icky

SINGAPORE: No playgrounds or covered walkways in new HDB estates. Nor any barbecue pits. New flats should have very basic floor tiles, meanwhile. It is hardly the usual call from Members of Parliament (MPs), who tend to push for upgrading in their constituencies. But two among their ranks are making the call for “no-frills” housing. According to Dr Lim Wee Kiak and Ms Lee Bee Wah, this should be an option for home buyers and one way to provide more affordable housing. Dr Lim’s residents in Sembawang, for example, have told him HDB flat prices are high and younger residents who want to move out of their parents’ homes after marriage find it hard to do so. “Many of them have just started work and may not have so much cash,” he told TODAY. “You’re giving them a chance to build something simple, and over the years when their salaries increase, they may want to improve their homes.” When he first raised this in Parliament on Friday, Dr Lim gave the example of flat prices in the 1970s: S$15,000 and S$20,000 for a three-room and four-room flat respectively. A graduate with a starting salary of S$1,000 could pay off his apartment with 15 to 25 months of his pay, he said. But today, though their starting salaries are three to five times higher, the prices of new flats have shot up “10 to 30 times”, he added. “A high cost of housing has many repercussions as it results in higher costs of living, reduction of resources for other pursuits such as education and investment,” he said. His solution, he envisions, would lower construction costs and allow flats to be sold for “well below S$100,000”. But covered link-ways, playgrounds and other upgrading works can be done later when the estate is more mature, he added. Echoing his views, Ms Lee (Ang Mo Kio) said HDB “should avoid building flats with too many value-added features”, which should be left to private developers. When contacted, other MPs had mixed feelings, however, about whether there is a place for no-frills flats in Singapore’s public housing spectrum. Mr Teo Ser Luck (Pasir Ris-Punggol) said the biggest gripe, instead, among couples he has spoken to is the long waiting time for a new flat. The no-frills idea may also not appeal to younger buyers, who aspire more and are more demanding. “They’re more well informed and have specific demands for the quality of life they want,” said Mr Teo. Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Hong Kah) was concerned that owners who do not like having the bare minimum might “start hacking and doing it up all over again”. “I don’t think people are saying ‘give me no-frills’, but they’re asking for cheaper alternatives,” he said, and suggested that three-room flats - with quality - would be good for younger couples. “I think we should create more supply in that segment,” he said. “They can always look at upgrading options later.” In his Parliamentary reply on Friday, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said HDB will launch about 3,000 flats for sale in the first half of this year, of which 1,400 will be studio apartments, two- and three-room flats. There will be 4,000 of such flats launched over the next two years. “We’ll increase the supply of smaller and lower-priced flats further if necessary to meet the demand from the lower income group,” he said. Dr Lim had other suggestions as well: Price homes based on cost rather than matching them to market conditions, and shorten the lease from the current 99 years. Some home hunters welcomed his call for no-frills flats. Technician Chen Yi, 29, got married in November and is staying in a Woodlands executive flat with his wife, parents and two siblings. Mr Chen has been looking for a matrimonial home but has been unsuccessful because prices of resale flats have been out of reach, and he does not want to wait several years for a new flat. “I don’t mind if my home has just one bedroom and a hall,” he said. “Even if it’s cramped like those apartments in Hong Kong, I don’t care. I just want a place where I can have privacy.” - TODAY/yb

that's not true lah... Blk 201 should be the nearest to MRT and it has EA too, all agents are like that, anyhow say one... Welcome! 1. icky -- Jurong East 2. burrppp -- Tampines 3. applefreak -- Seng Kang 4. lakmy -- Pasir Ris 5. damsel in de-stress -- Bedok Reservoir 6. chocolatzz -- Pasir Ris 7. simcity -- Serangoon North 8. rummi -- Seng Kang 9. priyalok -- Seng Kang 10. DoubleJ -- Jurong West 11. khair76-- Pasir Ris 12. Deepwhite-- Hougang 13. BunBun -- Jurong West 14. Haven59 -- Pasir Ris 15. Aqilo -- Bedok Reservoir 16. jt1011 -- Woodlands 17. Tsubame -- Jurong East 18. Joho -- Yishun

mine at JE st 32, inside, Toh Guan is expensive leh, yours is 287 or 288, the area 285 to 288 are all very expensive, coz just walking dist to IMM yah... s&c is the most ex, but rebate the least

Welcome Tsubame! Where in Jurong East huh? 1. icky -- Jurong East 2. burrppp -- Tampines 3. applefreak -- Seng Kang 4. lakmy -- Pasir Ris 5. damsel in de-stress -- Bedok Reservoir 6. chocolatzz -- Pasir Ris 7. simcity -- Serangoon North 8. rummi -- Seng Kang 9. priyalok -- Seng Kang 10. DoubleJ -- Jurong West 11. khair76-- Pasir Ris 12. Deepwhite-- Hougang 13. BunBun -- Jurong West 14. Haven59 -- Pasir Ris 15. Aqilo -- Bedok Reservoir 16. jt1011 -- Woodlands 17. Tsubame -- Jurong East

Welcome jt1011! How large is your EA? Woodlands flat are usually much bigger than other area 1. icky -- Jurong East 2. burrppp -- Tampines 3. applefreak -- Seng Kang 4. lakmy -- Pasir Ris 5. damsel in de-stress -- Bedok Reservoir 6. chocolatzz -- Pasir Ris 7. simcity -- Serangoon North 8. rummi -- Seng Kang 9. priyalok -- Seng Kang 10. DoubleJ -- Jurong West 11. khair76-- Pasir Ris 12. Deepwhite-- Hougang 13. BunBun -- Jurong West 14. Haven59 -- Pasir Ris 15. Aqilo -- Bedok Reservoir 16. jt1011 -- Woodlands

Welcome Aqilo! Another East Sider! 1. icky -- Jurong East 2. burrppp -- Tampines 3. applefreak -- Seng Kang 4. lakmy -- Pasir Ris 5. damsel in de-stress -- Bedok Reservoir 6. chocolatzz -- Pasir Ris 7. simcity -- Serangoon North 8. rummi -- Seng Kang 9. priyalok -- Seng Kang 10. DoubleJ -- Jurong West 11. khair76-- Pasir Ris 12. Deepwhite-- Hougang 13. BunBun -- Jurong West 14. Haven59 -- Pasir Ris 15. Aqilo -- Bedok Reservoir

See, not many people actually like Jurong West, u r only 3 times away from that number, so quite ok... another thing i suggest u to do is, to go down to the site and to see how's the progress of 338B/339X, i have a feeling that it wont drag until 28 Feb 2012, i know ur difficulty, but if you could wait for 2 years (e.g. by renting a room somewhere) to get a better flat, it will benefit u more in future.

congrats, nesh! i'm pretty sure u'll have a chance, as long as u dont mind the level and facing.

Welcome Haven59! Pasir Ris got more EA or EM? coz i always see EM there leh, around the mrt station. 1. icky -- Jurong East 2. burrppp -- Tampines 3. applefreak -- Seng Kang 4. lakmy -- Pasir Ris 5. damsel in de-stress -- Bedok Reservoir 6. chocolatzz -- Pasir Ris 7. simcity -- Serangoon North 8. rummi -- Seng Kang 9. priyalok -- Seng Kang 10. DoubleJ -- Jurong West 11. khair76-- Pasir Ris 12. Deepwhite-- Hougang 13. BunBun -- Jurong West 14. Haven59 -- Pasir Ris

Please allow me to start a new thread to discuss this policy. Because I simply think that with so many first-timers around like everyone of us, this policy is not helpful at all. When 90% of flat supply is allocated to first-timers, it does not mean u get a higher chance than the second-timers. Let's discuss this example. suppose there are 1000 applications for 100 flats, if 99% are first-timers, then we'll have 990 first-timer applications and 10 second-timer applications. So the 990 first-timers will fight for 90 flats, while the 10 second-times will be allocated to 10 flats nicely, isn't this ridiculous? Honestly, how many second-timers are there? People who participated in the recent (since 2007) BE/Bi-monthly/Half-yearly sales are all waiting for flats to get married or to give birth urgently, and I'm pretty sure there are more than 90% of the applications are from frist-timers, how could HDB allocate only 90% to first-timers?

that's not true, at any point of the queue, the ratio of the ethnic is maintained at a certain level, u don't have to question the fairness of their system, they have some team to audit their methodology...

sayang, sayang... poor guy.... dont give up, maybe u'll get Queenie's luck next time

congrats!! luck so good.... wish u can choose the flat u like...

ok, just share with u my own opinion, and this is the only opinion which i can comfort myself with. jurong east executive flats can be categorized into two categories, "1985/86" category and "1993 and later" category. The first category includes area around teban garden, blk 2xx, blk 3xx around st 32, the transacted prices are around 380 to 450; the second category mainly includes toh guan area, where the transactions are between 520 to 620. So this is very interesting to median then, when first category has more transactions than the second one, the median is somewhere around 450, when second category has more, the median is somewhere above 520. So the drop of median doesnt say much, the direct reason is that the number of transaction in the second category dropped. hope this is the true reason. btw, someone said the bigbox construction site has stopped, true or not ah?

read this from zaobao, 在价格下滑的地区和组屋类型中，以裕廊东公寓式跌幅最大，猛挫8万5000元或15.5%。 for those cannot read Chinese, it says the HDB resale price (median) has dropped in 08Q3, among all areas and all types, the most jialat one is jurong east executive flat, dropped by 85k or 15.5%. jialat leh... mine EA at jurong east ah....