How much are you earning per annum?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

44/46, total income $6k pm. One son.
Currently staying in a 3 room HDB flat, paid up. Current valuation $350k.
Planning to upgrade to a 2 bedroom new EC costing $600k. We have saved enough from our cash and CPF savings for the 20% downpayment ($120k). We intend to take mortgage loan of 80% ($480k) for the new EC.
Once our EC is ready, we will sell our flat and use part of the money to buy a new car.
What do you think of our plan?

If you are serious about upgrading, I suggest you don't own a car, given your income. It is good you have your 20% downpayment ready. As for the remaining $480k, I suggest you don't take loan for the whole amount. Instead you should use all the $350k sales proceeds of your flat to pay down. So your mortgage loan will only be $130k (ie $480k minus $350k). A mortgage loan of $130k is much more manageable than $480k and you should be able to pay it off within 10 - 15 years. As for transport, just take the bus and mrt.

earning 65k per annum 35 year old nus grad

Not so simple dude. By the time the new EC is ready, your flat's value could have plunged. Don't count your eggs before it is hatched. With your middle income pay, it is best you stay where you are and save up for your retirement. Make sure you meet your CPF min sum so that when you retire you have passive income from CPF Life. Don't be like people who overspend, upgrade their car and flat and go holidays but then complain about the CPF min sum.


Massive flat glut looms with over 24,000 empty private condos islandwide
Overall vacancy rate spiked to 7.8% in Q4.

An immense number of non-landed condominium units are standing empty across the island. Latest data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed that 24,062 completed private condo units stood empty across Singapore in the fourth quarter, up from 21,569 empty units in the third quarter.

A total of 308,814 units are available islandwide as of the fourth quarter, up 2.1% from 302,510 units in the third quarter. With the increase in available completed units, the island-wide vacancy rate for private residential unit also increased to 7.8% in the fourth quarter.

According to JLL, this figure is higher than the 7.1% reported for the past two quarters and is significantly higher than the low of 5.2% recorded in 1Q13.

“As the bulk of new completions are in the non-landed segment, its vacancy rate rose sharply from 8.2 per cent in 3Q14 to 9.1 per cent in the fourth quarter. If it trends towards 10 per cent, it would reach the high vacancies recorded during the 2004/05 period when rents were depressed,” JLL stated in a report.

“The increased supply of completed units is exacerbating the softening in the leasing market, with the rental index falling by 1 per cent in 4Q14 and by 3 per cent for the whole year. Rents in CCR have fallen by 3.7 per cent in 2014, more than the other segments as the higher rents in CCR become less affordable to tenants with tighter housing budgets,” the report added.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

44/46, total income $6k pm. One son.
Currently staying in a 3 room HDB flat, paid up. Current valuation $350k.
Planning to upgrade to a 2 bedroom new EC costing $600k. We have saved enough from our cash and CPF savings for the 20% downpayment ($120k). We intend to take mortgage loan of 80% ($480k) for the new EC.
Once our EC is ready, we will sell our flat and use part of the money to buy a new car.
What do you think of our plan?

A few things will change.

First the current depressed home prices is a very much self inflicted (or government inflicted) malaise. This was done to appease a lot of people who felt priced out of the housing market. But the negative effect of the cooling measures is already being felt by many housing agents who are dropping out of the industry altogether. Some smaller housing agencies are also closing up.

The second thing is the tightening of foreign labour/talent supply. This has caused the rental demand to drop. But the worse effect is the adverse impact on businesses especially on restaurants. Many simply cannot continue operations

So I think the government will be tweaking the measures soon. Maybe they might remove some of the measures altogether. Then demand will come back, maybe with a vengeance.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Not so simple dude. By the time the new EC is ready, your flat's value could have plunged. Don't count your eggs before it is hatched. With your middle income pay, it is best you stay where you are and save up for your retirement. Make sure you meet your CPF min sum so that when you retire you have passive income from CPF Life. Don't be like people who overspend, upgrade their car and flat and go holidays but then complain about the CPF min sum.


Massive flat glut looms with over 24,000 empty private condos islandwide
Overall vacancy rate spiked to 7.8% in Q4.

An immense number of non-landed condominium units are standing empty across the island. Latest data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed that 24,062 completed private condo units stood empty across Singapore in the fourth quarter, up from 21,569 empty units in the third quarter.

A total of 308,814 units are available islandwide as of the fourth quarter, up 2.1% from 302,510 units in the third quarter. With the increase in available completed units, the island-wide vacancy rate for private residential unit also increased to 7.8% in the fourth quarter.

According to JLL, this figure is higher than the 7.1% reported for the past two quarters and is significantly higher than the low of 5.2% recorded in 1Q13.

“As the bulk of new completions are in the non-landed segment, its vacancy rate rose sharply from 8.2 per cent in 3Q14 to 9.1 per cent in the fourth quarter. If it trends towards 10 per cent, it would reach the high vacancies recorded during the 2004/05 period when rents were depressed,” JLL stated in a report.

“The increased supply of completed units is exacerbating the softening in the leasing market, with the rental index falling by 1 per cent in 4Q14 and by 3 per cent for the whole year. Rents in CCR have fallen by 3.7 per cent in 2014, more than the other segments as the higher rents in CCR become less affordable to tenants with tighter housing budgets,” the report added.

The people who suffers most are the old retirees who depended on rental income from their empty rooms to rent to FTs. Now with the oversupply of properties and low demand due to FT restrictions, these old folks have little or no income. If things gets worse, they may have to sell their home to get cash. I pity them. I hope more FTs are allowed to work here so that these old folks can rent their spare rooms and get passive income. I hope they don't have to work at their old age. Supply of land must also be cut to allow the oversupply problem to improve. We have a serious problem of property oversupply and empty condos. If we don't bring in more FTs now, our property market may collapse and causing banks and the economy to collapse as well. Urgent action is required now. We need more FTs now to rent the empty condos. But please restrict them from buying condos so that they can rent the empty condos.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

A few things will change.

First the current depressed home prices is a very much self inflicted (or government inflicted) malaise. This was done to appease a lot of people who felt priced out of the housing market. But the negative effect of the cooling measures is already being felt by many housing agents who are dropping out of the industry altogether. Some smaller housing agencies are also closing up.

The second thing is the tightening of foreign labour/talent supply. This has caused the rental demand to drop. But the worse effect is the adverse impact on businesses especially on restaurants. Many simply cannot continue operations

So I think the government will be tweaking the measures soon. Maybe they might remove some of the measures altogether. Then demand will come back, maybe with a vengeance.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The people who suffers most are the old retirees who depended on rental income from their empty rooms to rent to FTs. Now with the oversupply of properties and low demand due to FT restrictions, these old folks have little or no income. If things gets worse, they may have to sell their home to get cash. I pity them. I hope more FTs are allowed to work here so that these old folks can rent their spare rooms and get passive income. I hope they don't have to work at their old age. Supply of land must also be cut to allow the oversupply problem to improve. We have a serious problem of property oversupply and empty condos. If we don't bring in more FTs now, our property market may collapse and causing banks and the economy to collapse as well. Urgent action is required now. We need more FTs now to rent the empty condos. But please restrict them from buying condos so that they can rent the empty condos.

If FTs come, we complain. If FTs reduce, we also complain. If too many FTs are allowed, then job market shrink for Singaporeans and price increase for house etc. There must be some balance. Government will decide it.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

A few things will change.

First the current depressed home prices is a very much self inflicted (or government inflicted) malaise. This was done to appease a lot of people who felt priced out of the housing market. But the negative effect of the cooling measures is already being felt by many housing agents who are dropping out of the industry altogether. Some smaller housing agencies are also closing up.

The second thing is the tightening of foreign labour/talent supply. This has caused the rental demand to drop. But the worse effect is the adverse impact on businesses especially on restaurants. Many simply cannot continue operations

So I think the government will be tweaking the measures soon. Maybe they might remove some of the measures altogether. Then demand will come back, maybe with a vengeance.

Aljuneid cost PM 5 MPs.

I will be very surprised to see the govt reversing any of thesepolicies before May 2016.
As for housing agents, they are essentially parasites so hope they have enough blood in their pouches to last them till June 2016.

Although Singapore is a small country with a small population, it is not homogenous. Many people own their homes, so if property prices drop further, the government risks losing votes too. The group who bellyached about unaffordable property prices, will now want their property prices to rise after buying their property. They will now cry father cry mother that all their CPF money is in their property, and if property prices don't go up, they will have nothing to fall back on in their old age. And they will vote for opposition just to show their displeasure.

Same for those who want to buy cars. They say COE prices too high, but after they bought their cars, they say cut COE supply, so that the roads will not be congested.

As for housing agents, the successful ones would still be in the business as they would have earned enough to weather these lean years. It is those marginal ones who will quit. These people also have families to feed, school going children to support and very likely they will not vote for you who know who.

What about the small businesses that are labour intensive? With the supply of cheaper foreign labour drying up, they also end up folding up. When they fold up, their local workers also lose their livelihood. You know who they will blame.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Aljuneid cost PM 5 MPs.

I will be very surprised to see the govt reversing any of thesepolicies before May 2016.
As for housing agents, they are essentially parasites so hope they have enough blood in their pouches to last them till June 2016.

90% of people here are home owners so they would not want property prices to drop. Those who make noise are the minority who may include PRs and foreigners wanting to buy cheap properties here. They make noise online so you never know who they are, they may pretend to be locals but they may not be. Local Singaporeans have the choice to buy cheap BTO flats so they should not make noise. Those who want to buy cheap flats in matured estates are fussy folks. They want to buy cheap properties in prime areas. Just too much. These are the younger people who are pampered like little children.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Although Singapore is a small country with a small population, it is not homogenous. Many people own their homes, so if property prices drop further, the government risks losing votes too. The group who bellyached about unaffordable property prices, will now want their property prices to rise after buying their property. They will now cry father cry mother that all their CPF money is in their property, and if property prices don't go up, they will have nothing to fall back on in their old age. And they will vote for opposition just to show their displeasure.

Same for those who want to buy cars. They say COE prices too high, but after they bought their cars, they say cut COE supply, so that the roads will not be congested.

As for housing agents, the successful ones would still be in the business as they would have earned enough to weather these lean years. It is those marginal ones who will quit. These people also have families to feed, school going children to support and very likely they will not vote for you who know who.

What about the small businesses that are labour intensive? With the supply of cheaper foreign labour drying up, they also end up folding up. When they fold up, their local workers also lose their livelihood. You know who they will blame.

Middle class, middle income couple working in the corporate sector, 50/51.
Total income from salaries $220k pa.
Total income from dividends and interest $20k pa.
Bought our condo in 2003 for $500k, now worth $1m, paid up.
Owns a car, paid up.

Our retirement plan is sell our condo and buy a studio condo.
If we sell our condo for $1m and buy a studio condo for $500k, we will have $500k cash to invest in blue chip high dividend yield stocks giving us 5% yield or $25k pa.
Our CPF Life will give $1200 pm per person, so in total we will get $28.8k pa.
We told our children that they will need to give us $500 pm for each of them, so we will get $1k pm from our two kids or $12k pa. They agreed as this amount is small.
So our total passive income at retirement will be $65.8k at least.