Most difficult languages to learn

What do you think is the most difficult languages to learn? See if you guess right.

             

Happiness Index

Here's some really interesting. A website Movehub.com shows the happiness index of various countries. The thing that really stands out is the happiest countries are those that are also among the poorest. That's something for us to think about. Why is that so? Is that due to expectations of the wealthier nations? 

Check out the interesting map from MoveHub that reveals how happy people are around the world.

Singapore Dollar Strengthens

Interesting compilation of the change in the value of the regional currencies for this year. This is due to the soaring US dollar and plunging oil prices. Japan is the worst that loses 11.3% since january. It is at a level not seen since 25 years ago so it is the best time to visit japan. Ringit is also at its worst since 1998. Looks to be a good time to buy or invest in these countries except US.

Corruption Perception Index 2014

Singapore is once again in the top 10 of the Corruption Perception Index 2014. That's a drop from 5th position last year but it is still the only Asian country at the top 10. Japan and Hong Kong is ranked 15 and 17 respectively.

Chinese developer pulling out of Iskandar

There're more signs that developers are also feeling the oversupply. According to the papers today, the chinese developer Sichuan Sanjia is in talks to sell its site in Iskandar. The site is a 1.64ha site at the Permas Jaya waterfront which they bought for RM44 million in 2012. Reason sited are the many large projects coming up.  

The top foreign investor in Aussie commerce property

Who do you think is the top foreign investor in Australia's commercial real estate market? If you think it is the Chinese, you are wrong. It is Singapore, according to CBRE report. Singapore invested A$5.3 billion or 28 percent. Germany account for 14 per cent, United states at 13% and China at 9 per cent.

Property price of Singapore Vs Hong Kong

If you think Singapore property prices have caught up with Hong Kong, you are wrong. Looks like Singapore property prices are still lower especially on the luxury segment according to the latest Savills report. For the suburbs, it could be very close. Well, not an official report but just derived that from chit chats with my Hong Kong friends.

Billionaires in Asia

Where do you think has the most number of billionaires in Asia? If you think China or Singapore, you are wrong. It is Hong Kong. Hong Kong has more than 2.5 times number of billionaires than Singapore and 2.2 times that of China. 

Income Level in Singapore

This is what i have always been waiting for, the average income in Singapore published by the Straits Times. As suspected, the income level in Singapore is really high. We might have one of the highest earning middle class at $8,378. I suppose this is only considering single income. If you consider dual income per family, then it is even higher. So which percentile are you at?

Second Most Competitive Economy

Singapore is again the 2nd most competitive economy this year just behind Switzerland according to World Economy forum (WEF). Factors includes infrastructure, health, education and technological readiness. Here's the top ten:

1. Switzerland
2. Singapore
3. United states
4. Finland
5. Germany
6. Japan
7. Hong Kong
8. The Netherlands
9. Britain
10. Sweden

There are only three Asian countries in the top ten. 

Singapore is 4th Most Liveable City in Asia

Singapore is the 4th most livable city in Asia, just behind Osaka, Tokyo and Hong Kong. This ranking takes into consideration on things like stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Then I am puzzled why Singapore is behind Hong Kong. Anyway, globally it is ranked 52. Not something to be very proud of. Melbourne is top again and this is fourth year in a row. Four Australian cities made it to the top 10. This looks very attractive to those who are planning to migrate there. Well, you may welcome that idea but they probably don't welcome you. Don't like what you hear but this is the sad reality if you are of Asian decent. I have seen so many of my friends just sticking among fellow Asians in Australia, UK, etc. So those with a hong kong accent tend to  have hong kong accent despite staying in a western country. That's because they tend to mix with the same ethnic type. Not many has successfully integrate in those communities.

Downward trend for COE

If you are planning to change your aging car or to buy your dream car, hold your horses! This is because more COEs will be available when more cars are disgregistered. This is because cars bought between 2004 and 2008 are reaching end of their 10 year lifespan. This is the period where the most number of COEs were available back then. Trend will continue until 2018. It may dip below $60,000 by next year and $45,000 in the next 3 years. This is according to the transport management expert Park Byung Joon. Well, let's see if he's right.

Singapore is 3rd most sleep deprived city

This is definitely true for me. Recent article from the press says that Singapore is the 3rd most sleep deprived city, just behind Tokyo and Seoul. We sleep on average of 6 hours 32 minutes. What is the main reason? It is probably because of our long working hours, kids, etc. You can only find time after you tug the kids to bed so it eats into your sleeping time. Well, for me i am simply a night owl since young.

UN Human Development Index (HDI)

This is rather amazing. Singapore is the highest ranking in Asia and even on top of Hong Kong, Korea and Japan. The Human Development Report is about 'Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerability and Building Resilience'. In simple english, it is about how each countries have progressed in human-centred development. 

Singapore ($72k) is way ahead of its neighbours like Indonesia (108), Malaysia (62), Philippines (117), Thailand (89), and even China (91). Is this $72k realistic or exagerated? Well, it equals to about $6k or S$7,380 per month. A lot of graduates would have easily reach this income level in their late twenties or early thirties. Just need to look around your friends and colleagues or yourself.

So what is the make up of this ranking? Income is one of the components. Gross National Income (GNI) is only behind Qatar ($119k), Kuwait ($85k), Liechtenstein ($87k) but lagging way behind in other components like life expectancy and schooling. Looking at the progress of Singapore, it is likely this ranking will only go up.

Which insurance company covers act of war and terrorism?

Mirror mirror on the wall, which insurance company covers you during act of war? 

There's an excellent article by the Straits Times covering this and the best appears to be Prudential. They cover not just act of war but also terrorism.

NTUC travel insurances covers terrorism but not act of war and any travel against MFA travel advisory. This is not too good as you will have to check before you travel for MFA travel advisory which is troublesome. If you need to go there for work sometimes, you will be going at your own risk. Their life policies does cover terrorism but not act of war.

Great Eastern also covers terrorism but not act of war. However, it is limited to SGD100,000 per person plus a list of terror exclusion. Looks like one's rotten luck is not punished by terrorism but also by the insurance company as well.

AIA travel insurance is the worst as it doesn't cover either act of war or terrorism. Their life policies does cover act of war and terrorism.

ACE travel insurance covers terrorism but not act of war.

Well, still not too late to know for anyone folks considering picking up a life policy. It is really important to know as it is often not our choice how we die and we would want our dependents and loved ones to be covered should the unfortunate happens. With such exclusion, then it is meaningless to be covered by those insurance companies.

Levy on Singapore-registered cars

Another case of the malaysian authorities not thinking hard on the implication before acting. This could be another case of flip flop policy. Now they plan to impose a levy on Singapore-registered car not (at not more than RM50/SGD20). Well, this totally contradict their master plan to have Iskandar succeed.

1. Live in Johor and work in Singapore. I have always think that this idea is not feasible due to the inconvenience of the immigration queue. This will make it worst. That means, it will cost an additional SGD20 now per day or SGD400 per month. One can buy a bigger car in Singapore with this extra.

2. Shoppers in Johor. Imagine the impact for Singaporean shoppers if they need to folk out additional SGD20 per visit? Might erode much of their savings for shopping in Johor and cheap petrol. There are a lot of Singapore crossing the causeway daily for that purpose and especially for weekends. There are about 60,000 cars on a typical day this could be the main driver for the authorities to change their mind soon. 

3. Lower cost of Iskandar. The whole idea of having different sectors like manufacturing in Iskandar is also to get the spillover effects from Singapore based companies wanting lower cost in Malaysia. Well, now it worsen their cost advantage.

Most of the Malaysian registered vehicles entering Singapore are as a result of the heavy import of goods from Malaysia such as poultry, vegetables, fruits, etc. The flow of money goes to Malaysia. As for those Singapore registered vehicles entering Malaysia, it is for shopping. The flow of money goes to Malaysia again. This increase won't do them any favour. Sometimes, need to understand who needs who more in any relationship before making any decision or will result in a lose-lose for oneself.

Sigh, such kiddie tit-for-tat behaviour is just the worry for me when it comes to property in Malaysia. The causeway may look like this in future :)

Copying has no limits for the Chinese

Looks like the Chinese has no limits when it comes to copying. Saw this in Beijing financial street and first look it appears to be TGIF Fridays until you do a second take.

This is the real thing.

Well, on the bright side, copying is the greatest form of flattery :)

More Convention Centers in Iskandar

Another thing looking up for Iskandar is the MICE sector. International convention should be a potential for Iskandar. Many companies in Singapore or Malaysia would like to have new venues for their company functions or internal meetings. Iskandar would be rather ideal. A short distant from Singapore and yet something new. 6,600 rooms will be available by 2015 but 5,000 more is needed. A short drive around Iskandar and you will find that there is a shortage of 4-5 star hotels and that includes Johor Bahru City.

Bubble Alarm Bell for Iskandar

I am glad that there are more and more people that is raising the alarm for the oversupply of Iskandar. Now from a recent article from the Straits Times has clearly pointed that out and supported by numbers. Let me interpret in simple terms what it means. 

1. Severe oversupply.

In forth quarter last year, there were 118,191 homes under construction in Iskandar and another 168,371 planned. Johor has a population of 3.5 million as compared to Singapore of 5.3 million. However, Singapore only has about 67,000 homes under construction and another 6,000 planned as of first quarter this year. 

More development are coming up. Country garden launched 9,000 and developing a 2,000ha island called Forest City off Tuas. This is 3 times the size of Ang Mo Kio.  Guangzhou R&F princess Cove will build another 3,000 apartments by 2017. It may even launch as many as 30,000 in the end. Another 80ha of Iskandar land has been bought by Shanghai-based Greenland Group, Zhouda Real Estate Group and Hao Yuan Investment. 

2. Is there an economic boom to sustain such frenzy in real estate development?

As far as i can see now, the answer is clearly a 'no'. Of all the RM131.6 billion (S$51.5 billion) committed investments in Iskandar from 2006 to december last year, a quarter (RM33 billion) went into residential property development.  This is very strange as usually for such a frenzy to start first, there should at least be a boom in the economy. Not the other way around. Take china for example, the economy is booming as it has become a global factory over the past decades and thus the sky rocketing prices of the properties in some of the major cities. But what about Iskandar? It appears to be the other way around where they are pre-empting a boom in the local economy and building houses. Is there a gold rush such that companies around the world are rushing to setup factories or business there? Answer again is no. The gold rush is nothing but appears to be hype created by property developers to capitalize on our greed.

There was an interview that they did with a real estate agent. She said that she plans to rent out her condo and the rental demand could come not just from expatriates working in Johor but also those working in singapore who would like more space and the lifestyle in Iskandar. Well, i would say that's only wishful thinking. Firstly very few expatriates would want to live in Johor and work in Singapore. It is just too inconvenient having to cross the causeway twice daily. If they are indeed expatriates, the company will pay for the rental and why should they care? If they pay for it themselves, they are not viewed as 'expatriates' generally but just foreigners on local terms. Secondly, if they want more space and lifestyle, they wouldn't have rented a condo too but a house. Soundly as absurd as it is, people tend to believe what they want to believe so it is up to you to decide with all the supporting argument and data (more would be preferred but I think that little is already scary enough for me).

How many Singaporeans are working overseas?

Have you ever wondered how many Singaporeans are overseas? The latest number from Straits Times shows about 207,000 citizens overseas. 50,000 or 24% live and work in Australia. That's quite a substantial number. In 2003, there were only 157,100. However, this number doesn't tell you if they've given up their citizenship. On average about 1000 Singaporeans have given up their citizenship yearly. This is not a good sign for Singapore as we are already having labour shortage and yet continuing losing people. How do we balance foreign talent and labour shortage? This is one of the biggest challenges our government face now especially when the next election is coming very soon. 

Singapore Inflation hits 2.7% in May

Our inflation is now at 2.7% primarily due to the COE. With bank interest rate so low, looks like our money is devaluing all the time unless you can find an investment that yields more than 2.7%. 

Which car brand has the most complaints?

If you guess it is toyota, you are partly correct. Well, it is Lexus! Surprise surprise. It is true after all that the Japanese car markers are quality stuff. The most complaints are Mitsubishi and Honda is the 2nd best among the Japanese car markers. Korea cars are below the industry average. All these are pretty consistent. Good guide for car buyers.

Singapore unhappy with their salary

I read with interest the yahoo finance article that says 83% of Singapore are unhappy with their salary. Only 31% can afford basic needs and some luxuries. Only 4% is comfortable with their salary. If the statistic is correct, this is really alarming and worrying. The ruling party needs to really sit up, take notice as well as action. Or it won't spell good news for them in the next election. Why is 83% of the population unhappy with their salary? Is that because of the high cost of living? Singaporean average wage is $4998 last year and even such salary is not enough for Singapore. This is really sad. This situation may be worst for the younger generations of Singaporean as the cost of housing has shot up dramatically as compared to their salary. Let's hope we get it right to really have inclusive growth.

Number 1 in Change Readiness Index

Singapore is once again ranked number 1. This time it is in the Change Readiness Index (CRI). This index measures how ready is a country to respond to long-term global change trends in the economy, environment, demographics ,and society.

I am not going to para-phrase but will just take wholesale a certain paragraph from Yahoo finance:

That happened because of three key reasons:

1. Singapore Has a Strong Government: Unlike other nations that have numerous political parties bickering about policy, Singapore’s government is strong and unified enough to drive immediate change within a span of weeks or months, not years.

2.  Singapore Overcame Resource Challenges: Singapore’s lack of resources was the driver behind many of the nation’s biggest changes. Singapore had no real natural water resources, but it created new filtration methods and eventually developed NEWater. Singapore also had a shortfall in talented professionals, but it founded two world-class universities and brought in professionals from all over the world to overcome that problem.

3. Singapore Is Very Business Friendly: Singapore’s one of the easiest places in the world to start a business and get credit. Not only that, Singapore has some of the lowest corporate taxes in the world, has a reputation for protecting investors, and is possibly the easiest nation on earth to trade across borders.

London Airport Lounge

London Sliver Kris airport lounge? Seriously? 

Singapore ranked 2 in safety

Singapore is ranked 2 in the world for order and security. This is according to the world justice project (WSP). Other areas that it did well includes criminal justice, civil justice, regulatory enforcement and absence of corruption. What it did not do well is fundamental rights, constraints on government powers and open government. I would say pretty fair assessment.

Singapore 5th costliest city to work

This is interesting. Now Singapore is ranked the 5th costliest city to work. I guess this is a separate category as compared to the expatriates. For expatriates, Singapore is ranked number 1.

Iskandar losing shine due to rising labour costs

At least there's some responsible reporting by the media recently. The article says Iskandar is losing shine due to rising labour cost. Also, hiring has become difficult as most malaysians want to work in Singapore for the stronger currency. Better stay tuned to such warnings as if the Iskandar region doesn't attract enough manufacturing, what will it become?

Then few days ago, the media also reported that property investor clubs are responsible for distorting the property price. The idea of a property investor clubs are to pool together resources and volume to get bigger discounts by negotiating in bulk. However, the developers are not stupid so they markup a few percent before given such a bulk discount. Thereby distorting the property prices there. That's greed at play again. It is the same story repeating around the world and i don't see Iskandar any different.

It was also reported a recently that Puteri Cove is selling at RM1100-RM1500psf. This is at least a 40-60% rise in prices over a period of 2-3 years. The Somerset Puteri Harbour (a better location) was launch at only RM700-800 psf.  Once again, just buy for your own stay as a weekend home and better don't speculate. 

Johor investors to face problems

At least another person felt the same as me (my post in 14 dec 2013 and 1 mar 2014), according to this article in Yahoo.

Greed is now taking over the driver seat in most minds but good to pause and reconsider options.

StarHub expanded into India??

Noticed this building in Mumbai while i was on the highway. Even the colour scheme looks similar. 

Singapore Airlines

I was at the Mumbai International Airport and spotted something interesting. Do you notice any spelling error? 

Tribute to all on Malaysia Airlines MH370

Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone on Malaysia Airlines MH370 

and their friends and families.

Highest-yielding stocks

I am a fan of high dividend stocks as compared to unit trusts. One gives you dividends and the other you have to pay them for 'service charge'. If the property stocks are more volatile then you should choose the Telco stocks. Telco services has become so much a necessity that most people will be willing to cut down on other spendings than their telecommunications bills.

Loves the London location

If I can only buy one London apartment, this would be the one. The location is just excellent. It is in Zone 1 and within walking distance to Leicester Square, Piccardilly circus and Chinatown. If you miss chinese food in London, you can just swing by the Chinatown which is just 5 mins walk. Can't get better than this for Asians or overseas chinese. It's heart of most action in London and you can catch the popular musicals there too. Will I invest now? I don't think so as there will be more policies coming to curb the rising property prices in London. Most of which is vacant and owned by foreigners as a hedge against inflation. This has prompted many calls to the government to do something about it so I believed something major will happen soon.

Furthermore, this property doesn't come cheap. It cost about GBP 527,100 pounds as advertised and it ranges from 296-429 Sqft.  This works out to be GBP 1,228-1,780 psf. That's SGD2,603 - 3,773 psf. That's expensive and London property is nearing the peak now so better to just wait. 

Hong Kong has the most expensive rental for high end apartment

At least Singapore does not top the most expensive rental list despite being the most expensive city. That's some relief for our government :)

Singapore the costliest city in the world

If you are wondering why things are getting more expensive, wonder no more.  It's official, Singapore is the costliest city in the world. We certainly rise really fast in terms of cost but did your salary rise as fast to beat the inflation? Oops.. touched a raw nerve i think...

Good Dividend Stocks

Looking for high dividends stocks in Singapore? These are the ones. I find that high dividends stocks especially blue chips are better investment than unit trusts. They do not have sales charges or expenses and they gives you good stable returns. I am just waiting for the right time to sell of all my unit trusts. The fund managers guesses are as good as you and mine so why should i pay for those charges for them to 'guess'. 

Want to buy a golf membership?

Thinking of buying a golf membership? Here's what you should know. Read this very useful article from the papers not too long ago.

Top 10 most reliable airlines

Japan airlines is number 1 when it comes to getting you to your destination on time, according to Flightstats.com.

So who are the top 10 performing international airlines? According to on-time performance:

1. Japan Airlines
2. KLM
3. ANA
4. Iberia
5. SAS
6. Saudi Arabian Airlines
7. Delta Air Lines
8. Air New Zealand
9. Lufthansa
10. Korean Air Lines
    
    

 Stop looking, Singapore Airlines is not there....

RM1 million limit for foreign buyers in Malaysia effective today

It's official. There's now a RM1 Million limit for foreign buyers of Malaysia properties effective today (1 March). Well, what's the implications for the malaysian properties?

Property developer may price the new development higher to above RM 1 Million so that it allows foreigners to buy. Most of the properties are targeted at foreigners anyway. This will make the gap between landed and condominium even wider (already big gap now). This will make the condominium prices in Malaysia even more inflated. This is not a good sign especially if you consider that majority of Malaysians buy landed and not condominium. 

It may also drive the prices suddenly lower for those condo nearer to RM1 Million mark as the demand will drop. If buyers dry up once this new law comes about, it may result in a lack of demand. Then developers will get desperate and drop the prices to get rid of the stocks.  It will trigger a fall in prices.

Well, let's see which direction it will go.