Re: Outlook of Singapore Property Market
People in my line has this mantra. The longer the base, the harder the fall.
If we look at big brother the US, property prices has been on the rise for the last 14 years, with no real economic boom, some upside yes, but not boom. Debts to income ratio has been increase by 300%. This is a common sight, when property is booming. I buy a house worth 1 million. 2 days later, the same property hits 1.2 million, i go to the bank and take a loan for 200k more, and buy my 320 for basically free. Asset backing purchase. But has my ALM actually improve? No.
the second thign we need to note is, in US, I can buy a house, live it in for a year, and if i fail to pay my installment, the bank will repossess the house, give me a bad credit rating and evict me from the house. They cannot sue me for bankruptcy.
What i do after that is, to punt on another house, take up another loan and hope for appreciation. (the now infamous sub-prime). Now This has been a good scheme for the last 14 years, more so in the last 3 years. Which is good.
Now, housing number is bad, september came in jsut alright unexpectably. but august 35k house was remove. This is equal to me tell you, your basic pay I increase by $500, but your commission i permanently cut by $1000. Are you better off?
Consumer confidence are also coming off fast in the US.
And my last point. I cannot believe that while US and europe are not doing so well, China and the rest of Asia can be doing well. I might be wrong here. I have another analysis to support this view, which is OT.
But basically i am saying... if it matters at all... (my 2 cents worth) i don't think property prices will hold at this level for very long. historically, property cycle globally has a 5 year trend cycle. But this time round, in US it was 14 years. Applying my mantra, the longer the base, the harder the fall....