say you commited to a $400k HDB, about $60k COV. Can you afford to lose your jobs?

What will happen to your jobs in bad economy?

How long can you last before making the hard decision to sell?
- when you MUST sell, you have less bargaining power compare to a buyer who take his time to scout for a deal.
- so can you still hope to ask for >$60k COV?
- many Singaporean and PR may not consider upgrading in bad time, they stay put or downgrade. Demand for smaller unit will rise with increase supply of larger unit.. hunt for 4~5 room flat. (those who downgrade from condo? They cant buy if they earn more than 10k/month, they are stuck)
- if majority of people goes for upgrading, hunt for a good 3 room HDB deal.

My friend got a condo at $400k, seller was burned in stock market. Market Price rise a few 100k after the seller signed paper but still in the legal process. So either you save a few 100k more to buy overpriced house or you can take your own sweet time to find a good deal.

to answer your question, property prices for different type of housing behave differently during bad economy due to supply/demand and the gov policies.

This post has been edited by r1v3r: Nov 23 2011, 11:53 AM

Most expect HDB flat prices to stabilise
http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/...123-312068.html

4 or 5 people attempt suicide every day
http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/S...123-312134.html

pity singaporean, u people come and grab their hdb

this morning my taxi ride to office, the taxi driver was saying he can't afford to buy house in SG so he buy in JB and every day drive over causeway to work, lol.

not bad mah, taxi driver have flexible working hour, can choose non-peak time to enter/exit SG...

If you have flexible job hour, you can choose to drive in and out of SG. I drove in and out from SG everyday. Still cheaper than renting a room in SG.
The jam at Causeway is not so bad nowadays, the officer at custom are very efficient in directing traffic to respective lanes. On normal days it takes me 10 - 15 mins to cross

In order to buy HDB, you must contribute to CPF till you retire. Most of the time you will contribute more than the cost of your hdb which inturn benefit SG more than what they have put aside to build that HDB unit for you. Compare to investor who buy condo here we did not grab their HDB for free. It is a fair deal.

he is smart to find alternative when he face problem in SG, better than taking his own life.

However, IMO he is just BS you. A Taxi driver can earn a few K per month and they use the taxi like their own car too so they save the car ownership cost. With HDB loan, all sort of subsidy, SG bonus etc I can't believe they cant buy a 3 room HDB. We bought our unit when our income is much lower than the old ceiling limit, if we can manage it I dont see how a SG can't do it.

If you happen to see him again, please help me to get his contact. I might want to take his taxi to travel btw JB-SG.

Actually there are a lot of taxi drivers doing that. In the morning if you take taxi, quite a number of SG taxis in MY. I heard about these stories countless of times.

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Added on November 23, 2011, 2:30 pmYesterday evening's traffic was bad. It took me about two hours to get through the causeway.

This post has been edited by L7Awesome: Nov 23 2011, 02:30 PM

When too many SG Taxi appear in JB and with the current high COE price, the gov should take some action. Else you will never get enough taxi in morning rush hour.

Last sunday evening heavy rain in JB area and long jam at CIQ. I detour to tuas, take BKE back to CTE all within 1 hour.

This post has been edited by r1v3r: Nov 23 2011, 02:37 PM

Wow, I think today I should do that. Do you stay in JB as well?

I Have a place in JB, moving there in future. I will queue up at CIQ if I have the TIME since my destination is north part of SG. The detour will cost ~s$20 more for possible saving of 1hour. It was almost 10pm and my kids have school tomorrow morning so I take the chance, lucky not much car on 2nd link.

The unfortunate thing about Tuas is that normally the traffic jam will begin way after the long causeway but will not be able to monitor via the traffic camera. At least for CIQ, it can be viewed. However, I think more and more people are going in daily. Now you can even see those big merc with J plate going in to work.

Car traffic will be very bad if you leave late. around 7pm, it is really jam until BKE Woodlands Ave 3 exit. but i ride bike, so won't affect me.
But in the morning, it really fluctuate. You need to pray everyday that those stupid lorries don't block the car lane. if they do so, to cross immigration alone take you at least 1 hour.

but riding bike is better. the time taken is very consistent. if lucky, then u cross within 20 mins. if bad luck, 30 mins. so easier to manage your time.

I think yesterday was really out of ordinary maybe due to the fact that it was a holiday in Johor. Can see a lot of cars with a mpv load of people in there too. Hopefully today will be better. This and yesterday morning, the traffic is very clear. So maybe today cannot hang around long and once done with job, have to leave.

Since this is a Singapore thread, I was expecting a more "Singapore oriented" insights. I just arrived in Singapore 2 months ago. Able to save SGD 2800 a month excluding bonus. Single and non-PR -- HDB is still a dream Other than working hard and making sure I won't be sent back Malaysia "prematurely", I'm currently exploring Singapore investment options.

Just wondering.. do you guys drive Msia or spore registered car? with the sky rocketing COE, it seems much cheaper to maintain a msian car now if you're not PR.

Malaysian cars cannot be "maintained" (kept/parked/driven indefinitely) in Singapore.

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Added on November 23, 2011, 9:15 pmYou're expecting Singaporeans to have special kungfu when it comes to saving money?

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Added on November 23, 2011, 9:16 pmHow are you getting that high salary of you don't have an EP?


This post has been edited by seantang: Nov 23 2011, 09:16 PM

if you stay in JB, then i think it's worth considering now that the COE is hitting high compares to maybe 4 years back.

Shares still dropping... LoLoLo...X'mas time.

Put PuT puTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT !!!

There is this section in LTA's website saying that a work pass holder can drive in with a foreign vehicle but,

"the vehicle is kept or used outside Singapore for a total period of 6 hours or more everyday"

http://www.lta.gov.sg/motoring_matters/mot...de_overview.htm

I did some rough calculation. Monthly installment for a B-seg car, say a Toyota Vios in SG could cost you around $1k (9 years tenure). But the same car in Msia will just costs RM900 (~SGD 363).

After factoring the costs for daily $20 VEP and causeway toll charges which are approximately (24 * 22 days) = $480. The total cost per month is $843. Still cheaper than getting a SG registered car. Besides the Msia car gets to save on petrol, insurance, road tax, HDB parking charges... and most importantly, you can still keep the car after 10 years

I'm planning to do so after my graduation since my house is in JB. No need to squeeze with others in MRT and bus

Kindly let me know if there are any other charges which I didn't factor in. Thanks!

This post has been edited by icycokes: Nov 23 2011, 10:26 PM