Singapore House Prices

Recently a colleague in the office mentioned she and her husband were looking to buy an apartment. I thought I'd see if I could help them out as if there's one thing I love its renovation planning. I seriously think I missed my vocation on that one. Anyway I started my search and lets face it its been a long time since I looked at property. I was totally shocked!. What the hell has happened to house prices in Singapore!.



Suddenly 3 bedroom condo's even way outside of the CBD area are priced over $1 million to $1.6 million. How the hell is anyone suppose to afford their our property at those ridiculous prices! And why are they so high? I mean seriously it's on the verge of ridiculous!

All the so called cooling measures simply have not worked because the people who are buying up apartments have the money and don't mind spending it. House prices are so damn high now that the average Singaporean cannot afford it. And yes I know the government is doing it's best to ensure that everyone has their own home. From HDB to Executive Condo's and with the whole approach to CPF usage. But the price of condos in general in Singapore is just crazy and Singapore citizens are being literarily priced out of the market.

I seriously think that the government needs to start to rethink its strategy because the bubble will burst at some point and when it does there's going to be hell to pay, and a lot of people hurt financially in the fall out. It is inevitable and anyone who thinks otherwise is not living in the real world. And when it happens the majority will no doubt just cut their loses and run (after all they can afford to) and it will be the Singapore citizens who are left holding the can at the end of the day.

So here's my solution and it's pretty simple and straight forward. If you are not a Singaporean Citizen then you should have pay an additional 25% investment tax. Many countries already have an investment tax in place and its there for exactly this reason, to prevent external influences from driving up prices. It would be an instant way to cool down the market.

But I'm not sure now if its' already too late. I think any hard measure the government adopts at this stage could very well be the cause of the market taking a nose dive. But I also think that that needs to happen and its better if it happens sooner (and in a controlled manner) rather than later (in some sort of panic reaction).

Just how high can house prices go before it's too late. Or maybe its too late already. I have to admit that the price of property in Singapore is starting to scare me because that bubble is getting awfully big and is really not sustainable in the long term.

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