Support Site For The Unemployed

We need 1000 signatures on our “Employ Singaporeans First!” petition before we can mail it to the Prime Minister Office. To date, we only collected less than 200 signatures. Support this petition for the sake of yourself, your children and fellow Singaporeans! To sign simply go to the link below under Cause - “Online petition - Employ Singaporeans First!”.

Telok Blangah 5-Room Flat Asking For Nearly $1 Million (Temasek Review)

Posted by admin 8 February, 2010

Another old 5-room resale HDB flat in Telok Blangah asking for nearly S$1 million dollars

Written by Our Correspondent

Three days ago, we put up an advertisement of a 5-room HDB flat in Marine Parade selling for an eye-popping S$990,000.

Now we have another 5-room flat in Telok Blangah asking for S$999,000, $9,000 more than the earlier flat:

From the photos above, the flat appears to be situated in an older part of Telok Blangah and is at least 30 years old which means that it has at most 60 – 70 years left on its lease since all HDB flats are 99-year old properties.

The exorbitant prices asked by some property agents is a sign that the red-hot public housing market has got completely out of control.

The prices of resale flats increased by 8.2 per cent in 2009 when Singapore was mired in recession with Cash-Over-Valuation (COVs) doubling from $12,000 to $24,000 in the last three months:

The sky-rocketing prices are fueled largely by limited number of flats built between the years 2006 – 2008 coupled with the large influx of foreigners into Singapore during the same period of time.

Only 3,183 new flats were built in 2008 when there were over 90,000 PRs and 20,000 new citizens in the same year:

[Source: HDB Financial Report 2008/2009]

The resale market is popped up artificially by PRs and new citizens. According to Mr Mohamad Ismail, CEO of real estate agency Propnex, about 20 per cent of the buyers of resale flats are PRs. ERA and C&H quote their figures at 40 and 50 per cent respectively.

Despite widespread concerns, worries and frustration among Singaporeans at the rising prices of HDB flats, the ruling party continues to insist that they are “affordable”.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said lately that there is nothing his administration can do to control the prices of resale flats as they are set between the buyer and the seller themselves.

HDB has promised to increase the supply of new flats, but they will not be ready until a few years later.

In the meantime, home buyers will have to put up with the astronomical prices asked for by sellers and agents.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.