News

A Story Of A Singaporean’s Overseas Property Investment Gone Wrong (But Saved By The Law)

Sellers at property seminars are more accountable than many would suspect. One of the criticisms I tend to hear about property seminars – both from investors and local realtors – is that there’s a lack of accountability. Caveat emptor applies,…

• 8 Oct 2023
• 5 min read
• 0

Are You Having Difficulty Achieving A RECORD-BREAKING PRICE For Your Home?

The resale market isn’t the only thing that can overheat.  From what I saw on Reddit, some property agents’ flyers are also raising the heat: Perhaps blatantly advertising your skills in raising home prices isn’t a great idea right now….

• 1 Oct 2023
• 6 min read
• 0

These Homes Costs About The Same As A Toto Ticket: But Here’s Why Singaporeans Wouldn’t Buy Them Anyway

They’d need a very different marketing strategy to make Singaporeans buy dollar-homes abroad. For those who don’t know, Japan isn’t the only place with super-cheap homes. Italy also has homes going for a single euro, and cities like Detroit in…

• 24 Sep 2023
• 5 min read
• 0

How Buying A Condo With This Agent Resulted In A Huge $380k Loss For This Buyer

After all these years, the Option To Purchase still terrifies me.  If there’s a reason I’ll never be a property agent (besides having the persuasive power of a neurotic pigeon, that is), it will be the Option To Purchase (OTP)….

• 17 Sep 2023
• 4 min read
• 0

Why Are There So Many Millon Dollar HDB Flats Still?

We’ve broken the record for million-dollar flats again, as of August 2023. Well, they did say National Day is a time to reflect on what makes us Singaporean; and at this point, million-dollar flats are on par with chicken rice,…

• 10 Sep 2023
• 5 min read
• 0

How Property Developers Use Gold To Sell Property In China

Get a gold bar with your property purchase in China Imagine you’re in China right now, where the real estate bubble just popped. A bunch of companies have gone under, and the government is pretty nervous. They’re afraid that if…

• 3 Sep 2023
• 4 min read
• 0

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
• 3

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
• 0

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
• 0

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
• 0

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
• 0

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
• 0

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
• 0

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
• 0

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
• 0

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
• 0

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
• 0

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
• 0