Singapore Watch

5-year debarment period waived for divorcees with full custody of kids

Divorcees who get full custody of all children will no longer be subjected to a 5-year debarment period when buying a second subsidised flat from HDB. Neither would they have to get prior consent from their ex-spouse to give up their right to a subsidised flat, announced National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan. However, the [...]

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Own a condo or landed property for the price of a HDB!

Ever dreamed of living in a bungalow/semi-D/terrace house, with space to call your own, and a garden for your kids and pet to play in, or even a place to put a pool? And set off fireworks during the New Year, or firecrackers during the Lunar New Year? Or perhaps a high-rise condominium, with full [...]

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Cooling measures: A bolt out of the blue

Sales will be slower in coming weeks, maybe even months by Colin Tan The announcement of the latest set of cooling measures for the residential market yesterday probably drew extreme emotions from many in Singapore – either cheers or despair, depending on which side you are on. The emotions – accentuated by the fact that [...]

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Govt moves to curb foreign home ownership

Additional stamp duties surprise analysts and industry players by Tan Weizhen SINGAPORE – To curb excessive investment demand on private homes, the Government is imposing additional stamp duties – over and above the existing tax – on certain categories of property purchases from today. It also announced yesterday that it will inject sites that can [...]

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Some bankruptcy Q&A

A few readers have posted some questions on bankruptcy in Singapore, something I’m not familiar with. I happen to come across some Q&A, which I thought I will share with you. The following is from the book “Talk Money” by Lorna Tan, The Sunday Times Invest Editor. Note that the article was written on 29 [...]

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Singles, seniors get more help with housing

- Monthly income ceiling for singles raised to $5,000 (formerly $3,000) - Singles Grant raised to $15,000 (formerly $11,000) - Joint singles & single buying with parent’s income ceiling raised to $10,000 (formerly $8,000) Singles, seniors get more help with housing by Ong Dai Lin SINGAPORE – A day after increases in income ceilings for [...]

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National Day Rally 2011 – Housing

Build-to-order (BTO) income ceiling raised from $8k to $10k. Executive Condo ceiling raised from $10k to $12k. To meet increase in demand for BTO flats, 25,000 flats will be built next year. Some SER flats will not be demolished, which will increase rental flats to 7,000. See also: Qualifying income ceilings for public housing raised [...]

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How to make HDB housing affordable (Part 2)

My Proposed Solutions – Plan B (This is a continuation of a this and this post.) This proposal tackles the issue of providing cost-plus low price housing without adversely affecting current HDB flat prices. The current types of HDB available: Rental Flats – very cheap rental housing provided for poor and needy citizen families Studio [...]

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How to make HDB housing affordable (Part 1)

My Proposed Solutions – Plan A (This is a continuation of a previous post.) This is based on the existing housing system and policies. 1. Fix the Valuation process. The current valuation system is as mentioned previously, a big part of what has caused housing prices to balloon. Yes, the surveyors are independent from HDB, [...]

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Singapore HDB Public Housing is getting expensive

Something is not right with the housing system in Singapore. Last I check, our HDB has risen 32% in value in just 2.5 years. That’s not normal right? 10-15% increase, I can still understand. But 32%? I mean, we ARE talking about public housing here. I shudder to think what would happen if we did [...]

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