[Music] [Music] Singapore has been a property hotspot for years more recently the number of million-dollar HDB resale fled spiked over 30 times in just seven years this year million dollars let's look set to hit new heights [Music] in this episode I want to find out who are buying these million-dollar sleds and what this means for the public property markets Sara Chong is a property agent who recently closed a million-dollar deal at city view in bunking let's see what it is about this flat that costs 1 million dollars located on the 35th floor I realized that this five room flat was able to fetch 1.1 million dollars thanks largely to this so this is why they call it the city view you have the river view then Marina Bay Sands will be on your right on national day you can see the fireworks right here so this is what they call the million dollar view yes I also noticed this error that quite a fair bit of space the Japanese is located in Boone Caine city view was launched in 2008 under HDB's design build and sell scheme or DB SS [Music] HDB suspended the scheme in 2011 so properties like this in city view are highly sought after making up one third of a million dollar flat salt was this your first million dollar transaction yes okay were you surprised when it hit the price it did initially when there are only ones at one point - I was a bit worried but I had no problem asking for whatever price he commanded buyers were ready to pay for the location and them block view day they seemed yeah basically fell in love with it there's been a lot said about how 2019 we are going to see new highs in the million dollar HDB flats in this year USC 3,500 DPSS and 4,000 HT be reaching the minima occupation period so likely you would see more million dollar floods because they are located in very mature estates like Queenstown Bukit Merah and Mo Kio in 2012 the very first million dollar public slit was sold at block one for nine mailing Street a resale flat in Queenstown has sold for a record 1 million dollars last year alone a record 71 units were sold making it a total of 156 flats which have crossed the million dollar mark by 2018 almost all were located in mature estates and close to the city centre with comprehensive amenities [Music] as the saying in the property market goes is all about location location location but think about also boasts an extensive transport network so why do people still feel the need to live so close to the city center I'm meeting Susan tan she used to live in a condo in East Coast today I'm visiting her new home a five room HDB flat and Holland Drive it's actually the original condition and I'm studying renovation in a few days sign mm-hmm so and I'm actually building an island right in the middle of my living room an island kitchen Wow okay how much did you pay for this okay it's over a million for a lot of people out there though they will be thinking like gosh yeah oh that's way too much exactly an edge HDV flat yeah but I think we see the value in this place what is the value not sure oh it's easy I Drive to work driving from East Coast is a frustration for me every day Jeff is you know gem it p IE you're not so moving here it's perfect you know there's two MRT stations and then you have a bus interchange easily accessible eventually you know we decided to not drive you were rather specific that you wanted an apartment in this area why so it is a vibrant distinctive part of the city and a unique lifestyle for all young and old you know and also III drinking holes you know um all kinds of cuisines you really read our appetite in other words is happening for you absolutely I may be old but you know what I'm a happening person Susan up over a million dollars for a seven year old five room HDB flat the combination of these factors vibrancy of the neighborhood a desire for a central location and more space motivated her decision but is public housing worth all that money so let's say if you buy a $1,000,000 HDB flat you think that you can sell for 1.2 million 1.3 million next time [Music] [Music] this year were likely to see a record number of million-dollar HDB fled transactions buyers are paying a premium for location amenities and space but does it make financial sense to fork out so much for an HDB flat compared to a private property this is the sue night on go the reservoir and there we also have some funky over-the-air site property consultant Lane car year moved into this condominium at Sinkiang last December I want to know the real financial differences between buying a million dollar HDB flat and a million dollar condominium what is the difference in financial commitment between buying a million dollar HDB flats and a million dollar condo the main difference is the amount of flow that you can actually get from the bank to finance the property that you can buy so let me show you how it looks okay so let's see if you buy a private property okay you will be based on TDS R which is called total debt servicing ratio the government say if you have $10,000 income okay they only allow you to use 60% of your income which is six thousand dollars to finance all your debts but let's say if you are buying Reserve htb you see our BTO okay you'll be based on mortgage servicing ratio MSR so let's say if your income is $10,000 they only allow you to use 30 percent of your income which is $3,000 to service your house so that means the amount that you can get if you buy a it's different if you buy a condo is actually double so basically if I buy a million-dollar HDB flat I'm gonna have to come up with more cash up front yes does that mean that people who buy million-dollar HDB flats are cash which I think so it may be those are blocked owners there has two to three million dollars on hand so let's say if I show you this one right 38th floor generates two zero one nine this flat so at one point one eight five which is nine hundred forty one dollars per square foot matter forty one dollars there is the EC prices and then he pay eighty five thousand dollars cash overvaluation how many pairs it's not money let's say you buy buy or $1,000,000 condo I can use the eighty five thousand CoV to pay for my five percent down payment for my condo so it sounds like you are definitely not for investing that kind of money in $1,000,000 HDB flat besides a cash outlay upon purchase any other reasons one might pick a million-dollar private property over $1,000,000 HDB flat so let's say if you buy a $1,000,000 HDB flats so what is it plan do you think that you can choose sell for 1.2 million 1.3 million next time many people when they buy things they based on emotion to buy they won't think of any other factors but after money you still need to Selma you know whether you expect you you hope you're expired or you know when the flag goes old then you still have to sell it so you know it depends on how much loss that you're willing to accept before 2012 no one imagined the HDB flats were breached a 1 million dollar mark so who knows do you see a future where HDB flats may go up to as high as 1.3 1.4 even 1.5 million in 2012 there were transaction in 1 million so now in 2019 which is 7 years later the price is also about 1 million so what is the capital position that we are looking at you know we can tell from my own condo right I really stay here for 3 years so we really have a capital appreciation of about 180,000 is what you're saying is that the capital appreciation is just too slow over this period of seven years you are right million dollar flats require higher upfront cash payment and have lower expected returns buyers may be deterred but it seems some sellers are still hopeful to cash in on this property website more than 140 flats are listed for $1,000,000 and above and on another website 75 in total that's more than three times the number of million dollars that sold last year our sellers being realistic in their asking price to find out I'm heading to Jalen Medina in Bukit Merah where I've been invited to join a viewing for a 5 room flat on the eighth floor Philip a freelance photographer is the home owner he's lived in this flat for over 15 years patrick is his housing agent [Music] how big is this hopefully fees 1 1 is 4 we are basically located just opposite atomo MIT so now I'll bring you from the dining room to the one of the bedroom although it's been cotton butter book myself we can accommodate easily a king-sized wardrobe and then study table it is a kitchen there's another shower room here what's your asking price oh he's asking on 1.19 meal how realistic is that you think I know there's a bunch of apartments which is just it's just across the road for my place my place had brought 19 gentleman I noticed that fine room was selling a 1.2 million and foremost one point zero five million so in my opinion they can get a price over here I believe should be the same what is the lowest price that you will oh it is over Miller I'm still can't consider I can even hold off if I find a price is no good so I have the holding power how much did you pay for this unit hey about 350,000 from the professional point of view can you give a realistic assessment of what are his chances of getting his 1.2 million I would say a bit of luck is needed because there's a lava Condor and block going on and a lot of buyer they are flush with cash we just have to wait it out and hopefully there will be one buyer that like this location do you think the seller is being opportunistic oh say yes and why not since he's he's the one that I saw yes the universe' in the central location I would not say everybody won't get it I would say those that are asking for 4 million off then maybe toward 4 you get what they're asking for if he manages to sell his flat for 1.19 million dollars Phillip says he may use the money to fund his travels but how much of the money actually goes to the sellers Ryan is an editor with 99 dot Cove he analyzes property transfer interested buyers and sellers I want to find out just how much profit Phillip would make Ryan's agreed to crunch through the numbers with me so he's bought the flat at three hundred and fifty thousand let's assume he sold it for a million dollars after about say 15 years now the immediate cost that come to mind first of all there is the buyer stamp duty he would have paid this when he bought the flat this will come to about $5,200 he needs to look at the property taxes he's paid she would have paid roughly sixty point 2 K in property taxes and then we need to work out the loan repayments that he's made this will vary a lot based on what I use in HDB loan or bank loan and the interest rate in the loan tenure but over 15 years let's say that he would have paid four hundred and forty K inclusive for fifteen years of interest repayments then he's got to pay his agent 2% Commission it would be around 20k 4 million dollar sale so he could make four hundred ninety five thousand before deducting other variables such as his renovation and furnishing costs any variations in a loan interest rate so in essence Philips stands to make about five hundred thousand dollars from his million dollar sale if there are more opportunistic sellers will this drive up resale flat prizes they will naturally try to push that price up but buyers can also quite easily check the transaction histories of the units in the area yes the units all four million but every other unit around it isn't selling four million so the bias themselves are going to try and bargain you down do you think I will ever see a day when if I do not have a million dollars by HDB flat who will be out of my reach I don't see a day when in HDB fat would be out of your reach first of all when it comes to a million dollars even though the number of million dollar flats are growing rapidly we're still looking at seventy one transactions out of something like twenty three thousand this is something like zero point three percent of the overall market so it's not really reflective of the general htb market as a whole at this point the numbers are still too small but there may be a point in time when a desirable HDB flat you may find that a little bit out of your reach what do you mean by desirable if your minimum standard for an HDB flat is a five room flat in a highly centralized location in a mature neighborhood where you have MRT station nearby and a shopping mall within walking distance and you also want it on a high floor with a great view then that may be out of your reach million dollar flats are still a rare breed sellers are likely to find willing buyers only if the flats check all the right boxes of perfect view location size and a so if you want the best and no less a million dollars with just be the price you have to pay coming up which electricity plan should I go for I tell you how you can save on your electricity bill [Music] it's the time of the month to pay your electricity bills but lately there's good news for consumers last time I introduced debut was $80 nine paying fifty four dollars so my saving is 30% every month Wow that's because since April last year Julie made the switch from simple power to an electricity retailer why did you make a switch in the first place because the heavy paisa which s particular offering is at the price of twenty five point five two per kilowatt so if I just make the switch and I will be paying through 0.16 95 so it would be much more cheaper secondly by having a family of four so my use is quite high so if I use more I was a small definitely since April last year we can buy power from a variety of electricity retailers 13 to be exact thank you I am better open the electricity market Roadshow at White Sands small and the retailers are going all-out to all customers thank you [Music] almost all the retailers I spoke to guarantee a 20 to 30 percent cut from your current electricity bill some even come with a plethora of promotions such as a one-time rebate of 30 to 40 dollars these retailers buy electricity from the wholesale market and due to an oversupply of electricity right now they were able to provide cheaper rates so there are sure savings for those who make the switch now but to date only one in three consumers has done so no not yet we discuss about my plan we thought of them with a be like a power failure and so on so these are some of the worries Law Review is a Bible wanna they're not if they go bank robber how you can't do anything body but we don't really go I know yeah is too many of these retailers so we don't really know in details that will tell us plan and we feel an easy for that may be confusion so with so many different price plans and promotions it's understandably confusing for some that's why kang-hyun an editor from financial blog dollars and cents started writing posts to guide consumers on how they can pick the best electricity plans from the 13 retailers which electricity plans should I go for you know they help consumers the energy market Authority EMA has actually specified two kinds of standard plans the discount of tariff plan and a fixed price plan so let me explain what the two plans are in detail so this is the cost that Singaporeans are paying based on that heavy tariffs takes into account the cost of producing and delivering electricity to consumers it is regulated by the energy market authority to prevent volatility in electricity prices so a discount of the Rif plan basically means whatever the prevailing tariff is consumers will pay a discount off of that and typically that the 30 mil tailors offer a discount of tariffs of roughly 20 percent in contrast this is what a fixed-price plan looks like a fixed-price plan basically means you pay a fixed rate throughout the duration of your contract regardless of your tariff so the tariff might be lower on some months it might be higher in some month but you pay a fixed rate so for the fixed prize package Amaya sure that they'll be savings at the end of the day obviously no one can tell the future so Terry's my rise Terry's my fault but let's look at historical day dye itself so for the past one year the average tariff price has been about twenty five point two six cents but you know what our and we actually go back further for the past five years the average tariff has been about twenty three point two three cents per kilowatt-hour so if you look at the current fixed price plans which over between seventeen to eighteen nineteen cents you are actually already getting a significant discount of the tariffs possibly in the future as well I'm just looking at these two price plans and whichever I choose right that's it what does it boil down to I guess for Singaporeans itself if you do not want to worry and think so much picking a discount off tariff plan is gonna be the most straightforward you are definitely going to save money from switching away from SP group itself however if you have an opinion about what Paris might be in the future for example you believe they may rise and you actually want to have some certainty you know electric electrical pricing then a fixed price plan is probably the way to go with the market conditions is this a good time to lock in the cheapest deal for the longest period of time so retailers right now are fighting very hard for market share and they are doing so at an expense of their profit margins so consumers should actually take full advantage and lock in the discounts that you're actually getting right now for as long as they can some folks may be worried that if they make the switch well the electricity supply be disrupted nice because are quite unfounded because the group is still responsible for the power delivery infrastructure of Singapore eme has actually shown us that in the event a retailer is no longer able to continue as a om retailer they could actually find another retailer to acoustic over the accounts and honor at the rates that your customers are playing if they are not able do that all cans will actually be returned to SV group who actually continued to take care of the customers without interruption so even if consumers buy electricity from retailers the transmission and delivery of power it's still managed by SP Group switching to an electricity retailer is bang for the buck if you do it now I've also learned that even after the switch I'll still be getting my electricity through the SP group so I'm considering signing up for a two year contract with a lowest fixed price plan how about you [Music]
