Monday, January 25, 2010

What SGD490,000 Buys You Elsewhere

I've been house hunting recently and I must say, I have endured great deal of heartache over the whole situation. Feeling rather dejected having missed a chance of owning a slice of Pinnacle at Duxton, I must say that I felt rather pleased with myself when I found a nice little high rise nook in the geographical centre of Singapore.

Looks awesome. Right until you realise there are places more awesome for far less.
Price tag: SGD600,000.
It didn't take long for my joy to fade. Globally, property prices have sunk, in part due to the greatest recession since the great depression and in part due to shrinking lines of credit. This property price paralysis is happening everywhere else in the world.

Except Singapore.

For SGD490,000 (a whole SGD110,000 less), you can buy any one of these ditties in fairly good estates in the United States.

Downtown LOFT in Memphis

This apartment is one of 122 in the South Bluff Lofts, a 1909 building originally used as a distribution center for a wholesale supply company. Suddenly my place wasn't looking so hot.
Undaunted and fuelled by massive cognitive dissonance, I decided to look deeper, perhaps I might find myself justified paying over half a million for a Design and Build government apartment. I didn't.

Because somewhere out there, was an apartment that had shared a common pool, sauna and gym. For slightly under SGD450,000.

Then again, perhaps the extra $100,000 goes towards paying my dues of living in one of the safest cities on the planet and maybe, there's just no price-tag on a safe living environment for you and yours.

"HDB flats remain affordable" - Mah Bow Tan

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