REALLY??? Cmon now, thoughts on RENT in Singapore...

[ev-disinfection]

Well, here is my take on the owners who leave the units empty, while waiting for a better price, and once they have it, they decide to up the price again....

These people are the really rich locals, who probably own a couple or more units, they would also be betting big in the stock exchange / casinos and have membership to the top social clubs here / abroad.
They do it cause they really can afford too and the offers they get might not be true, they just like to show off a bit / a lot. I have some customers, who are exactly like that, they would sometimes break a lease and have that place re renovated, for their daughter or son to live in after their overseas studies, and their kids don't come home and decide to live overseas, then change and re change their minds over the years.... i know cause every time her son "decides" to come home, i would be called in to service the apartment. It is a love hate relationship for these owners and I.

But for the owners who just have enough to buy a unit, they would calculate and always have the unit rented out. And these owners sometimes do not have enough money to rectify some defects / maintenance issues that their units have.

[JR8]

The market and thinking behind it is moronic here...greed based, gossip based figures and so many inexperienced agents here it is horrendous.

I have just sold a house in the UK, large detached, large garden, 4 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, dining room, real big and proper kitchen....for 155k sterling... and have bought a condo here for 10 times the price and a fraction of the size and will make money from it....more so than the UK...even if we rent it out....some morons will pay double the mortgage just for rent.....

jump on board!

It's bad karma referring to potential future customers as 'morons'...

[ev-disinfection]

The market and thinking behind it is moronic here...greed based, gossip based figures and so many inexperienced agents here it is horrendous.

I have just sold a house in the UK, large detached, large garden, 4 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, dining room, real big and proper kitchen....for 155k sterling... and have bought a condo here for 10 times the price and a fraction of the size and will make money from it....more so than the UK...even if we rent it out....some morons will pay double the mortgage just for rent.....

jump on board!

It's bad karma referring to potential future customers as 'morons'...

Orhhhhhhhh.... Cannot like that say one, FT not moron

[beppi]

These people are the really rich locals, who probably own a couple or more units, they would also be betting big in the stock exchange / casinos and have membership to the top social clubs here / abroad.

This is not always true: Many empty units also belong to rich Indonesian Chinese, who keep them as a safe haven in case the mood turns ugly at home (as it did e.g. in 1997/8). Obviously, a rented-out unit will not work for this purpose. (There are more Chinese in Indonesia than in Singapore!)
A (well-connected, but not rich himself) friend brought his wife to Mt. Elisabeth Hospital to give birth and slept (for free) in a nearby terrace house with garden (five minutes walk from the centre of Orchard Road!), owned by an Indonesian friend of him. It is empty at almost all other times.

[ev-disinfection]

These people are the really rich locals, who probably own a couple or more units, they would also be betting big in the stock exchange / casinos and have membership to the top social clubs here / abroad.

This is not always true: Many empty units also belong to rich Indonesian Chinese, who keep them as a safe haven in case the mood turns ugly at home (as it did e.g. in 1997/8). Obviously, a rented-out unit will not work for this purpose. (There are more Chinese in Indonesia than in Singapore!)
A (well-connected, but not rich himself) friend brought his wife to Mt. Elisabeth Hospital to give birth and slept (for free) in a nearby terrace house with garden (five minutes walk from the centre of Orchard Road!), owned by an Indonesian friend of him. It is empty at almost all other times.

Ok correction - rich people.
Indonesian Chinese are really rich,
We have a client who has 3 ultra beautiful units in Ardmore area alone (they have more) ... SGD 8.7 million each
and 1 is left empty

[Splatted]

My landlady has our condo on the market for $1.8 mn. Gets an offer of $1.78 and refuses it. Stays unsold for 9 months and then she decides she wants to sell again. Drops the price to $1.75 and the original offerer comes back and offers the full price. She refuses and puts it up to $1.8 and won't budge on price now. Yes its tenanted but she risks it being vacant shortly and losing the monthly yield and also has no potential buyers in the pipeline. All over the sum of $20k which is around 1.1% of the asking price.

Bizarre mindset!

It's not an isolated case. We were looking at an hdb property recently, dogged by loan sharks. Seller still asking 25k cov, and flat has been on market for around a year.

We made a rather generous offer of 15k and it was flatly refused, even after our agent told seller we saw the red paint stains they tried to hide on the floor.

[ev-disinfection]

My landlady has our condo on the market for $1.8 mn. Gets an offer of $1.78 and refuses it. Stays unsold for 9 months and then she decides she wants to sell again. Drops the price to $1.75 and the original offerer comes back and offers the full price. She refuses and puts it up to $1.8 and won't budge on price now. Yes its tenanted but she risks it being vacant shortly and losing the monthly yield and also has no potential buyers in the pipeline. All over the sum of $20k which is around 1.1% of the asking price.

Bizarre mindset!

It's not an isolated case. We were looking at an hdb property recently, dogged by loan sharks. Seller still asking 25k cov, and flat has been on market for around a year.

We made a rather generous offer of 15k and it was flatly refused, even after our agent told seller we saw the red paint stains they tried to hide on the floor.

Well, if i were to owe $ to loan sharks, i would want to hold on till i can get enough $ to either pay the sharks or to gamble to try to recover enough $. He will be safe in his HDB flat as it will not be taken back by any bank on default on his assumed credit card bills
Think about it...

[Splatted]

My landlady has our condo on the market for $1.8 mn. Gets an offer of $1.78 and refuses it. Stays unsold for 9 months and then she decides she wants to sell again. Drops the price to $1.75 and the original offerer comes back and offers the full price. She refuses and puts it up to $1.8 and won't budge on price now. Yes its tenanted but she risks it being vacant shortly and losing the monthly yield and also has no potential buyers in the pipeline. All over the sum of $20k which is around 1.1% of the asking price.

Bizarre mindset!

It's not an isolated case. We were looking at an hdb property recently, dogged by loan sharks. Seller still asking 25k cov, and flat has been on market for around a year.

We made a rather generous offer of 15k and it was flatly refused, even after our agent told seller we saw the red paint stains they tried to hide on the floor.

Well, if i were to owe $ to loan sharks, i would want to hold on till i can get enough $ to either pay the sharks or to gamble to try to recover enough $. He will be safe in his HDB flat as it will not be taken back by any bank on default on his assumed credit card bills
Think about it...

something tells me, these individuals don't have any plans of paying back any money, but will instead do a runner. They're just waiting for someone dumb to come along and offer a lot of cash

[aster]

And the loan sharks will continue to target the property or will they aim to find out where their debtor has moved to?

[SG Expat Bat]

supply and demand...
just look at the sky rocket property prices.

would be great to have bought an unit earlier

[carteki]

To me, I am amazed how she can keep increasing her asking price, when there are obviously no buyers. I suspect that she is not even interested in selling and is merely waiting for a dumb fish to hook.

Me having specific context....the nerve of that woman!

And what is wrong with that? I know if I was her agent I'd be annoyed, but hell, I'd sell my place if someone offered me enough (although I have an idea as to what enough was).

[darpy]

speaking from the other side, owning property and renting it out, some comments;

1. on very basic terms rental payments are worked out based upon what one would normally pay in mortgage payments, here in Singapore people dont negatively gear properties as the mortgage rates are so low anyway. Hence, repayment is a slight profit on top of what you would pay for the mortgage.

2. Singapore has the dodgiest real estate industry I have ever encountered. Until recently, any man and his dog could be an agent. They have no such thing as exclusive representation, so often you see one property advertised 10x by 10 different agents. These agents take a cut from the renter for leasing the place. Hence, landlords know tenants are loath to move somewhere else in the first instance.

3. it is very rare to find a lease of less than 12 months here, so people factor in potential increases of costs within that period into the rental.

4. landlords have the opinion that expats get a rental allowance from their employment to cover the rental, and hence dont care how much they pay in rent. Though this may be false, it is widely beleived.

5. as was mentioned previously, its supply and demand. If a landlord owns a property in an area popular with expats they know they can command a higher rent (partly for reason above). Sure someone can go find a place in Choa Chu Kang, but there are plenty who are happy to pay more for the convenience of staying in certain areas.