6 in 10 S'poreans think Government should regulate prices of new condos: Survey

[Note that this is NOT a letter to the Forum Page. Stupid letter writers are getting fewer. I would like to think it is because of this blog, but I am not that egotistical.

However, that does not mean that there are no stupid writing. Or writing about stupid ideas. Or expressing stupid ideas.

Except now they get PAID to write them.

Whereas this blog is still... not bringing in any income for me.

So I guess I'm the stupid one? 

Well, the poorer one.]

By Janice Lim

About half of the respondents who took part in a survey by PropertyGuru said that they expect private property prices to continue going up in the second half of 2019.

16 October, 2019

SINGAPORE —  A higher proportion of Singaporeans would like the Government to regulate prices of new private homes compared to six months ago, based on a survey by property portal PropertyGuru. 

Out of 794 respondents polled in the first half of this year, 58 per cent said that there should be more price regulation — up from 49 per cent in the second half of last year. 

The survey, which is conducted half-yearly, also found that a majority of Singaporeans — eight out of 10 — were dissatisfied with the current real-estate climate chiefly because they felt that private property prices were overpriced. 

[Let me tell you what that statistic tell me: It tells me that 8 out of 10 Singaporeans do not own private property. Or want to buy private property. Put it another way: If you own a private property for investment, is private property prices too high?]

Based on the third-quarter flash data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority, private property prices have gone up by 0.9 per cent since the last quarter.

The quarter-to-quarter increase was 1.5 per cent previously.

About half of those surveyed by PropertyGuru expect private property prices to continue going up in the second half of this year.

[And they expect this because...?]

Comparatively, only about one-third felt that the prices of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats would go up. This could be due to ongoing concerns about the depleting leases of HDB resale flats. 

Commenting on the prices of property in Singapore, Dr Tan Tee Khoon, country manager of PropertyGuru Singapore, said that the property market here continues to be "positively differentiated" from other markets in the region and it is a "relative safe haven given its political stability and good governance". 

[Wow. so the country manager of a real estate agency, the same one that carried out this survey and revealed these findings, thinks the property market here is safe. So, no shame about conflict of interests? That's like a restaurant giving out Michelin stars to themselves.]

"Investors with diversified portfolios continue to see Singapore’s real estate as an asset class that can ride out volatility in the medium to long term,” he said.

When it comes to buying a property, the PropertyGuru survey found that Singaporeans were more cautious. The Property Purchase Intent index — which measures the likelihood of respondents buying a property here in the next six months — fell to an all-time low since the survey started nine years ago. 

The overall sentiment, which took into account other concerns such as affordability, the general real-estate market climate, interest rates, property prices and perceived government intervention in the property market, was also less upbeat.

This corresponds to the gloomier outlook of Singapore's economy, with 51 per cent of the respondents feeling that the economy was not performing well — up from 37 per cent in the second half of last year. 

[Must be a slow news day for the newspaper to publish such fluff. Or maybe it is "sponsored content"? Or a paid advertorial?]

To cut waste, set up supermarket selling overstocked, expiring goods

By Doreen Lai Bin Hui

26 September, 2019

I was happy to read TODAY’s Trash Talk features on how Singaporeans can do their part to reduce waste.

I have two ideas that I hope can bring Singapore closer to its zero-waste target.

Despite being a developed country, our environmental consciousness trails even some developing nations.

[Note: what she considers "environmental consciousness" is basically the latest fads promoted by so-called "environmentalists". More later.]

Recently, I took a six-month break. [Just curious. Did you fly, or bike, or take a "zero-emissions" boat? Whatever that is.] Through my travels, I saw how the effects of global warming and erratic climatic changes have caused glaciers to recede at an alarming rate, and places such as Alaska becoming much warmer than they should.

[Oh yes. Come see the glaciers before they are all gone!]

We need to step up our environmental consciousness to safeguard our planet for future generations.

During my travels, I encountered many excellent ideas of how we can help to reduce waste.

START A GROCERY OUTLET

In the United States, there is a successful supermarket chain called Grocery Outlet selling heavily discounted brand-name groceries and products that are either overstocked or close to their use-by date.

[In Singapore, there is a chain of budget shops called "Value $ Shop". Their tagline is "Closing Down Sale!" and "Fire Sale"! And they are NOT the only bargain budget shops.]

I patronised this supermarket often because its items were cheap and I was going to consume the produce pretty soon anyway.

It makes sense for one of the big supermarket chains here — or, better still, an alliance of them — to create such an outlet to reduce waste. It can also be a part of their corporate-social-responsibility efforts to bring affordable groceries to the masses.

[Or see what they are already doing. From a Facebook comment:

Supermarkets are already doing this for some products. Fresh meat have a shelf life (or a sell by date) of just 3 days. [When] they are close to their sell-by date, some supermarkets slash their prices. But you often have to use the meat on the same day. This is not always possible (for me), so I cannot take advantage of this. And this (offering discounts within the store) is a better solution than having a specialty store selling say 2-day old meat. This requires the originating store to send the meat to the specialty discount store, who will need to check that the meat (or other products) are still saleable, re-tag the merchandise, and put it on display. All these take time, transport, logistics, and labour and adds to the costs. Re-tagging the soon to expire meat within the originating store is speedier (unless the specialty store is right next to the originating store and a subsidiary of the originating store or parent company).

DEPOSITS FOR BOTTLES AND CANS

In Europe and North America, it is common to see glass or plastic bottles and steel or aluminium cans being sold with a deposit. Consumers can get their money back when they return these to a machine that is usually at the entrance of supermarkets.

This scheme will boost recycling collection rates and attitudes towards recycling.

[Hate to break the news to you but... Recycling is a scam. But don't take my word for it. Find a recycling plant in Singapore. Not a recycling materials collection and sorting facility. These simply "export" our "recyclables overseas. Where a large proportion of them are either left to rot, burned haphazardly, or tossed into the oceans. Find an ACTUAL plant that takes recyclables (say aluminium cans), and actually process the recyclables and make NEW products with it. There are no such plants in SG. (I got a hint that there is a "local steel mill" that can recycle ferrous metal - not aluminium. But I have NO idea where it is, or if recycling is a major component of its business model.)

As for plastic, it helps to believe that you can recycle plastic. But the truth is, it is very difficult to recycle a plastic bottle and imagine that it would come back as a bottle. Plastics are hard to recycle. The best you can do is down cycle it.]

Recent news that supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice is charging for plastic bags in a trial at selected stores is also a step in the right direction.

Singapore is already behind many countries in this area. Others, including many African states, have banned single-use plastic bags. A report from the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Resources Institute found that at least 127 out of 192 countries have adopted some form of legislation to regulate plastic bags as of July last year.

I sincerely urge Singaporeans to be more environmentally conscious because every little step matters.

[More from the FaceBook comment:

As for other goods (over-stocked goods) this is already being done if the writer would simply open her eyes and understand what she is seeing. "Value $ Shop" with their perpetual "Closing Down Sale" or "Fire Sale" (despite the lack of evidence of fire, unless they are exploiting the Haze) ARE in fact discount stores for overstocked goods. Yeah, sure they have lots of parallel imports from countries with lower costs of living (Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia), but they also have overstocked goods. "Halls XS" are about $1.40 at Fairprice. They were once sold at Value $ Shop for 50 cents (no stock now).

This letter is an example of "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" or at least a useless thing. Or will get you to do useless things that will make you feel good about yourself. 

The War on Plastic is futile. And people are doing it for the wrong reasons. If we stop using plastic, the world will NOT become a better place. We would NOT stop climate change or global warming. If you think giving up plastic will save the world from climate change, you are a victim of "a little knowledge" and the wrong kind of knowledge.

Same for giving up plastic straws.]