Tan Kin Lian's Blog: High housing price in Singapore

Saturday, January 30, 2010

High housing price in Singapore

Dear Mr. Tan,

Singapore's current leaders, instead of owning up to a bad performance, attempts to do their job using the cheapest instrument - words.

They insist repeatedly that housing is affordable on one hand, against everyone's common sense,
and yet they also claim that the rapid climb in Singapore's housing prices is a positive and purposeful result of PAP's good work in growing our economy and that is where your wealth and your kids' future wealth will come from.

And to top it off, Lee Kuan Yew put forth the assumption that should Mah Bow Tan be ousted from Tampines GRC, everyone should sell their flats because it will become worthless?

http://whomovedmysingaporecheese.blogspot.com/2010/01/let-truth-be-told.html

14 comments:

Anonymous said...: Quote
"And to top it off, Lee Kuan Yew put forth the assumption that should Mah Bow Tan be ousted from Tampines GRC, everyone should sell their flats because it will become worthless?"
Unquote

If this is the case. Singapore self-claim best political system and leadership renewal by the papaya govt will be the biggest joke. It means we depend on just one person Mah BT. It is utterly rubbish argument. Sad this has come from a once respected leader.

MAS irresponsibility and lack courage to accept its own oversights and mistakes is a good example of not owning up.

Pretending nothing has gone wrong on their part with the minibond, HN5, pinnacle notes...

Now you see, MAs quietly ask the bank to do more thorough job before selling future similar products to unsuspecting public.

MAS should have taken strong measures to tell the banks to compensate all victims like in Hong Kong.; January 30, 2010 8:27 AM
Anonymous said...: In 1984 GE, Potong Pasir voters had voted out MBT even he had straight As in his 'O' Level and an overseas govt scholar but nothing serious had happened to Potong Pasir HDB flats after 1984 GE.

So now do you think our HDB flats will become worthless if the voters in Tampines GRC voted out MBT in the coming GE?

It's the same old tactic that the great and dear old leader of the ruling party had and has been instilled us - FEAR!

Anyway, we can't stop an old dog playing an old trick to us, can we?

But then every dog will have its day sooner or later!!; January 30, 2010 10:53 AM
Anonymous said...: As usual, PAP knows how to use HDB to blackmail voters. If you don't vote for me, no upgrading. If Mah Bow Tan is ousted, your HDB will become worthless. And as usual, many stupid Singaporean fall into their trap again and again.; January 30, 2010 12:44 PM
Anonymous said...: In the 1997 elections, in hot spot Cheng San GRC, the PAP anchor minister was Lee Yoke Suan, also the education minister. They were then facing a formidable WP team led by JBJ and Tang Liang Hong.

LKY during the election campaign said if Cheng San was lost to opposition, Singaporeans would lose a "very able" education minister!

Cheng San was won by PAP with 50+ % of votes, the lowest % win. Lee Yoke Suan was switched portfolios after that and later dropped from cabinet altogether when LHL took over as PM in 2004. And subsequently Cheng San GRC disappeared from the electoral map!

So please take MM Lee's words with a pinch of salt, especially where elections and candidates are concerned.; January 30, 2010 2:07 PM
Anonymous said...: My concern is future generation of Singaporeans and also current generation who need HDB flats. I am concerned that money no enough because global economy fragile so income also fragile. In everything there is a saturation point, so it is the same with the ever-rising HDB flats. Has anyone prepared a worst case scenario for public housing? Remember no one thought Lehman Brothers would go belly-up. The party ends at some point!; January 30, 2010 4:12 PM
Anonymous said...: There are 2 types of Generals.

There are Generals who give orders 200 miles away from the battlefield.

And then there are Generals who lead their army straight into battle, leading from the front. Examples of such Generals include Alexander the Great, Moshe Dayan and George Patton(World War 2). It's very inspiring to read about how they led their troops into battles.

In the light of the challenges faced by Singapore, I'm reminded of a few quotations from General George Patton.

"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.
He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."

- Personally, I'm sick of "dying for my country". Tired of all the phrases exhorting Singaporeans to work cheaper, better and faster.

Instead, I would like to have leaders who can show us how to 'make the other dumb bastard die for his country" for a change.

"There's a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top. Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and is much less prevalent. One of the most frequently noted characteristics of great men who have remained great is loyalty to their subordinates."; January 30, 2010 9:22 PM
Anonymous said...: What this senior politician said is disgusting. If the price of HDB flats depends on just one man, then sg deserves to fail. In all these years the ruling party has failed to implement a system that will survive it. What a disgrace!

Old man says that the price of HDB flats must be priced slightly higher each time, so as to increase the value of investment of all the earlier buyers. This is asinine logic. If you were to take this argument to its logical conclusion, then the price of HDB flats must continue to increase forever ad-infinitum. So, sometime in the distant future a 3-rm HDB flat might cost $100 million. Common sense tells that nothing in this world can go up and up and up.......; January 30, 2010 10:00 PM
Anonymous said...: You, yes, you can make a difference. Just say NO to people who use threats. Are you so easily bullied?; January 30, 2010 10:46 PM
Anonymous said...: Should ask LKY or GCT to stand at Potong Pasir since they are confident that people elect the best educated candidates.
I beleive they have no balls and talk through their ass.
The problem is Singaporeans have no balls too.; January 30, 2010 10:50 PM
Anonymous said...: Did anybody here see Straits Times article today, 31 January 2010. Page 29 in the main section.

Article is about leasehold properties.

The final 4 paragraphs are naive at best.

The 6th paragraph (from the bottom of column 2) was equally alarming. i.e. about exchanging all her cash in exchange for a leasehold property and a 30 year mortgage debt.

I hope this is not an example of "investigative journalism" at its best in Singapore.

I am no where near as financially savvy and conservative as Mr Tan Kin Lian. But even dumb old me was scared by what the journalist had done to herself.; January 31, 2010 10:36 AM
Anonymous said...: I used to pay particular attention
to what MM Lee says, now I'm so fed up that whatever he says now, I
just fipped channels or turn over
to other pages in the papers, the
same with his son, our so-called PM. I find MM Lee's speeches so hollow and losing touch with Singaporeans, it is like selling
something that the sellers want,but
the buyers do not want.; January 31, 2010 10:32 PM
Anonymous said...: Mah Bow Tan wanted to impress the old man with the profits generated by HDB. He did it to enhance himself and neglected the needs of the citizens.
Remember in the past we had a situation where all the flats in Woodlands, Jurong and Ponggol were over built and unwanted?
He was smart enough to overcome that over-supply situation by stopping new construction of flats and lelong off those unsold flats with hefty discounts in his walk-in-selection gimmicks.
He thought he had learnt a lesson and introduced BTO flats.. in another word... no order from the public no building of flats hence cutting down the risk of oversupply. In doing so, he enhanced his position as a skilful and intelligent Shorty....thus impressed the old man further at the expense and inconvenience of the citizens.
His mistake is so glaring and the old man did not hesitate to sell him wholesale.
”If he cannot defend himself...he deserved to lose!”
How is he going to defend himself?
His ignorance on the new immigration policy leads to a vacuum in the supply causing the price to escalate even in a bearish market which inevitably caught him by surprise.
PAP may remove him from Tampine in order to save it and censure him in order to please the voters. All the mistakes and negligent will then be directed to Mr Marlboro and probably send him to some other ministries where foresights are not required.; February 01, 2010 7:28 PM
Anonymous said...: New citizens and PRs’ in win win situation in Tampines
If they hold back the purchase of HDB flats and buy only after the election.
They can chose to vote Marlboro out and let the values drop like what our old wise man forecasted.
This will be the sales worth waiting for!
In the 90’s before Hong Kong was returned to China, there was an exodus of Hongkongers fleeing here because of we attracted them with our low cost public housing, 25,000 of them if I can remembered correctly.
After occupying the flats for a few years to comply with the HDB’s regulations, they all went back after selling the flats with tons of profits.
Why is our immigration policies so carelessly and hastily implemented?
When will our leaders stop screwing our own citizens and benefitting strangers?; February 01, 2010 7:30 PM
Anonymous said...: remove housing consumption from the GDP calculation, that high pricing of housing will not make the GDP nice. SGP leaders have to be clear how they want to country to compete. as a saying goes you can't win at all front. if you want singapore to compete in cost, then pushing up the housing will not help. instead it will drown the working level. if want to compete in high value add food chain, then jolly well make sure our salary are way ahead to make us comfortable to take the fight head on.; May 17, 2010 6:13 PM