SG Property Cycle

I took a quick look at the Singstat which provides the Private Property Price Index over a 10 years period from 2003 to 2013. We could easily identify that the property was in the recovery phase from 2003-2006, boom phase from 2006-2007, with a slight slump in 2007-2008 and stabilised in 2008-2009. The market then began its next cycle of recovery from 2009. It was obvious that the industrial property was experiencing a rapid growth, unlike that of the residential which plateaued due to the government intervention.

There are several cooling measures that slowed down the property boom. This website has listed most of it. I have classified it into a few key areas which the government has been tweaking the system.

1. Additional Buyer Stamp Duty (ABSD) - increase hurdle for ROI
2. Seller's Stamp Duty (SSD) - reduce subsales
3. Loan to Value (LTV) limits - harder to borrow
4. Minimum Cash Down Payment - harder to buy
5. Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) - ensure financial prudence
6. Mortgage Servicing Ratio (MSR) - ensure financial prudence
7. PR / Foreigner restriction - restrict foreign investments
8. Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) rule - reduce multiple purchases

I think government intervention will have delayed repercussions from 2017 when the supply drops drastically.

RES class with my hunny

Today is the first day Sungsoo and I are taking classes together. There is only one training school in the west - Pioneer Training in Jurong East. I'm glad that it is just 5 minutes from home. After investing in Lakeville, we become more interested in the Singapore property market. Well, in some sense, we should learn more before we invest, but then again we learn faster and be a better advisor when we have first gone through the process of purchasing. I am looking forward to more lessons ahead :)

HDB BTO (Clementi Crest)

Clementi Crest HDB is really expensive. A 5 room flat (113sqm) is costing about $576K (2nd storey) to $725K (40th storey). Despite only 156 units of 5 room flat available, it was 10 times oversubscribed. My husband and I managed to get a queue number 198 but I doubt we are going to get a high floor unit which we always wanted.

My husband is finally a PR

My husband finally has gotten his PR. We applied in April 2014 after our ROM. And in Feb 2015, we finally gotten news. It took us about 10 months. Generally speaking, it is very fast already. There may be a couple of reasons that lead to that...

1) He is a Korean

2) He studied in Singapore before

3) We appealed through MP

4) I had a stable job to be a sponsor. 

5) He is a guy who has done NS

It was great that he has gotten his PR as he wasn't able to change his job despite hating it due to its really harsh long working hours. The Employment Pass (EP) he was holding on to was tied to the company and if he quit, he may have to leave Singapore if he couldn't find a job in time. 

Now that he has gotten his PR, he has quit his job and serving his 2 months notice period. We planned to go for a 1 month tour before starting my new job.

Thoughts on Turning Thirty

30 is an age that I have dread before turning 30. Yet when I turn 30,  I kinda welcome the next decade. It has been 2 weeks since I turned 30, it does not feel as daunting.While some of my friends threw a big party, I choose to keep it low key and spend it with just close friends and family. The journey through the past decade has its ups and downs, but as I begin the next chapter of my life, I believe it is the experiences and what we do each day that makes it meaningful than the outcome.

There are a few decisions I made in the last 10 years that mold the way I am today. Some of which I wouldn't say were the best decisions, but certainly the process or experience after making the decision provided me with some learnings.

Decision 1: At age of 20 - I went to Silicon Valley for the NUS Overseas College Program (NOC) 

It was certainly one of the best decisions I have made. The one year stint in California, USA was an eye opener. Besides making many new NUS and Stanford friends, learning to live independently, studying hard, working hard, playing hard, driving from California to New York, Sky-diving, coping with stress and acne, etc. While I enjoyed a lot, I have a deep regret: Not taking good care of my skin. I used to have very good skin but acne started to sprout and it has never since stopped. I have a separate post on how my skin condition spiraled downwards on another blog Secondchance delegated to skin-related postings. 

Decision 2: At age of 22 - I went for student exchange to Munich, Germany

It wasn't easy convincing NUS SEP coordinator to allow me to go for another student overseas program as he wanted to give other students a chance. I had to explain and justify my way. Thank goodness that Prof Chin Wee Shong was willing to collaborate with TUM and allow me to take half a year of my thesis in Germany and another half a year with her. I am also grateful that the Vice Dean of the Faculty was very supportive after I spoke to him. Although it was a short 6 months, I had the chance to travel around Europe. The challenge was to take classes in a different language. I recalled using Google Translate a lot when I studied for my Chemistry modules. Thank goodness the lecturers were kind enough to allow me to write my answers in English during the exams. 

Decision 3: At age of 23 – I applied to join Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd

It is hard to say if it was a good decision but it must have some pulling factor that made me stay here for almost 7 years. Some of my NOC friends started their own companies right after school and some of them whom have sold their companies and became multi-millionaire. There are other friends who joined multi-national companies and have gone overseas as expats. Each one of us took different paths and became who we are today. There were many lessons learnt. R&D in Singapore has just started to begun two decades ago. Not just the tech-transfer office, but also the research organization is constantly evolving. Management changes, company reorganizes, strategy direction pivots, takes on new bets, etc. One thing for sure, commercialization of technology is not easy.

Decision 4: At age of - Taking part-time MBA at National University of Singapore

The only reason which I find useful from taking MBA is meeting new friends. Lectures were generally very academic style. If I were to compare with my marketing classes I took in Stanford University during my NOC programme, the style is very much different. I like the way US schools teach. There were never right or wrong answer. The professors in Stanford would provide leading questions for the students to debate on but no one would be able to determine what was the best business decision at the point of time. What I liked about classes in Stanford was also how “real” it is, because representatives of companies will company and talk to us. I recalled when I was doing a case on Harvey Davidson, some representative from the company actually drove the motorcycle into the classroom. And when we were doing a case on Yellow Tail, we were asked to appreciate the wine during class. Debating in class with a wine glass was 1^st ever in my academic experience. If I were to choose again, I will not spend ~$57,000 ($52,000 + GST) on an MBA in Singapore. I will save the money and consider doing it in the USA.

Decision 5: At age of - Taking part-time Specialist Diploma for Cosmetic Science at Singapore Polytechnic

As part of my work in developing commercialisation strategy in Personal Care, I decided to take a short specialist course on Cosmetic Science, which is funded by my company. I met new friends from various companies, such as Unilever, Croda, Givaudan, Takasago, etc. Most of them were around my age. I enjoy the laboratory module where I get to make my own soap, shampoo, lotion and fragrances, and classes which were taught by industry speakers. However, I dislike classes that were taught by some SP lecturers. Some of them do not have sufficient industry knowledge and I could tell they were “smoking” us. Bluntly put, I am not there to learn what I can learn from Wikipedia which they sometimes “cut and paste” in their notes.

Decision 6: At age of – Saying “I Do” to Mr Sungsoo Ro

The most spontaneous decision I have made was to say “I Do” to Mr Sungsoo Ro on my 29^th birthday in 2013. Then, I was in Korea. Initially, we were still planning for our wedding to be on 17^th Jan 2015 (the earliest preferred and available date Fullerton Hotel could accommodate us). But somehow things between us started to move really fast and we had our ROM on 9^th Mar 2014. Then our Korean wedding happened shortly after on 22^nd Jun 2014. The date of our Korean wedding was firmed up very last minute as my father-in-law trying to get a slot at the beautiful Wedding Hall in Hotel ICC, Daejeon. 

It is a very popular place and usually couples have to book a few months before. But my father-in-law pulled strings and we got a slot on a very good date (22^nd Jun). Well, my family was very flexible and cooperative. We took leave and bought our tickets to Korea just a few weeks before flying off. I didn’t even have time to lose weight for the wedding. J I will allocate a separate blog post to talk about my Korea Wedding. Condensing the events that happened then into this blog post doesn't serve justice to the whole experience. J

Besides sharing the 6 big decisions I made, below are 6 mistakes I made which I will highly recommend others not to make in their 20s:

1. Not taking good care of the skin and body
2. Studying in school non-stop when you don’t have a clue what you are doing
3. Failing to try and build dreams.
4. Sticking with jobs that doesn’t teach you anything
5. Not mixing frequently with friends that build dreams.
6. Not using free time to test out various side hustles, hobbies, passions, etc