Last month, a PropNex agent was fined S$30,000 and suspended for 12 months by the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) for being unprofessional and unethical in a property transaction (The Straits Times, Oct 21). The agent in question was found to be telling lies and faking offers and counter-offers in order to pocket a higher commission - simply because he failed to negotiate for … [Read more...]
Will Hong Kong people buy Singapore homes?
Some readers ask me whether there will be more Hong Kong people buying Singapore homes, and whether this will raise local property prices and sales volumes. Maybe they know I was from Hong Kong two decades ago. Or they have seen too many media reports on riots in Hong Kong. Like many foreign countries, protests and strikes to Hong Kong people are like typhoons that … [Read more...]
What properties to buy in a recession
When Singapore missed its GDP target in Q2, Maybank said we are heading for a technical recession next quarter. A technical recession happens when there are two successive quarters of fall in GDP. I remember it was July 2001. Three years after I came to Singapore, the country was in recession. The economy contracted by 2 percent - a big contrast to the strong growth of … [Read more...]
The truth about people who have financial freedom
I was surprised to see the last post “The journey to financial freedom: my personal story” become my blog’s most viewed post in 2019 – in just 48 hours after putting it up. I thought financial freedom is a dry topic unrelated to properties that the readers probably won’t be interested. So, is it the keyword “financial freedom”, or the promise to share “my personal story” … [Read more...]
The journey to financial freedom: My personal story
I just read the book Financial Freedom: How People Live When They No Longer Need to Work. The author Gisela Enders interviewed seven Germans who generate enough income from investments to cover their living expenses so they no longer have to work for money. It was originally written in German and being translated into English. (Which European will talk to strangers about … [Read more...]