imho its both, international markets slowing plus a higher SGD plus increased local costs.
The only people happy at the moment are agents selling properties to main land chinese
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Singapore has always been more expensive than it’s neighbours. That was the case even back in Colonial days.
And Hong Kong “refugees” of various nationalities:
Inflation in Singapore is not as bad as in many other countries:
EU inflation rate:
US inflation rate is slightly lower, at 4.05% in May 2023:
US Inflation Rate.
Believing government inflation rates is like believing in the fairy godmother.
The gov is going around jacking all rents as much as they can, its because of inflation they say.
Doh the gov invented the inflation.
Problem is now its expensive on the world stage
Thats a real problem when its reason to exist was come and park your business here and we supply cheap labour with low or no tax.
Global tax minimums now added to high cost place for your office, its running out of magic tokens.
( still top of the list for rich to come and park here, does wonders for the property market but zero in tax collection, less a one off stamp duty collection)
Did I miss something? I didn’t know that the Singapore Government was so powerful that they controlled the inflation in the world.
That is astonishing news from the round table at the marina.
Fact: Skyrocketing rent prices and soaring inflation have driven up the cost of living across the world.
Singapore was the most expensive place for expats to live in for many years, “competing” for the top spot with Tokyo, Zurich and Hong Kong in the 1990s. (Oslo took top spot at one time).
Today Singapore is #8 on the list for Expat living, with NYC topping the list. (Tokyo has fallen off the top10 list):
Most of the businesses “parked” in S’pore are Banking, Finance, Trading and Shipping related.
Most of the “cheap (foreign) labour” are engaged in construction, shipyard and manufacturing business, or as Domestic Helpers (Maids)
Most Singaporeans and PRs living in Singapore are in well paid jobs and live in HDB flat away from the CBD. (85% of Singaporeans own their HDB flats, so are not affected by rent increases)
Yes, Singapore is an expensive place to live, no matter who or what you are, but it is not all doom and gloom, no matter how much you and your buddies would like it to be.
Singapore’s development from a “colonial backwater” until 1963 and being thrown out of Malaysia in 1965 has been nothing but a miracle.
At independence in 1965 the GDP per capita was very low, (USD 517) with the economy dependent on the British Armed Forces and little to no manufacturing industry:
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/SGP/singapore/gdp-gross-domestic-product
Today Singapore’s GDP per capita (USD 72,794) is well above that of UK and US:
The standard of living is on par with any other developed country:
PS> I have seen the Singapore Miracle unfolding with my own eyes since 1959 until today.
Singapore today and Singapore in the 1960s and 70s is like day and night.
I know, I was there:
Such a great place for the young and any clowns that believe the gov created propaganda ( no free press in Singapore)
[quote=“ombugge, post:105, topic:64434”]
Most Singaporeans and PRs living in Singapore are in well paid jobs and live in HDB flat away from the CBD. (85% of Singaporeans own their HDB flats, so are not affected by rent increases)
[/quote] Sounds like dream land.
But they are all leasehold not owned, you left that part out
One measure is to look at the gdp per head versus the average wage and then you know there is an issue as most are not there especially the people living in HDB
“the leading cause of death for those aged between 10 and 29 years old”
Isn’t that better than; “the house I stay in belong to the bank”
Down town Singapore,1964:
Not much different from when I first walked those streets (1959):
Nor from the Singapore I called home from 1967:
But by the time I got married (1974) the changes was noticeable, with high rises popping up everywhere:
Shenton Way.
Outram Park.
From there it has been just more of the same, tall buildings, roads and parking lots.
Until today’s metropolis:
I haven’t walked those streets for 3 years now, but I’ll be back.
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And while we are at it, here is more on Singapore today:
Thanks for the photos
While your paying off your house its belongs to the gov and the bank.
When you finish paying you live a few years and give it back to the gov
Every 10 years your car ( that costs more than anywhere in the world) also goes back
You pension 100% controlled by the gov, that decides when you can get some of that back and the interest rate you get for loaning that money to the gov.
First move out of Covid, push up fuel tax, second move push up sales tax.
3rd move gov raises rents where it can.
All contributing to inflation
Its a good thing most of the population is helping to fund the running he country so the wealthy dont have to contribute at all.
Genius system where the losers keep voting for the gov to make it so for the wealthy.
oh sh*t we stole all their money now we have to give some of it back…
than we have a few scandals to cover up
Clearly some scandal here as the new is full of the investigations on themselves that didnt find anything.
I havnt heard the gossip yet on what they did but lots of scams with Black and White properties.
More news inches than the carwash scandal…
Then we can get back to the previous boss of Changi airport, the maid his son and the Judge and a total lack of accountability on contracts in the airport completely facilitated by allowing nominee share holdings of companies so the public cant find out who is behind a company.
The gov did a great job of keeping this out of the press, the part where the Judge recused himself for a reason the public was not allowed to know.
Did we mention when they got caught in the carwash investigation in Brazil
Another nice cover up, investigation in Singapore couldnt find any wrong doing…
It was good for Singapore inc so it just cost a few F35’s they had to buy to make it go away and about USD400Million
You show an amazing lack of knowledge about how things actually work in Singapore.
If you actually believe all your negative posts about things in Singapore, maybe you should read up on how HDB, CPF and CEOs works and the reason for their existence.
Maybe reading up on the recent history of Singapore, from say 1950s onwards would help your understanding of the place you talk so negatively about.
Like I have said; If you find it such a bad place to be, just get a taxi to Changi Airport. From there you can get a flight to anywhere in the world that meet your approval (if such a place exists).
How does Governments get their money if not by taxing the public?
Giving back money is bad??
PS> Nice to see you refer to the “mainstream media” that you always say are not trustworthy and Government mouth pieces.
Sure back in LKY’s day they did a great job to bring the country up.
Thats all your rose tinted glasses can see, dreaming about the old days doesnt help anybody today.
You are clearly in the group that laps up the government propaganda as your only source of info which is 90% of the population. It clearly works, I have found that the bottom 90% of Singapore do not know what really goes on. Typically nobody notices when their standard of living is constantly moving up, well thats been over for decades now.
What a stupid comment, we took your money now its all going wrong so we need to give it back as the economic model didnt work. ( we will cure inflation by putting more money in the economy DOH)
Are you trying to say the media is not 100% government controlled and hence their mouthpiece?
( the law makes that so, its not an accident)
There is no independent press in Singapore surely you know that much about Singapore?
When it too important for the public to know then there is zero press.
They brushed off the carwash scandal, no explanation of why you pay over USD400 million fine for $20-50 million in bribes, they kept changing that so hard to know.
They investigated themselves and couldnt find anyone responsible, well somebody authorised the payments…
The seeds of what they sewed are now coming to bite them where one small section of society have surged ahead due to the best laws in the world if your wealthy.
The government today is more concerned with staying in power and trying to keep the high level corruption away from the masses but more and more news is getting out and the population slowly learning what has been going on for years.
The gov has added a raft of laws to stop the population finding out but they new politicians are not as smart of the old guys, so many mistakes.
I might be lucky enough to be in the upper group so not at the mercy of their situation but I can see its a very unfair society.
The bottom 90% are not very happy, the generation that lived the hardships and enjoyed the great work LKY achieved for them are dying off, it means nothing to the current generation.
Small part i notice is how many local colleagues can no longer afford a car.
Its a great place for the independent wealthy but the gov are engineering the masses out of the economy, thats sad.
There is a reason why so many that are at uni overseas do not want to come back as they can map out their future and know they will be far better off doing a working career outside of Singapore ( all those except the ones that are about sell grandpa’s house ( not leasehold) once he dies and pick up tens of millions of dollars tax free so never have to work thats quite a few these days as very wealthy foreigners are pouring in and throwing huge money everywhere.
We all know what that does to your cost of living, gee we have to give some money back so the locals can survive…
Thats the Singapore way…
Please explain the pricing of a HDB
Wearing darkened glasses and blinkers is not the best way to see thing either.
Singapore is not an utopia run by angels, but is not a hell hole run by idiots either, like you appear to think.
No I’m not “lapping up” anything and everything I see, hear or read anywhere.
I seek more than one opinion, than I make up my own mind.
Clearly you have a low opinion of everybody that doesn’t belong in your elevated 10%.
Yes it is tru that mainstream media in Singapore is controlled and practise self-sensur on things like race and religion. There is a good reason for that, which you should know.
If you mean increasing cost of new HDB flats it is simple; higher cost of building materials, higher construction costs and the fact that newer BTO flat are of much better standard than the older HDB flats. There is an element of market trend in the equation as well.
As for resale flats it is ALL “supply and demand” on a free market, with limitations for foreigners.
(And the famous ethnic limitation to avoid “high rise ghettoes” a la Paris)
I don’t know where and how you live, but most expats live in Condos, either rented or “owned”.
There are strict rules for foreigner to own freeholds in Singapore. Most “landed property” is also on 99-year lease from the Government.
PS> When you “own” a Condo, or a HDB flat, it is actually a “lease”. You don’t own the block, or the land it stand on. In both cases the flat is yours to sell within the status that applies.
So you dont know about that either
…the law says the gov has control of every board as all media companies must be a listed company and the gov has the legal right to remove any editor when it wants to.
So the answer is you have no clue how the gov prices a new HDB.
Its has nothing to do with the cost to build.
PS there are plenty amounts of freehold in Singapore both landed properties and condos.
The main-landers coming are only buying freehold.
Factories, very rare which has allowed the businesses to come and go, nothing anchoring them here.
Not sure if that policy is working?
https://www.propertyguru.com.sg/property-guides/cheapest-freehold-condo-under-one-million-52963
I don’t understand why you stay in a place where the government are run by incompetent thief and 90% of the people are ignorant idiots (??)
You could have been in (Surfers) Paradise, where things are perfect and a girl is well dressed if she owns 7 bikinis.
But you are right, as always:
Its perfect for me, sorry to snuff out your dream of utopia but the gov was clever enough to fool the majority as you have proven.
That is pretty funny and probably true…I come from down south
Clearly a large scandal covered up here
Repeated denials in Singapore is code for we need to cover up the scandal, the public cannot know.
As repeated this week on the 2 politicians who have rented government properties, other than probably
cutting down trees illegally there is something bigger as denials are in the press everywhere.
Even the lost dogs association says they have investigated and said its all clear, lol