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Ken's REAL Page, Singapore (2026)

01/12/2022

Still on PLH...

The 3 PLH projects launched this year in my estate will have 3 and 4 room flats only.
Seemed like 5 room flats will become extinct in future Bukit Merah BTOs le...

In these 3 projects, the indicative price for a 3 room will range from $370,000 to $509,000. While a 4 room will be $531,000 to $737,000.

In the August 2022 BTO launch, a 5 room
1) in Choa Chu Kang starts from $390,000.
2) in Tampines, it starts from $520,000. And
3) in Ang Mo Kio, it starts from $720,000.

One can easily see the "Primeness" of a PLH housing from the above comparison.

For a higher price, or "premium", you get a city fringe "prime location", smaller unit with multi-layered conditions, and probably lesser profits (?) when you sell.

Can use the term profit or not??
My friend said HDB is a home, not a "money generating" machine, so should not use profit in this context ....

Anyways, if anyone is thinking of using PLH to make money, the construction is about 60+ months, around 5+ years. And MOP is 10 years later. Which means it will take at least 15 years altogether before you can see the returns.

One may wonder, seriously?
15 years to "make money" from these PLH?
If you invest the 15 years in private condos, you probably can "somersault" 3 times or more and make better gains lor ....

Hence, we can say the people buying into these projects are very likely to be homeowners, tio bo?

Reference to the news article TODAY published on 5 Sep, it mentioned that there were just about 6 applications to one 4 room unit, and 2 applications to one 3 room unit across the AV and HH BTO launch in Aug 2022. Likewise same application numbers for BMR launched in May 2022.

Siao liao la... Only 2 applications per 3 room and 6 per 4 room units??
Back in 2021, the Telok Blangah BTO was 49.6 times oversubscribed, and Rochor PLH was 10.3 times oversubscribed.

Coming from this angle, my friend said, does it mean that people buay song Bukit Merah is under Prime Location? Hence the drop in application rate?

Or like they said, the cooling measures are working?

Let's assume there will be new 5 room flats in future Bukit Merah (BM) BTOs, what is the price going to be like?

The current 4 room highest BTO launch price is $730,000 range.
And the highest record 5 room resale in BM estate is $1.4 million, transacted in May 2022.

With the above figures, an educated guess for a new 5 room will be around $700k to $900k?
And moving forward, if the resale price keeps going up, how to sell 5 room BTOs by then?

At the $1mil range???

What you think, siao liao bo???

28/11/2022

Guess what is the most happening event around my estate in this year 2022?

Someone mentioned TEL?

Ok la, TEL is one happening!
Basically it takes me below 3 minutes to walk from home to the station, and I will be on my way to Woodlands, then to JB, to ESM le la!! (Eat, Shop, Massage) 😆

So TEL aside, the more happening one is ....

P L H lor !!!
aka
Precious
Loving
Homes!!!
Or
Pretty
Little
Homes!!!

Haha ... Just kidding, ok?

These are Prime Location Public Housing.
And HDB launched
Not 1,
Not 2,
But 3 PLH projects altogether!

Happening, tio boh?

Bukit Merah Ridge (BMR) is the first PLH launched in May this year.

Followed by Alexandra Vale (AV) and Havelock Hillside (HH) in August 2022.

HH is the nearest project to my home, with the Havelock TEL in between.

BMR is further away, opposite to Tiong Bahru park.

AV is the furthest from my place, where Redhill mrt station is.

Of the 3 PLH projects, AV looks to be the most atas one, cause neighborhood mostly condos. And besides the estate is the Delta Sports Complex (DSC)

The complex, now still building in progress, has swimming pool, and should have gym, courts and whatsoever when completed, I supposed....

So imagine staying in AV. Don't have condo facilities also never mind. Got DSC ho seh liao la...

You can have swimming pool, gym la etc etc without paying monthly maintenance fee. With a small pay per use fee, can enjoy macam condo lifestyle liao! And your home is under HDB price, surely huat liao la!!!

I told my chipmunks about the PLH projects.

And my youngest girl said to me, Dad, I don't want to move out from this place (current home)...

But it will be a new home for us. And it is still very close to where we are now. I tried my very desperate attempt to sell her the "advantage" to move.

She gave me a one-syllable-two-letter word reply : No.

From her tone, I can tell it is a 777pt Aachen Bold "NO" in caps with 2 exclamation marks‼️

I think that basically sealed the whole topic ...
GG ... 😅

29/11/2021

Did you try to ballot for the Rochor River Peaks BTO?

I almost did…..
Until I saw the application rate of 55 to 1 unit, for the second timers.

So I decided to put my $10 to better use, by getting myself a set of fast food meal, and dessert too 😬

By the way the second timer application rate was 104.7 to 1 unit, when the sales launch closed.

There were reports where people said that the 6 per cent subsidy clawback upon resale of the PLH is a bit low.

Well, IMHO, the 6 per cent, by itself, is not high indeed. However, together with the other "costs" like 10 years MOP, tighter restrictions on rental, and income ceiling on resale, it seemed not so low, is it not?

And who will eventually be the one paying the 6 per cent clawback?

It is not surprising that this 6 per cent will be factored into the asking price, and passes on to the buyers.

And if one thinks that by doing so will cause the selling price to reach a sky-high level, and hence no buyers, think twice...

Till date, the number of million-dollar HDB transactions in year 2021 is already very near to 200 count, and we are not at the end of the year yet.

And we continuously see "record breaking" HDB resale prices.

River Peaks is expected to complete by 2Q2028. Assuming no delay, another 10 years to MOP will be 2Q2038. And that will be 17.5 years away from now.

Consider the following:
How common was million-dollar HDB flats 17.5 years ago, back in year 2004?

And how “uncommon” will million-dollar HDB flats be, 17.5 years down the road, when year 2038 comes?

So, while this 6 per cent clawback is meant to curb the lottery effect, it may work the other way to push the HDB resale prices higher.

Hence when some may suggest the "good clawback percentage" should be 8, or 10 or even 12, the impact actually may not be totally on the first owner alone. But rather on the whole HDB market, collectively speaking.

In this free market of willing seller and willing buyer, “mission impossible" may not be so impossible, after all...

Nonetheless, my take is, if you are considering getting a PLH flat as a home, all of the above will not matter at all.

As for myself, if I have a chance to get a PLH flat, I will gladly welcome it!!

06/09/2021

Reference to this news article, my friend said, “You see, this is why property prices keep going up. And buyers are the ones who contributed to it.”

“In other words, the buyers “buy up” the property prices,” he concluded.

Whatever the asking price may be, if the buyers do not agree, there will not be a transaction at all. And the asking price may adjust and goes down, instead of hitting a new high again and again.

Take a look at the $2000 psf for OCR. It has been done and now it is no surprise that prices for other OCR projects will also follow the “uptrend”

If buyers keep accepting the “new high”, then there is nothing to say about the forever increasing prices.

The one thing is, when this situation spills into the HDB market, the so-called affordable housing may one day also become not affordable after all.

It is like, the HDB owner may have to pay for it throughout the whole working life.

While I always maintained the value of a home is different to each and every one, however, what my friend shared does make sense in a way.

This upgoing price trend may one day become a far reaching dream, for our future generations to own their homes.

16/08/2021

New Zealand has also experienced a surge in property prices during this Covid-19 period. The last 12 months saw nearly 15,000 homes sold for more than NZ$1 million, compared to 5,500 in year 2020.

The authorities have introduced a string of cooling measures to the market, however low mortgages have attracted buyers and investors to upsize their homes and build up rental investment properties.

As mentioned in the article, Ms Arden, the Prime Minister, has been unwilling to introduce the capital gains tax (CGT) to cool the market.

The reason being CGT on real estate is deemed as a political dynamite, as a lot of voters are also homeowners.

The capital gains tax is a levy you pay when you sell an asset that has increased in value since you bought it.

In other words, CGT is only paid on realized gains after the asset is sold.
Generally speaking, capital gains only applies to “capital assets” such as stocks, bonds, jewellery, coin collections, and real estate property.

Of course in this post, we will look at the CGT on real estate, specifically.

The CGT rates are different for each individual country. For example, in Europe, Denmark levies the highest capital gains tax of all countries covered, at a rate of 42%. Finland and France follow, at 34% (source: taxfoundation.org)

A few months back, while the topic of prime locations housing was been discussed, CGT was also one of the counter-measures brought up to curb the “lottery effect” for Singapore public housing.

CGT will have a negative effect on the profits, or gains from the sale of properties.

For a simple illustration, if the CGT is 10%, it will be $50,000 off a $500,000 gain.

If the CGT is a significant amount off the gain, this may discourage investors and divert them to other products, thereby cools down the real estate market.

My friend said, “The CGT may not effectively work as a cooling measure.”
Why? I asked.
“Because you can factor the CGT into the selling price!”
“That means the price will go even higher, isn’t it?”
“What is so surprising about property prices going up?” My friend said.
“We have $2000psf for OCR now, what more to say? The real surprise we can get nowadays,” he said, “is when prices go down. Ha!!”

26/07/2021

The demand for BTO flats has risen over the last 4 years, with a sharp rise in the demand for new flats in the matured areas.

Although HDB has also increased the number of new flats launched in matured areas, it seemed that the supply has not been able to meet the demand of the home seekers.

As reported in the article, “demand for new flats in matured estates rose even more sharply – application rates swelled from 2.8 per flat to 6.7 in the same period.” And “average SBF application rates for mature areas stood at 5.4 applications per flat, compared to 4.8 for non-mature ones”.

Some of the reasons for the rise in demand are
1) increased in married couples,
2) drop in household sizes
3) preference to live in own flats instead of with extended families

Given this high application rate situation for flats in matured estates, which means low success rate or no chance at all, would you still consider trying to get a flat in such areas?

Or like what the Housing Board advised, ““Given the traditionally high BTO application rates in mature towns/ estates, flat buyers are encouraged to consider BTO flats in the non-mature towns/ estates for a better chance of securing a home”?

A friend said, “Matured estate flats have proven to fetch high value at the resale market. So, why not? I encouraged my kids to try till they get. When they eventually sell off the flat, they will be at a better position to consider private properties, or they can move to any other non matured estates which are not so expensive with a nice amount (of cash) on hand”.

Where would you choose? Matured or non matured estates?

19/07/2021

Since last year, there has been a growing demand for HDB resale market, and the probable reasons are:
- the (very) high subscription rate for BTO; which means no one is guaranteed a “sure to get” situation.
- the delay in the completion of BTO.
- the “need” for a bigger living space due to WFH and HBL

Whatever the reason, it has drove more people into the HDB resale market, causing the rise in demand which supply cannot match.

So when there are two or more interested buying parties for a flat, one does not have to be a genius to guess what will happen.

Also from the chart we can see that COV situation is not limited to The Central area only. Places like Woodlands, Choa Chu Kang and Pasir Ris also have COV transactions.

It is mentioned in the article the COV amount is more than $20,000. Which means as a buyer, one has to be ready with cash that can cover whatever the COV amount may be, in order to successfully complete the purchase.

Will the COV situation be the new norm now?
Or will the situation lose steam when buyers become more resistant to COV?

12/07/2021

我是什么样的邻居呢？
算得上是一个好邻居吗？

二十多岁的时候，公司派我去澳洲悉尼工作。因为两年的关系，所以就租了房子。

那时我的隔壁邻居是一对年轻的当地夫妇。因为年龄接近，相处没有什么问题。除了周末、假期的时候……

很多时候，他们会邀请朋友到家里聚会。而且一次就十来个，一般都会很迟才散场。试想想，十多个人讲话，加上播放音乐、电视节目的声音，从晚上八点开始到凌晨一两点！躲在家头疼，去外面逛也没法逛到那么晚啊！

其实这样的party也不只他们一家，整栋公寓会有好几个。想着入乡随俗，我也就这样忍了下去……

贴上的新闻报道：邻居阿嫲过去一直把走廊当仓库使用，大大小小的杂物叠在走廊两旁，给邻居造成了很多的不便。我觉得这情况也存有火患的危险，是不？

另外一点，假设我在我家门前的走廊堆满杂物，邻居要卖房子的话，买家看了应该也不会想买吧！即使成交，价格恐怕也不会很好吧……

哪天我想卖房子的时候，多少也会被邻居的价格给影响到，不是吗？

老话都说了，远亲不如近邻嘛！好的邻居是很重要的呀！

那么你呢？
你是什么样的邻居呢？
应该也是一个好邻居吧？

当年我若是在那里买下一套房子的话，按现在的价格来看，哇……

05/07/2021

This year we continually see news articles about the following:

~ HDB and Condo resale prices rises for Nth straight month
~ En Bloc fever making comeback
~ GCB market is also “sizzling”

Professionals and experts warned about probable cooling measures, and dished out advices to act now, act fast! Otherwise you will miss the boat and may never afford to buy anything, anymore!

As reported in this article, MAS managing director Ravi Menon said, "No, we do not think the market is overheated right now, because if it is overheated, then we have not done our job well,"

In my previous post I have mentioned that the authorities keep a very close watch on the market.

Currently, even with all the price indices and transaction volumes rising, it has not reached the stage that warrants the authorities to throw in a new set of cooling measures.

So let’s just stay cool, and not get our ownself “overheated ” by hearsay. Do our due diligence, and work out our budget, to get a property within affordability, and pay comfortably along the way!

Ken's REAL Page

01/12/2022

28/11/2022

29/11/2021

06/09/2021

16/08/2021

26/07/2021

19/07/2021

12/07/2021

05/07/2021

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