okie .... great ....
so Mr Goh ... if, say, you were to looking at selling your HDB
flat, would you be willing to sell it back to the HDB at the price
you got it at .... or to sell it to another couple at the same
price you got it at ?
I suppose not .......
and that's the flip side of the coin .....
if you were looking at buying a house now, of course you'd be
moaning and bitching about the prices .... but if you were already
a house owner, like so many other Singaporeans, would you not be
overjoyed at the high prices now ? And that's the conundrum here,
people who were looking at buying a flat would be bitching about
high prices, but once they transition from a home buyer to a home
owner, they'd be bitching about prices going lower on them,
depreciating their asset ! Ironic isn't it ?
I am a property agent on the weekends, and while it's true
enough that there were some crazy HDB deals recently, you don't
have to be one of those foreign suckers that pay 200-300k COV
premiums to get a resale flat. Many of the potential clients I come
across have a bad case of keeping up with the joneses. A couple
earning only 5k + a month combined, shouldn't be looking at 600k+
flats in the first place. People like these have no one but
themselves to blame when they discover that they've overstretched
themselves ... Before I even show them any properties I'd try to
sit them down and work out some sums with them but they'd go AHHH !
and say can one lah, or say "I die die one only want this estate
and nowhere else !" ... What can anyone do for these people ?
And of course, Singapore is only so big, if you want this and
want that, want good schools, MRT, close to the city easy commute
quiet neighbourhood, then be prepared to pay ! This is market
forces at work, and unfortunately we are not north korea. And of
course, even if the men-in-white promises everyone a roof over
their heads, that doesn't mean everyone gets a 5 room high floor
HDB flat with an MRT nearby but not close enough to be noisy, with
a branded school within walking distance, markets and and shops 10
minutes away, right next to their parents, and want it cheap when
they were buying it, but want it to be pricey when they want to
sell it ! Ai pee, ai chee, ai tua liap nee ? Perhaps only when
buying durians !! Anyone want the good life, then be prepared to
work hard for it. I work hard for mine.
There ARE still cheap flats around, if anyone actually engages a
good agent (*ahem !), or actually bother to look beyond what they
perceive to be their "must haves". And if anyone actually bothers
to plough through the HDB policies and grant guidelines, you'd
discover that while our goverment has goofed up on a lot of things,
the HDB and our housing policy is not quite one of those.
And for those aspiring home owners out there. Here's a basic
guideline, if your combined monthly CPF ordinary account
contributions cannot cover your monthly loan payments, then you're
overstretched, and the flat you're looking at is too expensive for
you, look for a cheaper place, please !
Of course, if Mr Goh is willing to help out another needy
Singaporean couple and sell his HDB house for cheap, at below
valuation, I'd be most willing to help, I would waive my side of
the agent fees even.
FYI,
Mr Goh is not going to lease his house out yet, and even if he
did, he dun needs an agent.
On the hindsight, after taking people money to service people,
why you care so much about what people wants, if they want near
MRT, shopping centres and so on, and are willing to pay with their
pathetic 5k income, so be it, you, to me is a lousy agent. An agent
should be customer orientated, and more so, with higher prices,
your pathetic 1 or 2% will be more.
There are many singaporeans and even foreigner alike doing a do
first, talk later kind of stuff, they buy big cars, big houses,
invest here and there, this make them works harder, let them be, if
a couple with a 5k income wants a 5 rooms so be it, loan from banks
and let them struggle thru, in fact, most will buck up and take on
higher paid job and become more responsible in their life because
of the burden of paying the loan plus interest. In another words,
it stimulates their senses to work smarter and harder.
Singapore is abit different from other countries, in other
countries, most average or poor can only dream of having a nice
house, to achieve that, they built their nest and hope that one
day, they can achieve their dream house, but in Singapore, you
can fulfil your dream first, than you work out to a die die
situation to support the reality.
Let people have a choice, doesn't mean earning 5k is going to be
5k forever, the years after, can become 50k. And please note that
when the govt said having a roof on top, if also imply bus -stop
and tents at ECP ya.
