Tuesday, September 2, 2014

An Eerie Quiet

The letter writer asked for a waiver of the 3 year waiting period for a HDB flat after downgrading from private property ownership. Instead of being free to hop about happily in the garden, his rabbit will probably be confined to a hutch in the balcony. And poor doggy may have to be debarked to maintain the silence of the lambs housed in high rise pigeon holes with 99-year leases. Such is the fate of those who swallowed the sugared blue pill of asset enhancement.

Talking on the Chinese language station 95.8FM  radio call-in , even the prime minister admitted that there are retirees who are asset-rich cash-poor. "We should take a close look at this problem.... ", he said, without venturing any solution.

The Reuters report of another quiet group highlighted the eerie silence at night in Sentosa Cove, the only place in Singapore where foreigners can buy landed property. Spurred on by the 2004 Financial Investor Scheme (FIS) that allowed foreigners with a global net worth of $20 million to become permanent residents (PRs) if they parked $5 million (raised to $10 million in 2010) in country, $2 million of which could be put into property, the gold rush was on.

Fast forward to July 2014, a four-bedroom apartment in Sentosa's Turquoise condominium went under the hammer at a mortgagee sale for $1,400 per square foot. In 2012, a similar flat in the same block went for $2,450 per square foot and in 2007, it fetched $2,800. "The rental can't even cover the mortgage for these high-end investments - they want to offload but there are no takers," said the head of research at property consultancy OrangeTee.

No pity for this lot. Without a doubt, they helped pushed the COE to untenable levels. Last month United Overseas Bank (UOB) reported a doubling in its bad debt charges for the second quarter, attributing to a group of investors struggling to service high-end property loans.  Inevitably, the banks will have to hike interest rates, and even those flat buyers who opt for the Housing Board's fixed concessionary loans may not escape the bloodbath ahead. Be afraid, be very afraid.

19 comments:

  1. Pigeons coming home to roost.

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  2. the banks will pick up the tab, you think they will prosecute the nephew of the party secretary of a small town in the outskirts of hefei for defaulting on sentosa cove? they wouldn't even charge an ang moh for assaulting the group who defended the taxi driver, so let the taxpayers pick up the tab for any high end property default. "When you have plenty of taxpayers money, use it to bail out the banks' bad property loans"- old fart version 2014

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  3. /// Instead of being free to hop about happily in the garden, his rabbit will probably be confined to a hutch in the balcony. And poor doggy may have to be debarked to maintain the silence of the lambs housed in high rise pigeon holes with 99-year leases. ///

    Well, you can always opt to have Irish stew. And you can kill three birds with one stone if your Irish Stew is made of bunny, doggy or pigeon meat, instead of lamb (after silencing it, of course). While you are debarking your dog, you will also have to deflower all those flowers.

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  4. ooooooo!

    Cant wait for interest rates to hike up....!

    But like hoping for PAP to lose 2 more GRCs... it remains a dream.. a stupor like state.

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    Replies
    1. ooooooooo!
      It's the Oracle from the PAP Internet Brigade.
      Tatler. Yous hould be so honoured.

      Delete
  5. Well....thats what u get when u put / let those short sighted self serving people in charge who can only see now and perhaps next year...but not 5 - 10 years ahead...

    And when real blood start to spill....no amount of sorries or saying it is other people (who is not the ones actually in charge) fault...

    LKY version of passing the buck and pain to others as usual while keeping himself out of the way.

    Fark them all lah.

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  6. 99 year lease? Who actually gets a real 99year lease? Look at your 'title deeds' carefully. They are always back-dated 3years or more.

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  7. ah loong is much smarter than many people would give credit to. he knows the root of all social problems today is actually money. no, it is not his growth-at-all-costs policy that many have mistaken. he is genuinely trying his best to help the people everyday. he believes nothing works best than to take away as much money as possible from the people. he is very sympathetic towards roy and that fires up his determination to bankrupt him so that he can be free of his problems. ah loong wants to make sure everyone has a happy retirement, that's why he is standing his ground by withholding everyone's cpf. "what's wrong with collecting more money?", afterall it's for the good of everyone. no money, no problem.

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  8. Even if election is around the corner, the betrayal of CPF members will continue to haunt PAP as long as it takes, notwithstanding any cunning Pioneer Gen scheme.

    Be very afraid, PAP or LHL or was it LKY ? Bound to lose a few more GRCs the way it goes.

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  9. Talking on the Chinese language station 95.8FM radio call-in , even the prime minister admitted that there are retirees who are asset-rich cash-poor. "We should take a close look at this problem.... ", he said, without venturing any solution.

    Be afraid.
    Be very afraid.
    You won't have much assets or cash left by the time they finish helping you.

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    Replies
    1. I am peeing down my pants now, the G is looking into the problem, another major screw up is cooking.... you complain, the G will fix you...

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    2. Please lah.
      If you have a problem, please keep quiet and vote Opposition.
      Don't open your mouth and complain.
      Now you see lah!
      More PAP is coming to help us.
      Die already.
      Get one chicken wing today.
      After General Elections ... give back an entire chicken every year for 5 years.

      Delete
  10. UOB reported group of investors struggling with high end property loans? Have no mercy on these people!

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    Replies
    1. No need to struggle. If they are foreigners, PRs or dual citizenship holders and can't service their loan, they can always buy a one-way ticket out of Spore.

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    2. Owe the bank $10k, you are in trouble. Owe the banks $10m, the bank is in trouble :)

      Ever heard of Li Ka Shing giving personal guarantee for his companies' bank loans? No bank would even dare suggest asking a small time Indonesian businessman with US$20m sitting in their bank account for personal guarantee for a mortgage, the businessman would just move the US$20m out to the next bank. With no personal guarantee, the banks will have to eat the bad mortgage debt, and later charge it to the local dumb borrowers with variable rates. Or go to the G for some repayment in kind from taxpayers. Every systematically 'important' bank in every country has the local politicians on their payroll, no exceptions. Question is which ones are systematically important in red dot.

      Delete
  11. The chatter is that departing foreigners get all the credit they can get and max them out before going home. Imagine if foreign property owners cut their losses and run.

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    Replies
    1. Just increase the mortgage interest rate for Singaporeans to recover back the profits.
      It's not as if the Singaporeans can do anything about it.
      - Just ask the mini-bond investors.

      Delete
  12. " The value of a college degree has tripled since the 1980s, report says "

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ny-fed-report--value-of-college-degree-144252957.html

    This is why you should not believe a PAP Minister when he tells you not to go to university.

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  13. Property speculators burned, gov should have done this years ago, maybe alot of superscaler were riding the property boom and have to get out in time.

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