By Property Soul (guest contributor) It all started with long queues at the shopping mall roadshow. It took us some time to realize that people were not queuing for popular food or a warehouse sale, but for the trackers of the National Steps Challenge Season 4 – an initiative by the Health Promotion Board to encourage Singaporeans […]
By KK Tong House sizes in Singapore are shrinking – for both HDB flats as well as private apartments. Comparing sizes of HDB flats of the 1980s to those in the 2000s, data shows that a 3-room flat was 69 sq m then vs 65 sq m today, a 4-room flat was 105 sq m […]
By Property Soul (guest contributor) A high home ownership rate of 90 percent has improved the lives of Singaporeans significantly. It allows us to enjoy the fruit of the country’s economic growth. It also gives us a stake in the country and something to fight for. Housing in Singapore has improved by leaps and bounds […]
By KK Tong (guest contributor) Parksuites @ Holland Grove – a pretty classy name for an integrated development condo located at one of Singapore’s premium areas – District 10. This110-year leasehold project with 119residential and 18 retail/F&B units was launched in February 2018. Sitting on an area of 101,203 square feet, this site previously housed […]
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 […]