The good news is that $75,000 will now actually buy you a brand new flat (cheaper than those affordable $100K units), if you can contend with 35 sq metres in a non-mature estate. That's HDB nomenclature for an ulu part of the island which may lack certain amenities like schools, supermarkets, clinics, hawker centres, as well as sports and recreational facilities. On the plus side, the relatively remote locations may suit those planning a discreet afternoon tryst with a female IT sales executive. Just imagine, if they deliver on the $60,000 housing grant, a studio flat will cost only $15,000.
Before you rush out to nominate the HDB for a humanitarian award in finally reducing the entry level for basic accommodation, read on. The new flats will not be fitted with sanitary essentials like wash basins and taps. Those are optional items which HDB will happily supply at a mere $4,300. Recall the gold plated tap that caused NKF's TT Durai a lot of bother was priced at $990, including discount and GST. Sure that was in 2004, and them HDB executives have had their paychecks revised upwards umpteen times since. For those on a tight budget, say earning $1,000 a month, please make do with a plastic pail and stand pipe. It will add a touch of nostalgia, and bring back fond memories of kampong days in the 50's, before ministers award themselves million dollar salaries. At Teck Ghee Parkview, HDB will even offer you a partition to separate the kitchen from the living room, at $2,000 extra. Do you really need to prepare curry and risk a police report from the PRC neighbour?
Once again, the guys in charge missed out on another golden opportunity to appease the unhappiness of the disgruntled citizens. Then again, if the wealthy foreigners can have their Formula 1 races for another 5 years, Goh Chok Tong's concept of net happiness is attained. Didn't Lim Hng Kiang just remind us that while foreigners currently account for about 20 per cent of all income taxpayers, they contribute more than 25 per cent of Singapore's total personal income taxes?
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lim's statistics show that the majority of Singaporeans earn too little to pay taxes. sad.
ReplyDeletefor the 20% of FT tax payers (not sure if they include PRs), for every 1 such tax payers, they let in 49 other non tax paying ones.
ReplyDeleteno wonder the country is flooded.
couldn't the govt just choose properly.
The more such news come to surface, the more disgusted I am with here. Yes, no nation or government is perfect.
ReplyDeleteBut gone were the days we Singaporeans believe that PAP is out to serve the nation.
ReplyDeleteI was talking to a taxi driver just the other day.
ReplyDeleteHe said if you don't vote PAP, they will not help you if you ask for help at the MPS.
So then I said, if you voted for them, do you think they will help you anyway?
His eyes grew big.
A light switch turned on.
And then he said "Yeah hor! I will have to beg. And even then, does not mean I will get any help leh!"
PAP really treat Singaporeans as stupid even with mobile plans. PAP govt can never grow up with time as time as they can milk the citizens as much as they can. Ask yourself how is it for so long that callerid charge is not part of standard mobile plan cost but separate charge consider that it is necessary feature and not even optional nowadays. Isn't this should be free by now ? Did anyone get fedup by insurance company, bank calling in to buy plan without your permission ? chinaman, indiaman frequently calling you from bank because the govt allows that to happen , and when the govt invest in these banks ? Don't you think under these circumstances callerid should be free and as standard feature of mobile plan then ?
ReplyDeleteHow is it that in Malaysia telco offering CallerID FOC as part of the mobile plan , whereas ours still happily charging us separately ?
Delete40% of our population is foreigners, yet they only contribute 25% tax?
ReplyDeleteThe other 15% are for occupiers of this tax haven aka known as paradise.
DeleteYet there are others who couldn't wait to escape
http://therealsingapore.com/content/part-1-dirty-secret-behind-ex-cabinet-minister-yeo-cheow-tong-retirment-politics
Can we have the contract sum for these projects for a cost vs selling price comparison?
ReplyDeleteWikipedia used to have some of these under the "build to order" article. Somehow these info are deleted. Can anyone put it back?
Delete//The new flats will not be fitted with sanitary essentials like wash basins and taps. Those are optional items which HDB will happily supply at a mere $4,300. //
ReplyDeleteROTFL ....typical chenghu...must install your own water pipes or not?
How about the door knob? I stomping my feet now.
Next time, before you complain there is not enough bread to go around, remember - let them eat XO chai tao kway is the equivalent of Marie's Antonette's Let Them Eat Cake. Because you can be more satisfied with the $10 plate than the $1.50 plate right? In this case, that golden saffron retirement kernel is that $1.50 quality lor.
ReplyDeleteThis is no chai tao kway.
DeleteThis is classic 砍菜头
Basic facilities like basin are optional... I wonder if hardened shelters are optional too.
ReplyDelete45sqm cost up to $102,000!!
ReplyDeleteI think HDB and its contractors ought to be sacked for failure to bring economy of scales.
Even a pre-fab house by IKEA for 74sqm only cost US$80,000, with energy appliances including induction cooktop, convection oven, refrigerator and dishwashers. Bathroom highlights include a two-sink vanity with four drawers and an additional storage cabinet...!!!
http://designtaxi.com/news/351780/IKEA-Launches-Fully-Furnished-Pre-Fab-Homes/
You'll never look at DIY the same way again...
Can we hire this CEO of Ikea as foreign talent to run our housing board? The million dollar salary for him as Minister will be well worth it. Any consensus?
DeleteWhat is the political affiliation of Ikea CEO?
DeleteWhat is the political affiliation of HDB contractors?
if only can import prefab houses and motor homes...
Deleteare they charging for the air in the flat? or is that akan datang?
ReplyDeleteThey have been doing that for ages, each higher floor costs more.
DeleteCurrent taxpayers pay for elderly retirements? Yes, that story sounds familiar. Presumably this is why the thousands pensioners left over from the LKY/GCT era-fighting generation lived in such opulent publicly-funded swiss luxury when the baby boom generation came of age. Oh, wait … this is what it will look like for us in 40yrs time when these so-called foreign labors are supposed to do for me?
DeleteWere we all fucking asleep when they fostered this con on ? And it still goes on and now they want even more $4,300 for freaking sink and tap. Can I turn over my years of collected paper cardboard for trade-in instead?
They take advantage of us because they know the $4,300 is paid for with CPF money.
DeleteSo Sinkies will pay the $4,300 with CPF money rather than use $1,000 cash to fix up their own sink & tap.
cant help it, ive been told if you got no money to buy something decent, live somewhere ulu, and be at the mercy of scumbags who use the superiority of money to screw you
ReplyDeleteOnly 2 types of scumbags will use the superiority of money to screw us.
DeleteMoneylenders and politicians from the Party Against People.
For them scumbags to have XO chai tao kway, they first got to have us as chai tao to chop first.
DeleteStill, we must commend them for their ability to convince the entire population that it is the best course to take!
ReplyDeleteNot one single voice to oppose ( or it was not reported by msm then )
To hypnotise and to make money disappear without en entire population realising it... what more, for over 20 years!!
David Copperfield could not have done better!
Wait!.. I think there will be an encore performance in progress!!
Watch how billions vanish painlessly in slow motion!!
Dennis Wee Realty's senior manager for training, research and consultancy, Lee Sze Teck, said : "But the trend of BTO flats being sold under SBF launches is worrying. This means that in certain towns, for example Sengkang, Punggol and Yishun, quite a number of BTO flats launched there were not sold," he added.
ReplyDeleteWhy are BTO flats not being sold?
The median price for a 5 room Resale Flat at Tampines is $530K in the 2nd Q of 2012. At Sengkang it is 481K. (see link below). A 5 room BTO new flat at Teck Ghee Parkway is $498K - $598K, averaging to $548K (see Tatler's table). Why is a new flat almost as expensive as a resale flat? Are they charging new flats at Market Rate? Where is the so called subsidy? Once again, what is the cost of building a HDB flat?
http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10321p.nsf/w/BuyResaleFlatMedianResalePrices?OpenDocument
Cost of HDB flat = Construction cost per tender documents.
ReplyDeleteAround $150K-$200K.
The HDB flats belong to the government.
So land cost should not be included in the calculation.
It is shocking a Trade and Industry Minister and an ex-PM have such simplistic ideas that just because one pays more taxes automatically shows that one is entitled to a louder voice or naturally deserve their place in society more than the rest who pays less taxes.
ReplyDeleteThey pay more income taxes because they earn more income. And one should look at total taxes rather than just income taxes paid (eg GST, road tax, COE, town council, etc). If the FT were not around, some Singaporeans or other FT would have earned that income, paid the same tax, hence totally replaceable. On the other hand, a local serves NS to provide national security for a stable environment, locals save our money in POSB so businessmen and FT can borrow cheaply for their business and speculate on housing or stock markets, locals act as buffer in economic downturns by being a consumer buying the goods and services the businessmen produced - all these are far more important to an economy, which the PAP does not bother to understand nor have the experience to understand, because they have never run a real business. Even with larger influx of FTs in 2012, retail sales are falling, and if we stripped out higher petrol, higher COEs, higher town council fees, utility bills, higher housing, transport etc, one should really be shocked why retail sales should be falling. It basically tells us the PAP have no clue how an economy works: you squeeze the locals' pay hard, you have no consumption in the economy. Giving civil servants who form less than 20% of the consumer base is just a desperate attempt to make up for the lost in income of the rest. By now all should see that the FT policy is self-defeating, in its final stages. It has failed in US, UK, backfired badly in HK and France. It will fail the MIW here, alas to our detriment.
And hairdo Lim also said: "you speak to all the SMEs, hiring FT gives them competitive advantage...". Well, if that is how a $2m minister who sits on boards of GIC understands by the term "competitiveness", then it's no winder GIC and temasek are losing our hundreds of billions. And after that they turn around and ask the workers and SMEs to deliver higher productivity while letting the bosses hire 10 cheap banglas to replace 3 locals?
Dear Anon 2:45 PM,
ReplyDeleteThe Pappies know well the Consequence of their schemes over the Last Two Over Decades.
They got nothing to lose, when anything goes wrong, it will hardly affects them. Instead, it cud be opportunity for them to say goodbye and enjoy life aand leave the shit to the people.
Ha, that $75,000 flat sounded exactly like the Tata Nano car that sells for US$2,000.
ReplyDeleteOnly one wing mirror - you have to pay extra for the other.
One windscreen wiper instead of the usual two.
Trunk is only accessible from the inside (the rear hatch does not open).
No power steering.
No air conditioning (in the Indian heat!).
No air bags - you die your business.
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