June 30, 2012
Singaporean parents are well-known for their singleminded determination to send their children to the best possible school they can – whether it means renting/buying a home within 1 kilometre of the preferred school, joining a clan or church, or performing random menial tasks like directing traffic, washing fish tanks or juggling chainsaws blindfolded.
Any local mother past her first trimester is likely to be able to tell you what the various Phases of the Primary One Registration Criteria involve, and that for schools with oversubscriptions at any particular Phase, priority is determined by the proximity of the child’s home to the school.
For popular schools like Nanyang Primary School and Raffles Girls Primary School, the available slots are usually fully taken up by Phase 2A. And yet even so, I still encounter many a parent looking to buy property “near SCGS/Nanyang/MGS/RGPS/etc” in the hopes that it might enhance their chances of scoring a spot for their child.
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June 27, 2012
Read this on Singapore Business Review this morning. I think it can be highly dangerous to adopt this idea of “affordability” and could land novice investors in hot soup when markets head south or interest rates begin to climb.
Please don’t ever gauge affordability on current mortgage interest rates. It was not so long ago that lending rates were at 3.5-5% pa. The low rates we enjoy today are more anomaly than the norm, in the long run.
Project how much you can afford to borrow based on a more conservative interest rate of 3.45%pa rather than today’s 1-2%pa.
You need to buffer yourself against interest rates rising (though I expect rates to remain low till at least 2014) and also rental returns dropping in the event of a economic slowdown.
I’ll do up an example to illustrate when I have the time, but meanwhile read below with caution!
http://sbr.com.sg/residential-property/news/number-households-can-afford-s1m-condo-jumped-whopping-86
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June 27, 2012
If you haven’t heard of the Jurong Lake District, you probably don’t know that there are exciting things afoot in this part of the woods. Jurong has been known to be the boondocks of Singapore, an industrial area with not much in the way of lifestyle and entertainment. Even with Jurong Point, one of the biggest heartland malls, that image hasn’t really changed much. Talk about Jurong, and most property investors will switch off, most Easties will give blank looks, and even self-professed Westies may give you dirty looks if you talk to them about Jurong. Yes, it’s really THAT unexciting, BUT all this is poised to change with the development of the new Lake District. In case you’re thinking that this is something new, the Jurong Lake District project has been mooted since the 1991 Concept Plan, but was only fleshed out in the 2008 Master Plan. So to bring you up to speed, here is a comprehensive guide to the transformation of boring old Jurong into the exciting new Jurong Lake District.
Let’s start by going to the official URA website:
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June 23, 2012
Just thought I’d share a useful Excel command you can use to calculate your monthly mortgage payments.
PMT function
This is used to determine the mortgage payment you have to make on your loan. The formula to key in is “=PMT(interest rate, number of periods, initial amount)”.
Example:
| Initial Loan Amount |
A |
500,000 |
| Interest Rate |
B |
1.50% |
| Number of periods |
C |
360 |
| Monthly Payment |
=PMT(B/12, C, -A) |
$1,725.60 |
Key points to note when using this function:
1. the interest rate has to be divided by 12 since it is quoted on a annual basis while our payments are made monthly; and
2. the initial amount is negative since it is an inflow vs payments which are outflows.
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June 21, 2012
I had the opportunity to view the latest addition to the Novena medical hub yesterday -Novena Specialist Center. Having handled the purchase and mortgage of over 50 medical suites during my time as a real estate lawyer, this class of commercial property will always hold a special place in my heart, but I think there are many more relevant factors that make them a great investment buy.
Artist Impression of Novena Specialist Center
Medical Tourism
According to the Healthcare Services Group of the Economic Review Committee, there could well be one million medical tourists to have visited our shores by the close of 2012. Although the strengthening Singapore dollar has made her somewhat less attractive to neighbouring countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, I believe that those who can afford it would still prefer to have surgical procedures done in Singapore. Health is not something most would want to stint on, particularly higher-end procedures. Thus while the numbers of patients visiting may be lower than some neighbouring countries, the actual revenue generated is comparable.
In the World Health Organisation’s last report on international health systems, Singapore was ranked sixth out of 191, and the only Asian country besides Japan to garner a spot in the Top 10. Supporting infrastructure such our airport, roads, biomedical research facilities, hotels and tourism spots also add to Singapore’s allure as a medical tourist destination.
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June 17, 2012
I find that expats here often face the dilemma of wanting to live in a landed house just as they did back home, yet also desiring more social interaction and a sense of communal living to beat the loneliness of being alone in a foreign land. Cluster homes help bridge the gap – landed houses within a managed estate, with provision of shared facilities such as swimming pool and gymnasium. It also helps that they often rent at a much lower $ psf/mth than their condo apartment counterparts.
I had the opportunity to view a number of cluster house developments today while assisting a tenant client in securing a home in Singapore, so I thought I’d share my thoughts as well as client’s feedback on the projects we visited.
Radiance @ Bukit Timah – Artist Impression
Radiance @ Bukit Timah
We had to snake our way around narrow lanes dotted with parked cars to reach this estate, which I felt could pose quite an annoyance when you’re in a rush to get in or out. The 17 terrace units enclosed 3 sides of a small rectangular swimming pool decked in shades of sea-green, with a small gym room at the fourth side of the pool. Fairly convenient in the sense that you’re walking distance from the stretch of popular f&b outlets along the Chun Tin Road stretch right opposite Beauty World and Bukit Timah Shopping Centre (both rather sleepy old shopping centres), though those not inclined to hiking up slopey roads (yours truly) would definitely need a car to get around. My nature-loving client rather liked the tranquil corner unit facing away from the main road, with views of Bukit Timah Hill from the roof terrace. One thing we both found odd was how the place seems to already be showing signs of weathering despite being just two years old.
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June 15, 2012
A friend of mine (let’s call her Rabbita) thinks that the formula from my previous post is too complicated and difficult to implement, and I agree to a certain extent. After all, like I said, it’s really subjective how much value you put into each item on the list. For example, a nearby MRT is usually a plus, but a person who goes everywhere by car might not care if there’s an MRT station near the place, or he might even think that it’s a nuisance.
Rabbita’s suggested method is to set a budget first, and make sure the price plus renovation costs fit your budget. It’s intuitive and makes budgeting sense. Most people will probably do that if they plan to buy for their own stay. After all, buying a home is usually an emotional thing and some things just can’t be quantified.
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June 13, 2012
How do you know how much to pay for a piece of property? Do you have a method, or do you go by your gut? Oftentimes, it’s not as simple as finding out the psf data of deals done in the same project or in neighbouring projects. From unit to unit, from project to project, and area to area, there can be big differences in terms of facing, view, facilities, fittings etc. To make things worse, a lot of these criteria are subjective. So how do you determine how much is a fair price?
Here’s the step-by-step of how I generally do it:
1. First determine what is your base price. Basically the question to ask here is this: if I were to buy a property in this general area, how much would I pay per square foot? Alternatively, if you don’t really have an answer to that question, you can take a sampling of the psf prices of similar units in the same area. Doing this will help you establish a benchmark for the subsequent step.
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June 13, 2012
Michelle Tan’s article in today’s Business Times highlights a trend that I’ve been mulling over the past few months – New suburbans now at prime resale prices.
Real estate pundits often have differing views that will adjust and vary as market situations unfold, but the familiar mantra “location, location, location” is a cardinal rule that transcends practically all differences of opinion and changing market sentiments.
So why is it that buyers have been snapping up brand-new homes in the suburbs or non-core districts, and paying more for these mass-market leasehold units than they’d necessarily pay for a freehold prime district property in a more mature development? I put it down to Singapore’s obsession with the bright, new and shiny.
I am hard-pressed to think of another country as enamoured with “newness” as Singapore. Where else is it a norm for cars to be scrapped by the time they turn 10? And I dare say Singapore must be the only place in the world where people look at an old building and are more likely to think “can enbloc or not?” rather than marvel at how well the architecture has withstood the test of time.
Singapore even has its own drama series revolving around an enbloc, that’s how mainstream this real estate phenomena is!
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