A journalist from The Sydney Morning Herald contacted me in mid-June to find out more about the recent trend of Singaporeans snapping up Australian properties. The article "Singaporean investors hungry for a piece of the Australian housing market" was finally published in the paper on July 26, 2014. It is about Singapore property buyers flocking down under for properties … [Read more...]
Property Great Singapore Sale: To buy or to wait?
The annual GSS (Great Singapore Sale) may have started only on May 25. But for property new launches, the GSS started much earlier. The sale is now on With the steam of an overheated property market dying down, the buzz has now shifted to developers playing discount games to push new projects or clear old stock. With so many 'great deals', buyers are spoiled for … [Read more...]
It’s not easy to profit from your home
From 10 March 2014, the Housing Development Board only accepts valuation requests from resale flat buyers or their property agents after granting the Option to Purchase by the sellers. The Revised HDB Resale Procedure is believed to encourage buyers and sellers to focus their price discussions on the recent sales transactions, rather than the Cash Over Valuation (COV) that … [Read more...]
The changing faces of property new launch
With property developers rushing to launch new projects, the once quiet market is buzzing again. I spent a few Saturdays visiting the sales galleries of some property new launches, including the Jewel@Buangkok, Sant Ritz, Bartley Ridge, the Panorama, etc. I also went to see some mixed development like the VE NUE Residences, Midtown Residences and Nine Residences. When the … [Read more...]
How necessary is the exemption of the TDSR rules?
On Monday evening, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) suddenly issued a press release to broaden the existing exemption from the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) rules introduced in June last year. Fine-tuning financing restrictions a norm? Financing restrictions introduced by MAS under the context of prudent borrowing are usually made effective the following day. … [Read more...]