Tag Archives: Singapore Property

Dream home? Dream on..

In exactly 1,008 hours, or one month and 10 days, my tenancy agreement will expire.

In view of this deadline, my husband and I recently decided that after eight years in this country, perhaps it was time for us to own a piece of Singapore.

Thus we embarked on the Great Singapore House Hunt.

First, we crunched our numbers and arrived at a budget that would not turn us into indentured servants.

Then, we jotted down all the things we were looking for in a house.

We have two pre-schoolers and a maid, so that means we will need an apartment with enough space for the kids to move about without breaking the furniture – or a limb – and for our helper to have a bit of privacy that won’t have to be in the washroom.

Location, location, location. For us, that means our home must be near work, school and play. Otherwise, the only person who will enjoy living in it will be our maid.

To help us further in our quest, we kept in mind a recent article by this newspaper’s Money Editor who wrote about tips his parents had given him for buying a house. Paramount is the $1,000 per sq ft rule – do not buy an apartment priced above this amount.

With these criteria in mind, we set out on our quest. Continue reading

Hungry Ghost, hungry buyers

Ignoring taboo associated with Hungry Ghost Festival, buyers push up sale value to 3-year high


KEY FIGURES

14 properties worth $25.92m were auctioned off during the festival which ran from Aug 20 to last Friday;

85 properties were put up for auction sale; 66 of them were by property owners; 19 properties were mortgagee sales.


Too irresistible
Practicality sometimes overrides superstition as buyers find it hard to resist a good deal.


This year’s Hungry Ghost Festival has ended well for some sellers as more buyers ignored the taboo associated with making a property purchase during the Hungry Ghost Festival.

A report by consultancy Colliers International showed that 14 properties worth $25.92 million were auctioned off during the festival which ran from Aug20 to last Friday. This is the highest sale value recorded in three years, it said.

The figure beats the $9.56 million worth of sales during the festival in 2007, when sellers were still asking for the moon while buyers were starting to be wary of high prices because of the US sub-prime crisis. Continue reading