OK, thanks. Vaguely heard of Xilinx, but not familiar with it. No problem, thanks again.

What do you see are the benefits of giving up your Malaysian citizenship for Singapore's?

Firstly, are you eligible to buy a 1st hand HDB in the first place?

1. Like westcoastbay said, are you married? Family units are given much higher priority than singles.

Secondly, if you're married to a Singaporean, that's good enough to get yourself onto the ballot for new HDB flats.

2. What is your income? The income gaps are quite narrow, and unless you buy your flat early in life, like many Singapore couples, you won't get any of those cheap & cheerful 3 room flats. With something like only 5K salary, you are already forced to buy 4 or 5 room flats, which are only 20-30% less than private condos (with 1 or 2 fewer rooms of course). If you earn above 8K a month, you're not entitled to buy new HDB flats at all. If I am not mistaken, even buying 2nd hand flats is limited to executive units and above only. For those prices, might as well pay a bit more and get something freehold which appreciates faster and much easier to sell later on.

3. What makes you think non-Malaysian citizens can buy property in Malaysia? If they could, there'd be no reason for the MM2H program, no?

Yeah, I'm sure.

What matters is your salary at the time when you ballot successfully for a flat and the HDB grant is approved. If your salary increases after you've already bought a flat, that's not an issue of course. HDB doesn't expect your salary to stay flat for 20 years.
Ask him when he bought the flat. Like most Singaporeans, in their early 20s except if they are upgraders. Or did he buy a resale flat?
HDB website?
Isn't that an argument not to give up Malaysian citizenship? Which is what I was said in the 2nd part of point 1?

And why I used Singaporean wife / Malaysian husband as an example, rather than Malaysian wife / Singapore husband is because Malaysia is still strictly paternal in its immigration policies. Citizenship of foreign born children, PR, visas etc for foreign spouses is still heavily biased in favour of Malaysian men.

This post has been edited by seantang: Oct 2 2008, 05:08 PM

Yup, you can do that. But only makes sense if your family income (total of both husband & wife) are below the income ceiling (S$8K) to buy HDB flats.

Good question. I think it's gross, total household income.

And btw, if your gross salary is 10K, the employee CPF is a max of $950/mth CPF. If your gross salary is 100K, you still pay a max of $950/mth.

Download something which nobody (company or individual) in Singapore has a legal right to.

For eg., if you download movies and music, all movie and music producers (eg. Warner, Disney etc) are represented in Singapore (and in fact every country) by their distributors. So the distributors can sue you.

But if you download JAV, there are no legal representatives of JAV producers or distributors in Singapore because it is illegal in Sg. So, there's no possibility of someone suing your for intellectual property infringement for downloading JAV. On the other hand, simply possessing porn is a criminal offence.

The best is... don't download... unless you are very good with encryption or proxying your dl IP.

I think Starhub Cable Vision owns the rights to TVB broadcasts in Singapore.

Intellectual rights are content based, not media based. If you did not pay for the content, it's illegal.

The Toa Payoh-Bishan-Ang Mo Kio area is probably the best option for you. This area is serviced by 4 MRT stations (Toa Payoh, Braddell, Bishan, AMK in that order coming from the city) and 3 bus interchanges at Toa Payoh, Bishan and AMK (so, plenty of buses).

You can also try Novena and Newton, which more southerly or nearer to the city. Just remember that rentals get pricier the nearer to the city you go.

Lost the explanatory notes sheet accompanying the application form, didya? I think their website has the instructions.

The credit crisis looks like it's may have been averted by the concerted action by central banks worldwide. But then, more and more govts are coming out to guarantee bank deposits.. trying to send a message of stability but at the same time hinting that local retail banks are actually becoming increasingly unstable.

The recession, in Singapore and elsewhere in the world, has already begun. Today's drop in the markets are not due to the credit crisis, but the simple fact that the more than a trillion $ injected into the financial system does not change the fact that the world is in a deepening recession and demand destruction is increasing in severity.

Singapore will be no exception. The stock mkt's already affected badly, the job market will be affected soon as investments dry up and companies simply refuse to spend (my company has banned all travel, entertainment, new expats, relocations, hiring and promotions until further notice. Next year's budget is -8% of this year's actual). After the job market softens, the housing market will follow suit as less people buy property and more people are unable to service their loans.

If you have money... keep it and prepare to invest as the market bottoms (don't know when though). If you have no money, now is the time to keep your head down and work hard so that if retrenchment comes, they'll fire someone else instead of you because you're the better performer.

Like I said, the possession of JAV is illegal, regardless of how it came into your possession.

Along the same vein, possessing drugs is a criminal offense, doesn't matter if you bought it or if someone gave it to you for free.

The first of two Integrated Resorts (IRs), Marina Bay Sands, has commenced recruitment.

careers.marinabaysands.com

Note that the website says there are 40 jobs available. That actually means there are 40 types of jobs available. Each job type might be hiring 10s or 100s, for eg front office agent or room attendant. Newpapers put the number of new hires required at 10,000.

There are also some casino floor jobs like pit dealer or pit boss, which are quite interesting.

High compared to non-IR jobs, or compared to Genting and Macao?

In short, I have no idea...

But my guess is that casino resorts are like the hospitality industry's O&G. And the tips for customer facing jobs should be good too.

Were people unwilling to work in Sg 10 years ago?

They must have cleared your tax file when you quit and taxed you as a non-resident.

If you had remained in Singapore after you quit (and stayed past the resident threshold period), I think you can write a letter to the Comptroller of Internal Revenue and ask for a re-assessment of your tax for that year as a tax resident.

The Marina Bay Sands IR might be in a spot of trouble... it seems that the parent, Las Vegas Sands, might be unable to service its loans.

TodayOnline

This post has been edited by seantang: Oct 25 2008, 09:59 PM

Just get your PR first before you hop. Makes life so much easier.

That's because Sg has a height limit for buildings depending on area and usage. And the higher it is, the more you have convince the authorities that the architecture is 'iconic'.

Btw, what's the point you're trying to get across?