Some comments from fellow international friends

[mrEngineer]

I met some friends during my overseas trip and got some information that is quite interesting.

American (military officer)
- lived near texas area
- mentioned that with his income now he is able to obtain housing loan with interest of 7% (the norm is around 10%!!!)
- pre-crisis loan was about 3-4%
Food for thought: Wonder what are the banks doing with the FED rate charge at only 25 basis points..

Canadian (IT developer)
- lived in Montreal
- mentioned that it is possible to get condos (1400sqft) in suburban area for 200k CAD and about 400K CAD in city area
- for prices in Vancouver, it will be just double.
Food for thought: if you compare to Singapore condos, isnt the property bubble obvious enough

German (Finance trainee)
- lived near Stuttgart area
- mentioned that german condo apartments (3 room) costs approximately 100k euros onwards and near city area about 300k.
- Food for thought: I told him that our 5 room HDB would probably worth a good condo in germany!

All figures or information are just general chat and the data is not verified. For fun sharing only.

[Musicwhiz]

I think the key reason is low interest rates. That is what is sustaining the "bubble", assuming you think that one currently exists (I do, personally).

Still, it's been a couple of years already when prices look crazy and yet they still continue climbing, so it makes property market "bears" like me look really really dumb.

[mrEngineer]

Another interesting point that I forgot to mention, for the american the savings rate or rather they use money market rate is about 2% per annum. check out the spread between housing loan and savings deposit rate!

[yeokiwi]

I met some friends during my overseas trip and got some information that is quite interesting.

American (military officer)
- lived near texas area
- mentioned that with his income now he is able to obtain housing loan with interest of 7% (the norm is around 10%!!!)
- pre-crisis loan was about 3-4%
Food for thought: Wonder what are the banks doing with the FED rate charge at only 25 basis points..

There are significant number of non-performing loans. I suppose that causes the banks to increase the interest rate to offset the losses.

Canadian (IT developer)
- lived in Montreal
- mentioned that it is possible to get condos (1400sqft) in suburban area for 200k CAD and about 400K CAD in city area
- for prices in Vancouver, it will be just double.
Food for thought: if you compare to Singapore condos, isnt the property bubble obvious enough

German (Finance trainee)
- lived near Stuttgart area
- mentioned that german condo apartments (3 room) costs approximately 100k euros onwards and near city area about 300k.
- Food for thought: I told him that our 5 room HDB would probably worth a good condo in germany!

All figures or information are just general chat and the data is not verified. For fun sharing only.

I think for Canada, with the large land mass, it is hard for the price to inflate. The suburbans and subsuburbans will put a damper on the cities' property prices. In Singapore, there are none.

Besides that, they have higher taxes too.

Actually, the definition of condo may not be the same for all countries. I think it is rare in the world that the gov "subsidised" flats in Singapore are housing more than 80% of the population.
I suppose our higher end HDB flat = other countries' condo.

[newborn1000]

Yah...........due to limited land space.......even our cars are more expensive

Cant say it's a bubble though =P

[corydorus]

I know in US, there is high annual property taxes in a few percent range in which rules/condition may differ between states.
Seems like holding cost can be high if we do not manage tax properly. Top it up with Interests and when loans got adjusted upwards you got a double whammy.

I guess is really painful without job.


Cory