MEASURES TO ENSURE A STABLE AND SUSTAINABLE PROPERTY MARKET

From: http://www.mnd.gov.sg/newsroom/newsreleases/2010/news19022010.htm

In a nutshell, the govt plans to curb speculation through imposing the following,

1. Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD) on Residential Properties Sold within 1 Year
2. Lowering Loan-To-Value (LTV) Limit to 80% for Housing Loans

A few question marks come to my mind immediately.

I can understand that the govt is keen to nip the impending bubble in the bud, but why nothing for HDB? Prices for HDB has been going upwards steadily largely due to the fact that PRs are allowed to 'speculate' in them in a way that seems to me to be more detrimental to property prices as compared to that of the private housing market.

Secondly, the 2 new rules in itself doesn't seem to me that its going to have much of an impact in curbing speculation because

1. A quick search through the sub-sale caveats lodged since Oct09 showed that only about 10% of them are 'flipped' within one year of purchase. So this new ruling will at best only affect up to 10% of all sales?
2. Most financial institutes are already being prudent (due largely to the crisis) and not offering any 90% loan at all. Redundant?

Impact is going to be minimal at best, probably 'scaring' investors off for a few months, like the last time they took away the interest absorption scheme.

I seriously dunno why they even bother.

Another bond offering for Temasek

Frankly, I'm slightly disturbed. This is Temasek's 5th bond offering in as many months. Is Temasek really running out of money??

An other note, so far all the bonds have been rated triple A if I remember correctly, which is the highest grade possible. Given that even Warren Buffet's BH shares have been downgraded recently, I guess its safe to say that Temasek finances are still well and strong.

I wonder why Temasek not make the bonds available to the general public though. From what I know, they are only available to institutional investors. Given the relatively attractive yield of ~ close to 4%, they probably wouldn't have any problems raising the funds they need.

Maybe they get a better rate 'borrowing' from our CPF funds? Just a thought

Wakemate

I'm not exactly what you call an impulsive shopper. In fact, most often than not, I would shop around, read reviews, make comparisons before I made a final purchase. However, I kinda bucked the trend today. I'm not sure why I did it, but I just had to get this.

http://wakemate.com/

Basically this little thing here tracks your sleep to wake you at the optimal time and collects data that can tell you how to improve your sleep quality. I always had trouble sleeping well at night. On average, I sleep only 4-5 hours on weekdays. No matter how tired I am during the day, I can't fall asleep until around 2-3am every night, and I get up for work at about 7am, dead tired. Although this thing is not gng to help me sleep at night, if it makes me less tired, its well worth the money. Not to mention I'm a sucker for statistics and data. I track my spending habits, my investments, my income, my workouts and being able to track my sleep somehow feels perversely exciting. Not sure if it really works, since its a pre-launch and there's no reviews.

Can't wait to get my hands on it. :)

A minister apologises in Sinagapore, is hell freezing over?

From Today online

Khaw apologises
by Hoe Yeen Nie and Claire Huang 05:55 AM Dec 22, 2009
SINGAPORE - Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan has apologised for the over-crowding situation at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH).

In his blog yesterday, he said the hospital's Accident and Emergency department is always packed. Several times a week, TTSH even has to divert civil defence ambulances to other hospitals. "It is no fun waiting for a bed, in a crowded room or in a corridor; I am truly sorry," wrote the minister.

The crush at TTSH has, in turn, spread the over-crowding situation to hospitals like Changi General Hospital and Singapore General Hospital.

Many patients are from Woodlands and Yishun in the north, and Mr Khaw hopes the new Khoo Teck Puat Hospital will ease the load when it opens.

"We are all looking forward to this, especially the colleagues in TTSH and other hospitals. They have been wonderful in putting up with the extra workload, without complaints. I thank the patients too for their patience and understanding," he said.

On hindsight, the Ministry of Health (MOH) made a mistake by not building the new hospital two years earlier.

"I am determined not to repeat this mistake in the west," said the minister. Hence, planning for the Jurong General Hospital was "activated" last year, with the management team "working enthusiastically to build a hassle-free healthcare system ... ".

Major changes are also coming up, especially in the allied health professions, with legislation having to keep up with these. After dental hygienists and advanced practice nurses, optometrists and opticians, Mr Khaw is "now getting ready" to go to Parliament again to register physiotherapists, occupational therapists and other allied health professionals.

The MOH has also taken steps to beef up manpower as well as widen staff skill sets.

So far, more than 1,200 people are enrolled in nursing courses in polytechnics while the Bachelor of Nursing course at the National University of Singapore is expected to see some 200 students.

"The nursing profession has regained its popularity," said Mr Khaw.

To be fair, I think Khaw Boon Wan is a minister that does more than he speaks, and maybe one of the few that honestly comes close to deserving a hugely inflated paycheck. In him, I see at least some humility as a person and his willingness to admit to his mistake is refreshing to say the least.

WKS, maybe you can learn something from your fellow colleague.

Musings

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry when I see this article from Today

Finance sector 'expected to increase hiring' next year
05:55 AM Dec 17, 2009

SINGAPORE - Industry leaders say the finance sector is expected to increasing hiring next year.

Speaking at an industry forum yesterday, they said with the economy recovering, more companies are expected to list or issue bonds. This will lead to more banking services and increase demand for talent especially in capital markets.

The Financial Training Institute at Singapore Management University (SMU) said there have already been more enquiries from industry for training in areas such as capital markets.

SMU's Dean of the office of executive and professional education Annie Koh said: "We are definitely going to see demand for banking services, transactions, and consumer banking services, and wealth management services. You need to have the back-end and middle-market trained to prepare for that front-end movement."

Overall, industry growth in the region will also be driven by rising affluence in Asia.

To develop and retain talent, forum participants said banks are increasingly looking at moving people between departments to grow their skills.

These include transfers between various operations within the company such as back, front and middle office operations.

DBS Bank, Chief Executive Officer, Piyush Gupta said: "I find that companies where people are given the opportunity to have lateral mobility, create a lot of talent, and create people who are extremely well-rounded."

He also said: "In my previous company, you could move wherever you wanted to as long as you put your hand up and say 'I want to move', people encourage you to move. And frankly, in my current company, that is something that I hope to be able to institute."

The finance sector contributes 13 per cent of Singapore's GDP and hires 5 per cent of the work force. Ryan Huang

Mr Gupta was previously from Citibank if my memory serves me right. Maybe they do practice such a culture, which is really great IMO. No matter how great you are in your current job, there will come a time when you feel that you have achieved all that you can, and yearn to move on to a new challenge, to something that can simulate your mind further. Or maybe that's just me.

I enjoyed what I was doing back in the bank, but after 3 years, it just doesn't seem that challenging anymore. Everything is so repetitive, I literally took only half the time to do what most others took, and ended up doing twice the same work than most others. Not a very smart move as it made my boss totally unwilling to release me when I asked for a internal transfer. I was very comfortable with the bank, its structure etc and was hoping that I can remain there, but doing some other role. I was literally waving both hands and feet shouting "I want to move!" but nothing ever happened. Plus, given that my boss is unwilling to release me, and HR is unwilling to do the dirty work in re-allocating me, I finally left. I don't know... but it really left a bad taste in my mouth, being that I really see myself as providing value to the organisation, yet....

I'm not alone in this situation so it seems. I think its a pretty common preference among local banks to 'outsource' rather than 'insource' to fill vacancies. Which to me, doesn't really make sense and simply makes for a big round of musical chairs. Most of my seniors, including my manager at that time, had been through all 3 of the local banks and some more. My mentor had been with the same bank for 9 years and counting, yet he is always overlooked for promotion as he is also deemed 'irreplacable' to the manager, and someone from another bank will be headhunted come in to fill up the vacancy despite not have the experience and capability of my mentor.  Does loyalty still count for anything these days?

Start of a new dawn

Finally finished most of the training and will be starting my new job 1st dec 09.

Despite a lot of negativity surrounding this industry and the people within it as a whole, I've also seen alot of positive and hope that I will not let the negativity get to me, especially since I am a born pessimist :P

Rejections and negativity aside, I must say that I have been very impressed by a lot of talented individuals in the very short time I interacted with them. In my 3 years in the bank, I have rarely, if ever, been 'wow' by a single individual. Most of the people I met are really either salesperson, really service oriented persons, but majority are bureaucrats whose main objective is to minimize their work, wait for knock off time, and hope for yearly bonus.

Here, I see talented, driven, (and hopefully ethical) individuals that really 'wow' me. When I listen to them, they make so much sense. It does not feel like bullshit. That's something new to me.

I guess other than money, the other motivating factor for me is knowledge. I felt that I had learnt a lot, especially from A.N. To put in KS words, he is truly a cut above. I concur, and truly respect that fact.

I hope I can one day achieve that.

A $10 million goodwill gesture by UOB? I don't think so!

From the Today paper yesterday

A $10 million goodwill gesture by UOB?
05:55 AM Oct 21, 2009
by Conrad Raj

SINGAPORE - As a gesture of goodwill to more than 4,000 customers, United Overseas Bank (UOB) has made a one-time offer to redeem the units of two funds it sold in 2005 - PruYield 15 and PruYield 20 - owned and managed by Prudential Asset Management (Singapore). The offer guarantees that customers, who had invested about $150 million in the two funds, get back their initial offer price less the annual payouts received to date.

The bank has written to customers, who bought the funds, offering 88 cents per unit for the PruYield 15 fund and US$0.82 per unit for the PruYield 20 Fund. If, however, the prevailing net asset value of the funds is higher on the applicable dealing day, the customer will get the higher price.

Explaining the move, UOB's executive vice president & head of personal financial services, Mr Eddie Khoo, said: "The performance of the funds has been impacted by the global financial crisis and some of our customers have expressed concerns about the impact of market volatility and economic uncertainty on their investments. Whilst we cannot do anything about market volatility and economic uncertainty, we can help to allay our customers' concerns by going the extra mile and giving them an element of certainty."

It is understood that UOB will not hold on to the funds, but sell them immediately, so it will not make any money on this exercise. In fact, UOB could be out of pocket by as much as $10 million based on prevailing net asset values and the number of customers likely to take up the offer.

The offer, which ends on November 6, is open to those who bought either fund directly from UOB and was holding on to the funds as at Oct 16.

As at Oct 16, the price of PruYield 15, comprising more than 95 per cent of the two funds sold, was 81.5 cents while PruYield 20 was US$0.842. With the interest paid so far, most investors would be able to recoup their original investment from the UOB offer. However, if PruYield 15 customers hold on to their funds till maturity in June next year, they could recoup their original $1 per unit plus 15 cents in total payouts.

Others who sold these two funds include HSBC, Maybank, Hong Leong Finance and Prudential itself. Most have yet to say if they would follow suit,

Said Maybank: "The investment has a current market value at the moment and the investment is due to mature in about eight months time. Customers may wish to decide to hold till maturity or redeem at any point in time. We will leave the options open for our customers."

A spokesman of HSBC, one of the biggest sellers of the PruYield funds, said, "We have been monitoring the situation very closely and keeping customers informed with regular updates on the funds' performance in particular the NAV which have been steadily improving. We will continue to do so including consideration of the appropriateness of a redemption offer which we will advise to customers in due course."

URL http://www.todayonline.com/Business/EDC091021-0000075/A-$10-million-goodwill-gesture-by-UOB
Copyright 2009 MediaCorp Pte Ltd | All Rights Reserved

I would like to know, why are these 2 funds chosen? From the article, I quote UOB's executive vice president & head of personal financial services, Mr Eddie Khoo,

"The performance of the funds has been impacted by the global financial crisis and some of our customers have expressed concerns about the impact of market volatility and economic uncertainty on their investments. Whilst we cannot do anything about market volatility and economic uncertainty, we can help to allay our customers' concerns by going the extra mile and giving them an element of certainty."

Sounds nice and all, but it still doesn't explain why these 2 funds are chosen.

Is Prudential in any financial trouble, in risk of foreclosure? I doubt so.

Are the funds performing any worse than the other funds under UOB asset management? I don't think so.

Are the funds exposing the customers to excessive risks? Not at all.

I can easily pick many others whereby customer's are making a bigger loss than these two funds, many which may be unsuitably recommended for a certain customer's risk profile. (China/India, BRIC, Resources fund just to name a few)

The 2 funds chosen are both capital protected funds, with PruYield15 maturing NEXT YEAR with a protected price of $1 whereby UOB is only offering $0.88 (which btw is only $0.07 more than the offer price as at 16 Oct). Honestly, unless I'm in urgent need of money right now, why do I not want to hold on my money for another 8 months and get another 12% more return ($1 in Jun2010 vs - $0.88 from UOB = $0.12 = 12%)? Where else can I park my money if I redeem the fund which can offer me a guranteed 12% return??

For the PruYield20 Fund, price as of 16 Oct is US$0.842, yet UOB is offering US$0.82 and thats suppose to attract me why? If I sell the fund off in the open market, I can potentially still make a profit!

I'm not sure how I can put this across in a nice way, but I think this is bullshit. UOB is not showing sincerity that they are really offering any goodwill at all. Though they might have set aside $10 milion to provide for this provision, I would be interested to know what proportion of this money will be spent at all at the end of the offer, given that any rational investors would probably think like I do and not take up this ridiculous offer.

Is this a cheap publicity stunt by UOB now that they have become the smallest local bank and trying to retain/buy customer's confidence?

I'm not convinced, not by a long shot.