Five Cents Ten Cents

Financial freedom, one realistic step at a time.

$1 million 99 year leasehold 3 bedroom condo in suburbs – is the market crazy?


Flickr image Apartments by Matluckins

Flickr image "Apartments" by Matluckins

I stay in the western part of Singapore which is not the choicest location for residential properties in Singapore compared to the east and central. This morning, when I was flipping through the classifieds to get a sense of the market value of asking prices of my own residence in addition to other private apartments, I was shocked to see sellers asking for above $1 million Singapore Dollars for a three bed-room condo in Centris. Centris is a private condo that is built on top of Jurong Point.

While I admit the location is very attractive for yuppies and those who crave convenience of being next door to the MRT and amenities, the $1 m still shocked me because it is still in the suburbs.

If this is not a sign of a bubble, then there are either many rich Singaporeans who can afford the $1m price tag or there are many rich foreigners who can afford that type of property investments.

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Your home or your ticket to financial freedom?


Flickr image Home-8 by Lorena Fernandez Fernandez

Flickr image "Home-8" by Lorena Fernandez Fernandez

The recent news about the affordability of HDB homes got me thinking about the time when I too was newly married and looking to get my first home. It was a pivotal time in my life as the choice of home would determine the path I took towards financial freedom.

Like many others before my time, I had gone through different periods of the housing bust and boom times. Even as my parents benefitted from upgrading, my elder sibling had to wait close to 2 years for his HDB flat and that was considered good during times when average waiting time for new HDB flat was about 3-5 years. This resulted in many couples married by only staying together 3-5 years after they have had registered their marriage with the Registar of Marriages.

I was fortunate in that my home search was sometime in 2000 when the market was still slowly recovering from the excesses of the Asian financial crisis and the dot-com bubble was starting to unravel. Thus, I managed to get my home at a reasonable price. Continue reading

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