Singapore Property News

How Property Valuations Quietly Dictate Singapore’s Housing Prices

I like to think of property valuation as a sort of fortune telling.  Sometimes, I think property valuation is less like a science, and more like throwing a deck of tarot cards at a ceiling fan, and then reading whatever…

• 27 Aug 2023
• 6 min read
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Why The New Prime, Plus & Standard HDB Classification Makes Sense And How It Impacts Singaporeans

The big news for the National Day Rally 2023 is the new classification of HDB flats, to prime, plus, and standard. This will replace the old system of mature versus non-mature estates, which we’ve used since around 1992. More importantly…

• 21 Aug 2023
• 4 min read
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10 Foreigners Owning 105 Properties: What Happens Next?

I could never sell a superlux property to anyone. By this I mean the cream-of-the-crop properties, like Good Class Bungalows (GCBs) and penthouses and the like. Even if I were a realtor, and I had a shot at such deals,…

• 20 Aug 2023
• 5 min read
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Is The Property Market Going To Slow Down? 5 Reasons Why Only 53 New Units Moved This Weekend

For home buyers, at least, the weekend following National Day may be a happy one. New launch sales for three properties, on the 12th and 13th of August 2023, were at a crawl. According to more than one realtor, at…

• 16 Aug 2023
• 2 min read
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This Man Created A Nice Community Corner In An HDB Void Deck, And It Was Shut Down. Why?

HDB projects becoming the “elevator music” of residential properties. You know the type of songs: you hear them playing in lifts, or call-waiting devices, or on any album by a boy band between 1990 to 2010.  Music that’s pleasant, inoffensive,…

• 13 Aug 2023
• 5 min read
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Is It Still Worth Investing In A Condo Given The High PSF?

I was looking at some regrets on getting a condo on a Reddit thread lately, about whether a condo is still a good investment.  You can see it here. And reading through it, I noticed a few good points, but…

• 6 Aug 2023
• 7 min read
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Is Singapore’s Property Market Slowing Down? What Top Developers Are Hinting

When buyers spy developer caution, they know their time is coming.  If you are looking out for a home and want to get an insight into the market, one of the best ways is to look at what the developers…

• 30 Jul 2023
• 5 min read
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The Fascinating Story Of How We Ended Up With So Many Trees In Singapore

How Singapore became a garden city I came across this excerpt that was posted from Lee Kuan Yew’s memoirs, where he talks about how the emphasis on trees came about in Singapore. He visited both Paris and London, and was…

• 23 Jul 2023
• 6 min read
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The Rise Of Young Condo Owners: The Great Wealth Transfer In Singapore

While property prices seem to be on the high, I’m noticing something else that’s low – the age of condo buyers. 20-something condo buyers I initially chalked up as “crypto-millionaires” that I still see despite that scene having died down….

• 16 Jul 2023
• 6 min read
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Is There Room For Conservation In Land-Hungry Singapore?

Remember the old saying about poetry being the “luxury we cannot afford?” It’s from our late, and much venerated, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. Granted, he said it a long time ago in 1968, back when Singapore seemed to run…

• 9 Jul 2023
• 5 min read
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Singapore’s Private Home Market Sees First Price Drop in Three Years: What’s Next?

We don’t usually focus too much on the results of a single quarter, but this is an exception. Q2 of 2023 marks the first time we’ve seen a faint dip in property prices, since around Q1 of 2020. But does…

• 3 Jul 2023
• 8 min read
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This Plot Of Land In Marina Bay Got Real Estate Experts Totally Divided

Sometimes, real estate experts can be very divided on the same plot of land And it does show in things like bids. Take, for example, the Marina Gardens Lane plot: Kingsford Huray bid around $1,402 psf, while GuocoLand bid around…

• 3 Jul 2023
• 6 min read
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Sneaky Tricks Property Agents Use To Sell Homes

Be wary of cherry picked property data I’ve seen quite a few property videos on YouTube lately; and while I’m not one to point fingers, some of them are showing price data that I just can’t corroborate. Some videos have…

• 25 Jun 2023
• 6 min read
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How To Curb Our High Property Prices In Singapore (Hint: Follow Tokyo)

When the property market heats up, we start to look overseas But I don’t mean buying property abroad. Rather, comparisons start to be made. Why is Singapore so expensive? Why is rental cheaper in Vienna? Why don’t we follow rent…

• 18 Jun 2023
• 5 min read
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My Biggest Miss: A $200k Joo Chiat Shophouse

A few articles back, I mentioned a missed opportunity on a Joo Chiat shophouse This was back in the 2000s when the family had a restaurant in the area. At the time, we faced a conundrum, one that’s relevant to…

• 11 Jun 2023
• 5 min read
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The Reality Of Living In An Integrated Development

If you live in an integrated development, maybe it’s better to give up the car. After all, the whole point is that you’re connected to an MRT station and/or bus interchange. Also, having a commercial component invariably means busier roads…

• 4 Jun 2023
• 5 min read
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This New Condo Rating System Is About to Shake Up Singapore’s Property Developers and Condos. Here’s Why.

CONQUAS is a way to rate developments, dating back to 1989 – but there have been a lot of changes since then. The latest upcoming change is a banding system, used to rate developers and the different projects. Do you…

• 28 May 2023
• 6 min read
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New ABSD Rates In 2023: Here’s Everything You Need To Know About The Additional Buyers Stamp Duty In Singapore

The so-called “temporary” ABSD measure has now been with us for over a decade – and over the years there have been changes. The multiple revisions have, we notice, caused some confusion among buyers; and many first-timers get confused by…

• 23 May 2023
• 5 min read
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