Issue 378

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 CONTENTS FROM THE

p2 Your 2019 Resolution – Practice Financial

EDITOR
Welcome to the 378th edition of the
Singapore Property Weekly.
Discipline
Hope you like it!
p8 Resale Property Transactions
Mr. Propwise
(December 28 – January 8)

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 SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 378

Your 2019 Resolution – Practice Financial Discipline

By Property Soul (guest contributor)

Do you have a new year resolution for 2019?

A common goal for many is to lose weight
and stay fit.

Today has an article on the Ministry of

Health’s vision to help us “live long, live well
and with peace of mind”. To lower obesity and
the diabetes rates, the government will
introduce a sugar tax.

It is fine. Fresh and healthy drinks don’t need

sugar to sweeten the taste. Just like
reasonably-priced properties don’t need
gimmicks to sweeten the deal.

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 SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 378
The government will also raise the legal
smoking age every year up to twenty-one by
2021. You can only have your first puff after
you reach twenty-one? That’s exactly the age
I graduated from college and had my first job.
For my generation, I remember eighteen is
the age we were considered adults. Once we
reach eighteen, we are expected to be
mature enough to exercise our personal
judgement and make our own decisions.
Are we regressing or what?
Exercise is about discipline
On the first day of the new year, the park
connector where I go for my morning jogs
was jam-packed.
Everybody was eager to shed off those extra
pounds gained from the year-end
celebrations. From a distance, the areas
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along the canal looked like there was a
running event.
The next day only a quarter came back for
their morning exercise before work. On the
third day, most of the original crowd
disappeared. According to past experience,
everything will be back to normal by the fourth
day.
I have been staying in the same estate for
over eleven years. Over the years, I have
seen familiar faces who run regularly. Most
would run for some time, then disappear.
But there are two retired uncles who run
every morning – the only two for the last
eleven years or so. We will say hi when we
jog past each other in the morning. They may
have grey hair. But the shape of their body is
comparable to the young chaps.
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 SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 378
Jogging has become my morning routine,
except when I am overseas, sick, injured or
pregnant. I went back to running six weeks
after I gave birth.
The good thing is I never need to go on a diet
to lose weight. The bad thing is I am still
wearing the same clothes I wore twenty years
ago.
Financial discipline is living within your
means
If your wish in 2019 is to get rich, to be lucky
at the casino tables, to win the lottery, or to
profit from a short-term investment, instead of
saying “Huat Ah” every day, you might want to
read what MJ DeMarco wrote in his book The
Millionaire Fastlane:
“More money is not a solution to poor
financial management. Poor money
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management is like gambling at a casino,
because, over time, the house always wins.
Tossing more money at the deficiency is like
trying to plug a hole in a dam with more
water. More money doesn’t buy financial
discipline.”
The two keywords here are “financial
discipline”.
My 3-3-5 rule on housing affordability is all
about financial discipline.
Till today there are still people who ask me
whether the three rules are too restrictive and
conservative, whether this is still relevant in
today’s property market.
I think these people would be very happy if I
wrote the next blog post to introduce a new
“1-2-10 rule”: Buy when you have 10 percent
of the property’s price.
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 SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 378

Buy when your monthly mortgage does not Because of financial discipline, I didn’t buy my
exceed half of your salary. Buy when the own home until I bought all my rental
property does not exceed ten times of your properties.
annual income.
Because of financial discipline, I won’t buy
Humans tend to forget unfortunate events. any investment property lower than my target
That’s why we can’t learn from our mistakes. return.
We are talking about lessons from mistakes
Because of financial discipline, I never buy
we made that caused the Asian Financial
any property at market price.
Crisis, the dotcom crash and the sub-prime
crisis. As Warren Buffet taught us, you must have
the discipline to know what you can’t do and
“We behave as if the Black Swan does not
stay away from it. You will do fine with your
exist. Human nature is not programmed for
investments if you have the right
Black Swans. We have far too many ways to
temperament and patience.
interpret past events to our own goal.”
If you dare to be a contrarian and invest
– Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan
against the property cycle, ask yourself
‎ ecause of financial discipline, I won’t buy
B whether you have the patience to wait.
that home if I don’t have more savings than
its asking price.

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 SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 378
Have patience. Don’t be desperate. Because
desperate buyers almost always end up
buying the wrong thing.
“Unless you are a property trader, buying
properties is a waiting game. Patience and
perseverance are the prerequisites to win the
game. It is researching, waiting, waiting again
and buying — a four-step process that you
are repeating over and over again.”
– Property Soul, No B.S. Guide to Property
Investment
“I have learned that when you’ve done your
homework, once you recognize that supply
and demand is totally out of whack, and you
make your move, you are definitely going to
get very lucky.”
– Jim Rogers, Hot Commodities
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Financial discipline is to do what you have
to do
Saying it is easy. Doing it is another thing.
There are too many people in this world who
are most creative when they have to find
excuses to not do things:
You can buy a condo unit at a young age
because you have well-to-do parents.
You can make money from property
investment because you are lucky.
You can find investment properties with high
return because you bought many years ago.
You can afford to retire early because you
have a high paying job and a rich spouse.
Although none of the above is true, they still
choose to believe in these explanations.
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 SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 378

To cope with their guilt of doing and achieving failure.

nothing, they feel much better by justifying
“People who look for the reasons for failure
other people’s successes with false
deter self-development. People who look for
interpretations. Then they can sit back and
the reasons for success can change the
relax with no urge to do anything.
future.”
Japanese author Yamashita Hideko (山下英子
It is true that our muscles will weaken as we
) had a vivid description of people who have
age, especially when they are not used. What
the habit to find excuses not to do the right
we don’t know is that the muscles of our will
thing in her book Dan-sha-ri (断舍离) or “To
and determination will also be weakened over
Break Away”:
the years if we don’t train them.
“Some people have this habit to say ‘I have
Whether you choose to find reasons for
passed the age to …’, ‘You know I am already
success or failure, to do nothing or to do the
xxx-years-old’, ‘I can’t do this with my age
right thing, it is entirely your choice.
now’ or ‘I am too late to …’ as an excuse not
to try anything new. Happy investing in 2019!

Hiding behind the perfect excuse of getting
older, they are justified to be lazy, forgetful,
ignorant, careless and unreasonable.”
Hideko called these excuses the reasons for
By guest contributor Property Soul, a
successful property investor, blogger, and
author of the No B.S. Guide to Property
Investment.

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 SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 378

Non-Landed Residential Resale Property Transactions for the Week of Dec 28 – Jan 8

Postal Area Transacted Price Postal Area Transacted Price

Project Name Tenure Project Name Tenure
District (sqft) Price ($) ($ psf) District (sqft) Price ($) ($ psf)
1 RIVERWALK APARTMENTS 1,615 2,100,000 1,301 99 10 BALMORAL RESIDENCES 2,379 4,000,000 1,681 FH
2 ICON 1,249 2,100,000 1,682 99 10 QUINTERRA 1,787 2,530,000 1,416 99
3 THE CREST 904 1,857,000 2,054 99 10 DYNASTY GARDEN 1,152 1,513,000 1,314 FH
3 CENTRAL GREEN CONDOMINIUM 947 1,280,000 1,351 99 10 THE TESSARINA 2,228 2,615,000 1,174 FH
3 QUEENS 2,390 2,300,000 963 99 10 THE MARBELLA 2,949 3,300,000 1,119 FH
4 THE INTERLACE 1,873 2,385,000 1,273 99 11 ROCHELLE AT NEWTON 1,744 2,750,000 1,577 99
5 PARC IMPERIAL 441 668,000 1,514 FH 11 NOVELIS 840 1,300,000 1,548 FH
5 HERITAGE VIEW 1,195 1,405,000 1,176 99 12 THE VIRIDIAN 527 830,000 1,574 FH
5 THE INFINITI 1,249 1,380,000 1,105 FH 12 EIGHT RIVERSUITES 807 1,138,000 1,410 99
5 BLUE HORIZON 1,152 1,230,000 1,068 99 12 RIVERBAY 786 1,060,000 1,349 999
5 WESTCOVE CONDOMINIUM 1,227 1,020,000 831 99 12 TREVISTA 1,281 1,700,000 1,327 99
7 SOUTH BEACH RESIDENCES 2,616 8,850,380 3,384 99 12 NOVA 88 1,238 1,638,000 1,323 FH
7 SOUTH BEACH RESIDENCES 1,916 6,415,200 3,348 99 12 RIVERBAY 926 1,210,000 1,307 999
7 SOUTH BEACH RESIDENCES 2,099 6,787,440 3,234 99 13 NIN RESIDENCE 474 729,000 1,539 99
7 SOUTH BEACH RESIDENCES 2,099 6,755,760 3,219 99 13 NIN RESIDENCE 1,238 1,600,000 1,293 99
9 NEW FUTURA 1,830 6,750,400 3,689 FH 15 EIS RESIDENCES 388 555,000 1,432 FH
9 THE PEAK @ CAIRNHILL II 904 2,320,000 2,566 FH 15 FLAMINGO VALLEY 818 1,110,000 1,357 FH
9 CENTREPOINT 743 1,900,000 2,558 99 15 HAIG TEN 1,098 1,138,000 1,036 FH
9 8 RODYK 1,227 2,400,000 1,956 FH 15 VILLA MARINA 1,249 1,288,000 1,032 99
9 MIRAGE TOWER 1,496 2,680,000 1,791 FH 16 COSTA DEL SOL 1,561 2,000,000 1,281 99
9 CASA CAIRNHILL 1,636 2,700,000 1,650 FH 16 CASA MERAH 947 1,180,000 1,246 99
9 EMILY RESIDENCE 947 1,130,000 1,193 FH 16 WATERFRONT GOLD 1,475 1,730,000 1,173 99
10 GRAMERCY PARK 2,594 7,800,000 3,007 FH 16 CHANGI GREEN 1,335 1,538,102 1,152 FH
10 VALLEY PARK 1,701 3,215,000 1,890 999 16 BAYSHORE PARK 936 1,050,000 1,121 99

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 SINGAPORE PROPERTY WEEKLY Issue 378

Postal Area Transacted Price Postal Area Transacted Price

Project Name Tenure Project Name Tenure
District (sqft) Price ($) ($ psf) District (sqft) Price ($) ($ psf)
16 ARCHIPELAGO 1,539 1,620,000 1,052 99 21 THE NEXUS 947 1,650,000 1,742 FH
16 STRATFORD COURT 2,110 1,653,000 784 99 21 GARDENVISTA 850 1,150,000 1,352 99
16 SUNHAVEN 1,894 1,300,000 686 FH 21 GARDENVISTA 1,345 1,770,000 1,315 99
17 HEDGES PARK CONDOMINIUM 484 545,000 1,125 99 21 THE HILLSIDE 1,313 1,638,000 1,247 FH
17 DAHLIA PARK CONDOMINIUM 1,292 1,080,000 836 FH 21 BUKIT REGENCY 1,249 1,548,000 1,240 FH
18 D'NEST 1,432 1,560,000 1,090 99 21 BUKIT REGENCY 1,055 1,190,000 1,128 FH
18 THE PALETTE 753 800,000 1,062 99 23 HILLION RESIDENCES 463 760,000 1,642 99
18 LIVIA 915 817,000 893 99 23 MI CASA 1,292 1,150,000 890 99
18 LIVIA 1,744 1,280,000 734 99 25 PARC ROSEWOOD 603 660,000 1,095 99
19 THE SCALA 474 795,000 1,679 99 26 BULLION PARK 807 860,000 1,065 FH
19 JEWEL @ BUANGKOK 463 670,000 1,448 99 26 CASTLE GREEN 1,152 1,000,000 868 99
19 BLISS@KOVAN 1,249 1,800,000 1,442 FH 27 EIGHT COURTYARDS 1,087 980,000 901 99
19 KOVAN REGENCY 980 1,380,000 1,409 99 28 H2O RESIDENCES 1,195 1,318,888 1,104 99
19 THE QUINN 1,141 1,600,000 1,402 FH 28 SELETAR PARK RESIDENCE 1,442 1,300,000 901 99
19 JEWEL @ BUANGKOK 484 657,000 1,356 99
19 SUNGLADE 1,238 1,450,000 1,171 99
NOTE: This data only covers non-landed residential resale property
19 TERRASSE 807 940,000 1,164 99
transactions with caveats lodged with the Singapore Land Authority.
19 THE SCALA 1,798 2,088,888 1,162 99
Typically, caveats are lodged at least 2-3 weeks after a purchaser
19 BOATHOUSE RESIDENCES 893 968,000 1,083 99 signs an OTP, hence the lagged nature of the data.
19 BOATHOUSE RESIDENCES 624 662,000 1,060 99
19 THE MINTON 990 1,030,000 1,040 99
19 RIVER ISLES 1,206 1,208,000 1,002 99
19 RIVER ISLES 947 880,000 929 99
19 COMPASS HEIGHTS 1,324 1,170,800 884 99
20 CLOVER BY THE PARK 1,765 2,180,000 1,235 99
21 THE STERLING 1,001 1,745,000 1,743 FH

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