Dad's business acumen masterful. He was adept at spotting undervalued stocks and working out the odds. He still has that ability, at 73, to pick a winner.

Some years back while riffling through things in the storeroom at my parents' house, I chanced upon a textbook on catechism belonging to Dad. Apparently, it was required reading for non-Muslim pupils in his primary school days. In the book was a passage on Egypt's seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. I thought the story held an important investment lesson for everyone and not just those of Abrahamic faiths.

If only Dad had taken it to heart.

A refusal to quit while he was ahead was what brought him down.

dennis@sph.com.sg

[Musicwhiz]

Nice sharing from Koh_52 and Arthur, thanks. I think Mah Bow Tan (MBT) is more nervous than even because of the cacophony of voices disparaging him for his policies on HDB and private property. He has to shoulder the blame himself for such lousy policies which made HDB flat prices rise almost 100%-150% over a period of 4-5 years. Of course, one can also blame the immigration side for allowing free entry of foreigners, which contributed to this problem.

Property has always been recognized as being able to build wealth for Singaporeans and is viewed as a good source of rental income. But remember that the last crash was almost 13 years ago, so people's memories tend to fade after such a long period without a significant correction (note: I say significant because so far all we've had are minor "blips" on the road to higher prices). It's a little like the stock market - the longer since the last crash, the more complacent people become.

Worryingly, I've seen people on forums proclaiming that Singapore is "unique" and that "this time it's different", and that property prices will just continue to rise. When such views arise (out of pure ignorance, no doubt), it's time to get very very worried yourself....

[koh_52]

I predict MBT will stand for Single Ward constituency Or he risk to loss Tampines GRC
Even his own man dun like him:

Don't listen to a "drunkard", most of the time he will talk nonsense just like his housing policy.

About 2 years ago, one PAP leader had mentioned that if the "drunkard" cannot defend his policy he has to go. Think within the party, some of the leaderships are wary of him and his policies.

Vote for the opposition in Tampines !!!!!