TR EMERITUS

From our Correspondent Just one week after speaking out in defence of foreigners, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong had made another stunning U-turn on the ruling party's liberal immigration policies. SM Goh had earlier called on Singaporeans to "embrace" foreigners as we are descendents of immigrants ourselves during a visit to his ancestral hometown of Quanzhou in Fujian province, China. He aslo stressed on the importance of immigration to boost Singapore's declining birth rates. During a speech made yesterday at the 50th anniversary of the Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore (Redas), held at the Shangri-La Hotel, SM Goh said that Singapore must "manage" the inflow of foreign talent and other immigrants to ensure Singaporeans do not lose out but rather "benefit" from their presence. "Locals must accommodate the different habits, beliefs and practices of foreigners, and foreigners working and living here must respect local ways and habits and make an effort to integrate.......Those who come to drink from the oasis must add to our ability to replenish the water, and not just consume and deplete the stock," he said. There is rising concerns that foreigners are forming ethnic "enclaves" in the HDB heartlands and are not making a conscious effort to integrate into Singapore society. The ruling party has generously introduced a $10 million Community Integration Fund to help foreigners "integrate" and more importantly to make them feel "welcome" in Singapore. Singapore PRs and new citizens are frequently roped in to participate in grassroots activities which are shunned by the majority of the locals. SM Goh also said Housing Board (HDB) flats will remain the foundation of the Government's home ownership policy and that the Government will continue to ensure that public housing remains affordable for most Singaporeans. 'The current household income ceiling of $8,000 for public home ownership means that about eight in every 10 families remain eligible for HDB subsidies......our public housing policy, based on affordability, will ensure that they will be able to. This pledge had been kept in the past and it will be kept in the future.' he added. Despite widespread unhappiness and disgruntlement on the ground at the sky-rocketing prices of public housing, the ruling party is adamant that HDB flats remain affordable to ordinary Singaporeans. The state media has been tasked to skew public perception in favor of the beleaguered HDB by spinning stories after stories on what HDB is doing to "help" citizens own their flats, the latest being the incredible spin that HDB suffered a S$2 billion dollars "deficit" last year in subsidizing Singaporeans. Unfortunately, it appears that few are willing to buy the story. In an online poll done on the Temasek Review, 94 per cent out of some 700 respondents do not believe in the authencity of the figures released by HDB. Regardless of the truth, it appears that the ruling party is losing the war of perception in cyberspace.  Read More →

By Khalil Adis, Social Correspondent [Khalil Adis a former editor of Property Report. He now writes for Property Report, Property Guru and Temasek Review] Flats sold under the Sales of Balance Flat (SBF) scheme were more than ten times oversubscribed further confirming that demand has exceeded supply. Analysts say the number of applications for the 2, 132 HDB flats put up for sale under the Sales of Balance Flat (SBF) scheme were actually much higher than what was earlier reported in the local media, putting the figures at 20, 691 applicants instead of 12, 700. “Actually, there were 20, 691 applications for the 2, 132 HDB flats. There is definitely a greater demand for these flats due to various reasons, besides the perennial reason that there is a longer waiting time of three to four years for a Build To Order (BTO) or Design Build & Sell Scheme (DBSS flat) and the fact that HDB has run out of readily available flats in their stock,” says PropNex chief executive officer Mohamed Ismail. In comparison, figures from HDB show that the number of applications received as at midnight on 14 October 2009 stood at 21, 452 - – more than ten times oversubscribed. Whatever the final figures are, they have provided further confirmation that demand has indeed exceeded supply which is sure to raise public fury following the increasing cash-over-valuations (COVs) and a record rise in the Resale Price Index (RPI). The latest RPI data shows that the index has continued to climb even higher, posting a record 145.2 for the third quarter of 2009 - a growth of 3.6 percent over the previous quarter. “This is evidently the result of the greater demand for resale flats in recent months,” says Mohamed Ismail, referring also to the 11, 649 resale transactions posted for third quarter of 2009, up 14.9 percent from the second quarter. HDB had in the past, constantly maintained that its flats are affordable and there is adequate supply of flats to meet demand. However, in October this year, HDB made an about U-turn. It hastily announced that it was ramping up supply of its BTO flats from 8, 000 to 9, 000 units this year following public criticism that HDB resale flats have become less affordable due to increased demand from both Singaporeans and permanent residents and the lack of supply which has pushed property prices upwards. HDB had also announced that it was releasing more supply in the market via the SBF scheme. The 2, 132 flats sold under the SBF scheme are flats that remained unsold from the previous balloting or were taken back by HDB. They are located in various parts of Singapore such as Ang Mo Kio, Central and Clementi - just to name a few. As such, some of them could have been built more than ten years ago with a price that are almost comparable to flats in the resale market. For instance, three-room HDB flats in Bukit Merah range from $262, 000 to $488, 000. The closest price comparison ten years ago was two resale transactions that took place in 2002 where two three-room units were sold for $371, 000 and $390, 000 respectively. Data mined from HDB’s website on the resale price for three-room flats between January to October this year shows that it was transacted between  $185, 000 to $452, 000. Still, analysts say the prices of flats under the SBF scheme are much cheaper than market prices. “The prices offered are actually about 20 percent cheaper than similar resale flats in the vicinity,” says Mohamed Ismail. Citing examples of four-room flats in Bukit Merah and Punggol, Ismail said in the last one month, both areas have seen their resale prices exceeding $550, 000 and $360, 000 respectively. “The price range of the offered flats for these flat types in these areas was up to $488, 000 and $311, 000 respectively. These prices are between 10 to 15 percent cheaper, while the median prices could be up to 20 percent cheaper for the flats offered under the SBF exercise,” says Mohamed Ismail. Mohamed Ismail further notes that buying flats under the SBF scheme also mean buyers are not subjected to paying COVs, as they would if they had bought a resale flat. Analysts also say pegging the flats with the current market values are fair. “In our opinion, it is fair to sell such flats based on current market values, with a discount, and not on previous prices when the flats were built. This is because doing so would create a greater imbalance to HDB’s value and asset appreciation,” says Mohamed Ismail. PropNex is unable to provide figures on how many of these applicants are first-time Singaporean and permanent residents buyers. Attempts have been made to contact HDB via email to provide a breakdown on the applicants under the SBF scheme but HDB did not respond – the second time that it did not respond to our query.   About the Author: Khalil Adis was a former editor for Property Report magazine covering Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. During his course of work he has travelled to all three countries to cover their property markets extensively. He has also interviewed politicians like Singapore’s Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan, Kuala Lumpur’s Mayor Dato’ Ahmad Fuad Ismail and Malaysia’s Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Peter Chin. He now writes for Property Report, Property Guru and Temasek Review. You can read more of Khalil’s articles on: www.property-report.com and www.propertyguru.com.sg   Other articles by Khalil Adis: >> Home affordability: HDB versus the public  Related articles: >> Number of applicants exceed number of flats >> HDB to increase supply of flats >> Mah: don’t compare with prices in the past >> ERA: 40 per cent of HDB flat buyers are PRs  Read More →

The Zhang Yuan Yuan fiasco has aroused a lot of criticism from the official media against Singaporeans.  Singaporeans have been "corrected" in their misguided ignorance that Zhang is actually a citizen of PRC and not Singapore and hence it is alright for her to display allegience to her country, and that the criticism against Zhang demonstrated a high degree of "narrow mindedness" among singaporeans. I must beg to differ. For those of us post '65 ers, immigrants from a foreign country have been a part of our life since childhood.  We had classmates which we studied together, teachers and professors who lectured us in University, colleauges who struggled with us, who were all from Malaysia. It had never been an issue with accepting them as part of us, and there was never any concern about "integration".   How could we suddently become "narrow-minded" now, in the eyes of the offical media?  Are we really so? Criticism against zhang is not about her allegience to China, but about her callous attitude towards the PR status which she enjoys.  It looks like our very lax immigration policy has allowed people like Zhang Yuan Yuan, who, not having a degree, a career, nor any special skills, to be admitted as PRs, and to be entitled to citizenship a couple of years later.  Are we able to absorb so many immigrants in so short of time.  At the end of the day, is it "us" integrating "them", or "we" becoming one of "them"? Ex Perm Sec Ngiam Dong HOw expresses such concern eloquently in his article to the Straits Times titled "lest we become strangers in our own land".  He is concerned that "We risk having them (immigrants) use us as a stepping stone. Foreign fathers may advise their sons born in Singapore to leave when they reach the national service age of 18" And now, we have so many of them who nominally have become one of "us" by virtue of their newly granted citizenship, but in mindset and emotion, maintain to be "them".  We have PRs who used Singapore as props to display her partriotism (like Zhang Yuan Yuan), and we have new citizen like Li Ye Ming,  who openly proclaim himself as 中国人 and not 华人， like the way we differentiate ourselves from Chinese citizens. Wouldn't such words and actions arouse concerns among us, the local Singaporeans?  Is such concerns grounds to be labelled as "narrow-mindedness"? PM Lee has maintained that assimilating and integrating new immigrants means having them adopt values and attitudes of Singaporeans.  But with so many of them among us changing the ways the Singapore society operates, the notion of "values and attitudes of Singaporeans" is becoming more and more like a variable rather than a a set of beliefs with whom we identify ourselves. Would we one day no longer wanting to differentiate between 华人 and 中国人？would we one day no longer require 2nd generation PRs to serve NS?  would we one day not bother with national identity, but rather, tolerate a blurring between being Singaporeans and being a Chinese Citizen? Who are we going forward?  it is beyond my imagination.   Andy Liew  Read More →