SINGAPORE EXPATS FORUM
Singapore Expat Forum and Message Board for Expats in Singapore & Expatriates Relocating to Singapore

No, I've not seen that scenario before, but I do know a fellow who took a SG mortgage on an AU property. Same 20 percent rules... all was good until the AU dollar tanked and on paper, the house was worth less in SG dollars, hence, violating the 80 percent loan ratio. He had to put up a couple hundr...

Take forum advice with a grain of salt. Ask teck21 for citations supporting his assertion. Fair enough. :) Permitted under Home Office Scheme (that's what they call it, although I do presume it means home business-of-some-sort scheme): Accountancy services Architectural services Consultancy service...

Absolutely no way you can run such an outfit from a condo unit. URA regulations do not permit it.

I have a friend who just rented a place just 5mins walk from Novena MRT station. Rental is $4800/month (after incl. agent's fees). Been looking to rent around this area too, so have been looking at rentals here for a couple of months now (well, not in that much of a hurry to rent, basically just wa...

Thanks, so they are generally the same. If it's not a difficult question to answer, how do the two groups compare in terms of lifestyle and aspirations? Only ethnically, and of course they share the same religion. The concept of bumiputera is largely political today though, and from that point of v...

This tidbit is more interesting, really: The pilot and the copilot, according to Han, eat different meals. Usually the pilot gets the first class meal and the copilot the business class meal. "This is just in case one of the meals might cause food poisoning," says Han. Makes sense. Have you seen "A...

Yeah it's shocking. I've been comparing URA rental statistics for Q1, Q2 and current asking prices (based on popular websites) and am not seeing any broad based real decline. Unless of course units are currently being rented out at meaningful discounts to their quoted prices. The good news is that t...

If you want a great view of the fireworks and aerial display, the Singapore Flyer is a fantastic place to do it. You don't even have to get on the Flyer. I go there every year, but only on the Preview day (last Saturday, but hey, you get the exact same displays and fireworks). Short hop away from Pr...

Debit cards usually face issues for things like car rentals though, but as others have pointed out, no issues for hotel or flight reservations.

Crappy rewards though. Not that credit card rewards are very meaningful either.

May I ask how the prices of HDB flats are set? Is the price when new dictated by the open market, or by the Government's price?quote] Most interesting question! New HDB flats are sold to eligible citizens at a price that is benchmarked against resale prices (in the vicinity), and then discounted (t...

For me the question remains. Why are prices being allowed to get this out of control? The government can't quite control prices going up astronomically, and vice versa! They can try, and always have, but apart from a controlled economy, the problem is nobody ever knows when high has become too high...

I wait till they turn their back and walk away with their shoes on before proceeding to shut the gate. Seems like the perfectly natural thing to do no? This subject reminds me of an incident many years ago when I was living in Melbourne city, waiting an interminably long time for the tram to arrive ...

I think it is also complicated because of the nature of the SGn property market. I wouldn't call it rigged, but one entity just happens to own everything and control building on it and immigration. You have to wonder how much capacity there is for prices ever being allowed to fall. I think the gove...

There is a jeweller in Henderson Industrial complex set up many years ago by an immigrant from Hong Kong, and for many years was very secretive. They generally were never open to the public and catered mainly to high net worth ladies of leisure who would bring in the latest Tiffany designs or whatev...

west2east wrote:The reason most countries regulate tenancies is because it has such a negative effect on society if they don't

Most locals do not rent.