By Property Soul (guest contributor) Recently a Straits Times article said Singapore’s total fertility rate plunged to a seven-year low of 1.16 last year. It is well below the replacement rate of 2.1. Do you know that Singapore has the lowest fertility rate in the world? According to the 2017 World Factbook published by the Central Intelligence Agency, the […]
By KK Tong (guest contributor) Singapore’s latest cooling measures on the property market – enforced on 6th July 2018 – were to raise the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) rates and to tighten the Loan-to-Value (LTV) limits for purchases of residential properties. These measures are intended to cool the market for buyers of second and […]
By Property Soul (guest contributor) Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad recently organized a five-day official visit to China. Besides asking China to withhold two major Chinese infrastructure projects, an agreement was reached to directly import Malaysian durians to China. As early as 2019, perhaps thousands of tons of Mao Shan Wang will be exported to different […]
By KK Tong (guest contributor) Launched in the last weekend of August 2017, Kandis Residence is a 130-unit condominium set in the quiet and serene area of Sembawang. Based on the 33 transactions from launch date up to June 2018, the average transacted price is $1273 psf. Developed by Tuan Sing Holdings, the 99-year leasehold […]
By Property Soul (guest contributor) Last Thursday, Donald Trump imposed new trade tariffs against China with 25 percent duties on 279 product categories worth a total of US$16 billion. China immediately responded by imposing retaliatory taxes on the same value of imported US products in 333 product categories. Who are the winners or losers? For […]
By KK Tong (guest contributor) Most new property launches in Singapore today are leasehold projects. There are not many developments which are freehold, so when Oxley Holdings launched The Verandah Residences in early April 2018, it was not surprising that 129 units out of the 170-unit freehold project were sold on the first weekend. The […]
By Property Soul (guest contributor) Have you come across a hidden gem in the property market shared by someone from the industry? Did anyone tell you that he knows the best kept secret about a high return investment project? When was the last time somebody said he has insider news and told you to buy […]
By KK Tong (guest contributor) Jurong East is an estate located in the West of Singapore with a population of 84,980 as at 2015. Originally, it was where the Singapore station for the High Speed Rail (HSR) project was to be located. Unfortunately, the project has been scrapped by the Malaysian government. Nevertheless, the estate […]
By Property Soul (guest contributor) What a roller-coaster last week for Singapore’s real estate market. It was a surprisingly well-coordinated good show put up by the Singapore government, complemented by the parts played by different stakeholders in the industry, with an unexpected ending of the cooling measures announcement. Here’s a day-by-day account of this show: […]
By Property Soul (guest contributor) I used to see property investment as a means to achieve financial freedom. That was also the drive to build my first property portfolio in the 2000s. Sixteen years later, my knowledge of the subject has increased more than tenfold. Now I finally understand that property investment is nothing more […]