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Are Singaporeans cowards? 85 posts
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bila_prem

164 posts since Sep '05 22 Jul `07, 11:32AM I’ve seen european nations voicing out their anger against the government. Its people more powerful than the government. Are we in a communist nation who keep our mouth shut and let the government climb on top of our heads?

mochou

1,743 posts since Jan '03 22 Jul `07, 11:36AM See towards who loh, towards gahmen, most likely yes.

But most singaporean are not cowards, you see how they complain at service line staffs(Restaurant, hotel, airport counters, etc), they so fierce.

taken from sgforums

LOOK AT THAT COMMENT BY A FORUMMER IN SGFORUMS.THAT IS THE TOP REASON WHY I HATE MOST SINGAPOREANS

Cost of living in Shenzhen
Shenzhen is one of the most expensive cities to live in China, but still relatively cheap compared to most Western major cities.To give you an indication of how much things cost, I collected some prices. I'm sure prices will vary a bit depending on where you buy and which brand you buy, but this should give you a good indication. I rarely eat in Western restaurants and have adopted a Chinese eating pattern. If you enjoy Western restaurants, you obviously will spend more. Living costs are relatively most expensive, house prices came down in 2008, but have risen a lot again and buying a house in a good location in Shenzhen is expensive.


The areas near the border with HongKong (traditionally Futian and Luohu, but now also increasingly Nanshan) are a bit more expensive to live. Living in the center also has other benefits, for example closer to library, more shopping malls, more restaurants etc. Bao'an is currently fast expanding and when the subway finishes in 2011, Bao'an will be more convenient to live as well. Whenever you go to Bao'an (where the airport is) you definitely feel that it's further away from the center: less high buildings, broader roads, less people.


Compared to the Netherlands, Shenzhen is still much cheaper to live. Especially eating in restaurants in much cheaper. House prices had gone up a lot and were approaching Dutch levels, but have since dropped off quite a lot; since the start of 2009 they are rising again. Never trust prices you see advertised online, but come here and look around. Because house prices dropped so much, it's now easy to find a place to rent. Also realize that 100m2 is already quite big in China and it should cost below 5000Y/month. (I sometimes see advertisements targeted at foreigners asking ridiculous prices -be warned and just look around and bargain).



According to Mercer's 2009 survey of living costs Shenzhen is now 22nd on the list of most expensive cities in the world for expats! Mercer's Cost of Living survey covers 143 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

1. Tokyo - Japan


2. Osaka - Japan

3. Moscow - Russia

4. Geneva - Switzerland

5. Hong Kong

8. New York


9. Beijing

12. Shanghai

16. London


22. Shenzhen

23. Guangzhou



This is my personal, unscientific, list of daily items. Just use common sense in China and live like a Chinese, then you will see that the cost of living is not so high.

Food/Drink
Price (Yuan)
milk, small paper cup 2.90
white bun supermarket 1.8
half sliced bread 5
apples (per kg)
7
water (1.5 liter)
2.5
lettuce (0.5 kg)
1
rice (0.5 kg)
2
pork (0.5 kg)
12
spareribs (0.5 kg)
18
bag of nuts
5-20


Daily usage
big bottle soap 20-30
t-shirt, men 20-50
shirt, men
40-200



Restaurant
dinner, 2 person 30-120
lunch, 2 person 25-50
chinese fast-food order (incl. delivery)
10-20
some dishes

fish 20-100
vegetable 10-30
meat 20-50
rice/bowl 1-2


Living/work
rent house, 50m2
2.000Y/month * see note below

rent house, 100+m2, good location 8.000Y/month
buy house (normally 70-150m2) 7-25K RMB/m2
utility (electricity, water, management)
200/month
internet 2MB ADSL
1440Y/year
native english teacher, fulltime
10.000+Y/month *see note below

taxi 5 km (start 12.5)
20
bus/subway 2-5/trip



Also take a look at the Chinese supermarkt folder I scanned, this will give you an even better idea of the things you can buy and for what prices.

* note about apartment renting costs July 2009:

Just like salaries, the prices for renting an apartment vary hugely. You can go from 1500RMB/month for a cheap community, where normal Chinese people live to extremely luxurious which are twenty times as much ! Also be aware that the English-language classifieds are usually not the cheapest. Best option is just to look around while you are in the city and go to some Chinese real estate companies. Prices have dropped a lot in 2008, but have been rising since the start of 2009 again. Some examples of expensive apartments on offer at ShenzhenParty :

Location Size (m2)
Description price RMB /month
Futian CBD 109
3 bedrooms (one master bedroom), 2 bathes, 1 large living room & 1 dining room 8.500
Futian Honey Lake 200 3 bedrooms, 1 study room, 1 living room, 1 dining room, 1 kitchen, 1 balcony. 30.000
Futian, near to Co-co park 151 3 bedrooms ,and 2 bathrooom, fully furnished and equiped 12.000
Futian Che Gong Miao Metro Station 116
2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 study room, 1 living room, 1 dining room, 1 kitchen 8.000
Luohu center,beside Diwang mansion 63 1 livingroom,1 big bedroom,1 kitchen,1 washroom 5.500
Luohu KingGlory plaza 42 2.000
Nanshan Coastal rose garden 127 3 bedrooms 2 bath 5.900
Nanshan/Shekou Sea Taste Garden 78 2 bdrooms, 1 bath , 1 nice kitchen , 2balcony , 1 living rooms 3.800

As you can see, 2000 is about the minimum you pay in reasonable locations. You can go lower by looking around in the city. It's easy to spend over 8000RMB/month for big apartments.



*note about salaries foreign teachers:

The State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs has updated the salary guidelines for a foreign expert or teacher in July 2009. Salaries start at 3,000 to 4,100 yuan per month for bachelor degreed teachers in underdeveloped western areas to as high as 12,000 to 15,000 per month for full professors in first-tier east coastal cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou. Although these salary guidelines are more realistic than the previous recommendations, they are still lower than what a foreign teacher should expect

2010 Ranking of Home Property Prices in Chinese Cities: Shenzhen Takes CrownApr 05, 2010

Elivecity.cn, an online market research agency in China, has published their ranking of “January 2010 Home Property Prices in Chinese Cities” on March 29th. The results find that Shenzhen has the highest home property prices of the Chinese cities researched, with new homes selling at an average price of 22,304 RMB/square meter; Shanghai came in second with a home price average of 20,186 RMB/square meter; Wenzhou ranked third with a home price average of 20,050 RMB/square meter.



This is the fourth research and report on home property prices in China done by Elivecity.cn. For this year's report, they've researched over 100 major Chinese cities, including provincial capitals, major port cities and hubs of commerce, cities with economic aggregate totaling over 100 billion RMB, cities with GDP per capita near or above the national average, major cities for tourism and travel, etc. The home prices have steadily ballooned in China in spite of the economic recession and this is especially true for Nanjing, Sanya, and Shenzhen – where prices have climbed 91%, 66.5%, and 51% respectively in the last 6 months. The top 10 cities ranked in the survey that have home prices averaged at more than 10,000 RMB/square meter are as follows: Shenzhen, Shanghai, Wenzhou, Beijing, Hangzhou, Sanya, Ningbo, Xiamen, Guangzhou and Dalian. Elivecity.cn has also published a ranking of top 10 most expensive residential areas in the different researched cities to give a better idea of the different appropriation of home prices within a city.

According to a staff member with Elivecity.cn, the research results of average home property prices for a city have taken into consideration the following info: 1. formal figures published by experts; 2. actual prices researched; 3. statistical analysis of price trends in major real estate markets for the region. And because the cities and communities all vary in size, the average home prices were calculated in accordance with the highest and lowest priced regions within a city to give a more accurate presentation. Metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai are made up of numerous regions and districts that vary greatly in respective home prices. For example, home prices in Pinggu district of Beijing averaged at 6,096 RMB/square meter while those in Xicheng district of Beijing averaged at 33,125 RMB/square meter; homes in Shanghai Songjiang district averaged at 9,700 RMB/square meter while those in Jing'an district averaged at 32,200 RMB/square meter.

Hong Kong May Increase Sales Taxes on Homes, Sell More Land
April 21, 2010, 4:40 AM EDT
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e-mail this story print this story digg this save to del.icio.us add to Business Exchange By Sophie Leung

April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong said it will raise sales taxes on some properties and accelerate government land auctions to prevent a bubble in a real estate market where prices surged 29 percent last year.

The city may raise the stamp duty on homes sold for less than HK$20 million ($2.58 million), Financial Secretary John Tsang told lawmakers today. The average size of loans approved in February in Hong Kong was HK$2.21 million, according to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

“The government is deeply concerned about the rising trend of property prices,” Tsang said. “I understand the worries of residents about rapidly rising home prices, and I agree that we need to reduce the bubble risk in the property market to avoid any impact on the financial system’s stability and the recovery in the real economy.”

Buying by mainland Chinese and low borrowing costs have driven a 7.4 percent increase in Hong Kong home prices this year, adding to 2009’s advance. The government in February said the stamp duty on homes selling for more than HK$20 million would be raised to 4.25 percent from 3.75 percent as of April 1.

It raised down payments on luxury homes in October. Luxury properties are those that cost at least HK$10 million each or are bigger than 1,000 square feet (92.9 square meters).

“Such mere empty talk is useless in helping to bring home prices down,” Kevin Lai, economist at Daiwa Capital Markets Hong Kong Ltd., said by phone today. “Even if the policy turns real, it won’t help to curb speculation as long as interest rates are kept at a such low level.”

Least Affordable

Hong Kong homes are the least affordable among the world’s major cities and are rapidly becoming less accessible to the residents, according to a study commissioned by the South China Morning Post, the city’s biggest English-language newspaper. The study used international comparisons and Hong Kong government figures, the newspaper said.

The territory had the greatest disparity between rich and poor among Asian cities, according to a 2008 report from the United Nations. The Gini coefficient, which measures wealth inequality, was 0.53, compared with an average of 0.39 for Asia, the report said. A Gini coefficient of zero indicates perfect income equality and 1 reflects perfect inequality.

Two residential sites, one in Kowloon and the other on Hong Kong Island, will be auctioned off in June and July without developers having to indicate interest first to trigger bidding, Tsang said. That would bring to four the total number of sites the government is selling in the coming three months, Tsang said.

Auction System

In Hong Kong, the primary source of land available to property developers is through government auctions. Under the current system, developers must indicate interest in a site on a government list. Once a “trigger price” has been met, the site is auctioned.

The government will change the way it puts sites up for auction, Tsang said in his Feb. 24 budget speech. The government would consider putting sites up for sale even if they haven’t been triggered, he said then.

Hong Kong will hold two land auctions for sites in the New Territories in May with developers triggering the sales.

The city will make about 55,000 new homes available in the next three to four year, Tsang said.

Low mortgage rates and excessive liquidity, coupled with not enough supply are fueling the risk of property-price bubbles, Tsang said.

The 20-year-low mortgage rates won’t be sustained for long as governments around the world wind back stimulus measures, he said. A 3 percent rise in rates would boost monthly mortgage repayments 30 percent, Tsang said, citing a stress test result.

“I urge residents or investors to carefully assess the impact of climbing interest rates on mortgage payments when they consider buying apartments,” Tsang said.

While gains in Hong Kong home prices had “tapered slightly” in recent months, the “increasing risk of a property bubble cannot be ignored,” Tsang said.

The Hong Kong government plans to prevent developers from enticing buyers with inaccurate models of apartments and to scrutinize their sales tactics. Real estate companies should disclose properties sold to their own executives, Secretary for Transport and Housing Eva Cheng said on April 12.

--Editors: Andreea Papuc, Joost Akkermans

To contact the reporter on this story: Sophie Leung in Hong Kong at sleung59@bloomberg.net

IDIOTS WILL FOREVER BE IDIOTS.BUYING PROPERTY AT PEAK IS AKIN TO BUYING AN ILLIQUID STOCK LIKE AUSSINO,ETC. somemore, buying residential properties machiam hk population 20m, as full of 40storey apartments whereas singapore population 5m only with not so many high rise.
IDIOTS SPECULATE RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY WITHOUT THINKING OF SUPPLY,ETC.only low interest rates,etc.MACHIAM THEY DONT NEED LOANS FROM BANKS TO BUY.IT IS VERY OBVIOUS THEY ARE DAMN IDIOTIC AS THEY NEED TO BORROW FROM BANKS YET NOT SCARED OF RISING RATES!!!!

this is called ARITHMETRIC PROGRESSION:
A.P. from the top is 960+(n-1)200=1560, n= 4,d is the common difference,remember the formula?T = A+(N-1)d


as sp500 tests the upper resistance trendline so many times, i favour for a breaking of THAT trendline to 1350 this week.

CONCLUSIONS: AS JES CONSOLIDATION WAS A STRAIGHT HORIZONTAL BASE THE PUSH UP WAS IMMEDIATE BREAKING THE 1YEAR RESISTANCE TRENDLINE AT 5TH TIME, MERCATOR CONSOLIDATION FORMATION WAS NOT SO NEAR THE 1 YEAR RESISTANCE TRENDLINE ,HENCE THE 7.5C PUSHUP WAS NEEDED TO "PARK" JUST BELOW THAT CRUCIAL RESISTANCE,AND A 3.5 C RETRACEMENT FOLLOWS.WE SHOULD HAVE A 7.5 C PUSHUP IN THIS COMING WEEK STARTING 26APR 2010,WHICH WILL TAKE US TO 38C IN THE SAME MANNER AS JES.

MARGIN 800 LOTS AT 22.2C TODAY
closing 24 C rested for ONE YEAR., PLUS BEAUTIFUL WEEKLY,DAILY CHARTS WHAT MORE DO U WANT?
EXACTLY LIKE SWIBER LAST TIME IN 2009 MARCH.SWIBER CHIONG FROM 25C TO 1 DOLLAR FROM MARCH TO MAY 2009