durain wrote:if next door tenant is paying x amount, then the landlord also want to get x amount and nothing less than that. the way they think is... if next door getting more, why should i lower mine? i still can get one. i just wait la. and so they twiddle their thumbs waiting for the magic numbers.
That's because Singapore
property owners are generally very ill-advised by their agents.
Agents know they are in a competitive field. The landlord says he or she knows her neighbour is getting x amount a month for a similar property, reads about rocketing rents in the papers and expects to get the same.
The agents actually in the field (ie those who know their markets, the ones who don't profess to being specialists in buying, selling and renting of HDB, private, landed and commercial properties everywhere) know that price is no longer achievable (how long can rents keep going up? Logic dictates reversion to the mean at some point, and we've past it already, but that's the way humans are, just look at stockmarkets everywhere).
These knowledgeable agents decline to do their business on their terms, knowing it's a futile exercise. Who steps in? Some lesser agent, eager to do business, no real experience in the field eager to snag a client (maybe on the 'good' advice of their sucker, maybe mentor) promises the landlord whatever terms he / she desires. And these landlords happily take their word for it, simply because they don't know better, that their agent has absolutely no ability to rent their property out at that price.
Then reality sinks in, slowly at first, then like a tusnami soon after. The herd panics, and the reverse of what happens in 2007 occurs.
Landlords, 'investors' are greedy everywhere, no point blaming Singapore landlords. It smacks of something I won't say really, ascribing to a whole group of disparate people an unpleasant personality trait.
Just that in Singapore, the property agency industry is expecially odious. It's rotten, self-serving and has structured itself to work against its clients. Any property agent who works in the interest of the client is doing so in his or her own personal capacity, and out of personal willingness. God-forbid the industry makes such it requirement for employment, it would throw thousands of bad agents out of the very lucrative job of screwing the poor and ignorant in many cases. Come to think of it, sounds like US mortgage brokers, hmm...
At least most other industries in SIngapore are well run. Not including customer service though, even though that's improving. But the government conveniently thinks all it needs to do is improve 'skills and training'. What about looking at the shitty wages these people get for standing 10 hours a day 6 days a week or more? No wonder they're such a sullen lot.
Apart from pandering to corporations and their bottom lines, a head-in-the-sand approach seems the preferred solution for everything.
Boy have I really gone-off tangent. Apologies.
Edited: minor grammatical correction
