Our Humble Haven

[Melissa Ng 1]

just like to share an article here on my blog:

http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_218951.html

"March 21, 2008

Home makeovers hard hit by price hikes

Spike in building material prices, labour crunch pushing renovation costs up by 20% this year

By Jessica Cheam

ESCALATING PRICES: The cost of reinforcing steel bars has increased by about 60 per cent in the span of one year, while cement prices have gone up by 30 per cent.

PLANNING to renovate your home? If so, be prepared to pay 20 per cent more.

Construction costs - for both big projects and home renovations - have risen due to a rise in raw material prices and labour costs. And they are expected to increase even more this year.

Industry experts say overall construction costs are expected to rise by another 15 to 20 per cent this year - following a 40 per cent spike in the last two years.

A global spike in raw material prices, and a construction resources and manpower crunch here, are to blame for the relentless rise, say market players.

In particular, prices of reinforcing steel bars - used extensively in construction - have soared 64 per cent from $753 per tonne in January last year to $1,235 this January, according to data from the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).

Rising global demand for steel, fuelled by a building boom in developing countries such as China, India and Vietnam, is pushing prices up sharply.

The price of cement rose 30 per cent to $117 per tonne in the same period.

Consumers' pockets are hard hit by the price hikes. Contractors say home owners now have to fork out up to 20 per cent more for renovation works.

Renovating a 110 sq m five-room HDB flat, for example - which would have cost $80,000 at most at the start of last year - would now mean forking out $100,000, said contractor Steven Koh, 51, of Colorado Design.

But there is good news: the extra cost of building a new home is unlikely to be passed on to flat buyers.

Real Estate Developers Association of Singapore executive director Chia Hock Jin said developers cannot simply pass on the costs: 'It's the market that determines the prices.'

Given the recent cooling of the property market, price hikes for homes are also unlikely.

Local developer Frasers Centrepoint Homes said it has partly absorbed the rising costs and has also tried to mitigate them by adopting more efficient ways of building and securing raw material in bulk.

Construction costs typically make up 20 to 25 per cent of the total cost of a development, with the bulk coming from land cost, said Mr Seah Choo Meng, executive chairman of quantity surveying firm Davis Langdon & Seah Singapore.

Meanwhile, main contractors are starting to feel the pinch, with price rises eating into their profit margins. Wacon Construction & Trading, hired for a $5million spruce-up of MacRitchie Reservoir, was recently reported to have gone bust due to the hikes in raw material prices.

Mr Simon Lee, executive director of the Singapore Contractors Association Limited, said contractors had only a small margin in factoring such rises into building tenders.

One source of relief is the stabilising prices of sand, granite and concrete. BCA's latest data show prices of these materials are easing, after an artificial spike following Indonesia's abrupt ban of land sand exports last February. Still, compared to January last year, these prices have escalated and, in some cases such as sand, even doubled.

Mr Lee said there was concern that developers were slow in paying contractors, especially those affected by the sand ban, which might exacerbate contractors' cash-flow problems.

Mr Seah said he does not expect the construction crunch to abate, predicting that constructing demand will go up to $27 billion this year."

[BunBun 5]

As the article indicates, renovations is never cheap due to the increases here and there.

Still, your reno process is going smoothly, the guys are quite fast le. How soon is your handover date btw?

[Melissa Ng 1]

As the article indicates, renovations is never cheap due to the increases here and there.

Still, your reno process is going smoothly, the guys are quite fast le. How soon is your handover date btw?

Yeah, with the inflation now i'm just doing reno that are necessary..the rest will depend on my creativity to stretch the dollars

Meanwhile my handover date is supposed to be ard june ..i admit they are pretty fast..maybe it's the nice lunch that i treated them ? hahaha ...kidding Whenever i visit them i try to be as friendly as possible, even though i don't talk much to them cos dun wanna 'kacau' them

Even so, i'm ready for any possibilities, cos no reno is 100% smooth rite

Edited May 19, 2008 by mel

[h4happy 1]

Hi MEL....wish your reno a smooth finishing.

you are right....not 100% smooth but try to accomondate and try not to be too fussy and everything will goes well!!!

Yeah, with the inflation now i'm just doing reno that are necessary..the rest will depend on my creativity to stretch the dollars

Meanwhile my handover date is supposed to be ard june ..i admit they are pretty fast..maybe it's the nice lunch that i treated them ? hahaha ...kidding Whenever i visit them i try to be as friendly as possible, even though i don't talk much to them cos dun wanna 'kacau' them

Even so, i'm ready for any possibilities, cos no reno is 100% smooth rite

[Melissa Ng 1]

Hi MEL....wish your reno a smooth finishing.

you are right....not 100% smooth but try to accomondate and try not to be too fussy and everything will goes well!!!

Thanks h4happy Will take that good advice to heart

[BunBun 5]

Kekeke ya no reno is always smooth sailing unless both parties make it a good start towards a progressing reno.

That said, the guys will be more appreciative and given their love of craft, they won't do sloppy one. After all we're all humans with some room for error to learn by and by

[Melissa Ng 1]

DAY 17 of Reno - Hall & store floor tiles (except for skirting ) done, kitchen floor done

WOW , we are very pleased with ho bee's tiling

When i first look into my hse today, i was pleasantly surprise The floor tile for hall & store are already done...and my hubby & i was sooooooo happy...the house look so different now, like the space has really open up Although there were only two workers there (they have been there since first tiling), they seem to work very fast & good

Hall Floor (view from entrance)

Hall floor (view from kitchen)

Kitchen Wall tile btw cabinet ...seamless

Kitchen wall tiles

Future dining area

Edited May 22, 2008 by mel

[BunBun 5]

That why I say Patrick's workers are fast when it comes to tiling. I also was as surprised at the speed in just 1 & 1/4 days for the tiling to be done for balcony and kitchen flooring + main door kerb at my place. Really neat the tiling works too.

Edited May 22, 2008 by BunBun

[Cherry 0]

Hi Mel,

Congrats, seems like you're gg to have your new house soon. I realise that your kitchen wall tiles between cabinets are the tiles i choose for my mbr toilets! ..haha

[Melissa Ng 1]

Hi Mel,

Congrats, seems like you're gg to have your new house soon. I realise that your kitchen wall tiles between cabinets are the tiles i choose for my mbr toilets! ..haha

Thanks Cherry, ur right, my reno is gonna complete soon .. I’m sorry that I haven’t update this blog for so long, been very busy lately . We are getting ready to move by this month end, so lots of packing & cleaning (I didn’t realize I hv so many redundant stuffs hidden till now ). Also I couldn’t upload any pictures during office hrs due to my company block such websites Anyway I’ll try to upload some pics this week , incl some of my new furnitures

[CutePinkElephant 0]

wuahhhh beri nice house lerrr very BIG, like your kitchen wall so much

for tiles work how many days ar?

[virgo2829 0]

Fast tiling works!

very nice wall tiles for the kitchen cabinet...hope it will turn out nicer when the cabinets are up!

looking forward!

[Jessie 0]

wow...i love the kitchen wall tiles!

[Melissa Ng 1]

wuahhhh beri nice house lerrr very BIG, like your kitchen wall so much

for tiles work how many days ar?

Thanks CPE, actually it's small leh...i prefer a bigger house like the EA type ..but since my hubby does most of the cleaning so he prefer smaller hse Anyways the hacking took abt 1 day, and the tiling took abt 2 weeks for my kitchen, hall & toilet. The tilers are very hardworking

[CutePinkElephant 0]

Thanks CPE, actually it's small leh...i prefer a bigger house like the EA type ..but since my hubby does most of the cleaning so he prefer smaller hse Anyways the hacking took abt 1 day, and the tiling took abt 2 weeks for my kitchen, hall & toilet. The tilers are very hardworking

ohh...dear....how i wish my hubby will like yours, so i can shaking leg all day