Tag Archives: KHAW BOON WAN

Recently, Council for Estate Agencies promotes estate agencies free SGNIC domain name for the first year. They are actually marketing for webvision pte ltd, a private company. At first glance, it looks good, however, the full cost is not revealed. The domain name is free for the first year, but the hosting fees is not. And the hosting fees are not cheap, ranging from $150 a year to $300 a year. The next thing that cross my mind, is Webvision collaborating with SGNIC and Council for Estate Agencies with some hanky panky activities behind?

A 54-year-old inventor is suing the Housing and Development Board (HDB) for infringing his patent for a clothes-drying rack, but the statutory board rejects the claim and is seeking to revoke the patent granted to him in 2004. Mr Yiap Hang Boon, who set up a company that has since closed down called Sunpole Engineering and Trading, is claiming that the external clothes-drying racks of some HDB flats in Toa Payoh Central, Queenstown and Sengkang have infringed his patent.

PARENTS may receive incentives to join their children in newer towns, in a bid to free up Housing Board flats in mature estates. This would allow children who wish to join their parents in mature estates to have better chances of buying the freed-up flats, said National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan. It was heartwarming to see many families still wanting to live near each other, he added at a Tuesday night dialogue on housing issues.

A Filipina and a foreign worker - embracing in one tent, oblivious to our stares. In another tent, a woman was sitting on the lap of a shirtless man, again, oblivious to the world. Our observations were not that different from the ones made by Shin Min Daily News recently.

The MND's comments came as prominent developer Kwek Leng Beng warned of a potential impact on Singapore's reputation as a global city, and called for a review of the policy measures. The National University of Singapore's Residential Price Index out yesterday showed that prices of resale homes climbed 0.8 per cent in May from April, after falling for nine months. The Urban Redevelopment Authority's flash estimates for private home prices will be out today.

VETERAN property developer Kwek Leng Beng fears Singapore could lose its edge as an investment destination unless the Government reviews its property cooling measures. Mr Kwek, executive chairman of Hong Leong Group Singapore and City Developments, said foreigners were choosing to plough their investment dollars into countries like Britain, Australia and the US over Singapore, while Singaporeans have been investing abroad.

Yesterday, TRE published an article highlighting that new residents moving into HDB BTO flats in Anchorvale Horizon at Seng Kang were complaining about the defects and poor workmanship found in their newly completed flats. Given that HDB is making a sizeable gross profit from the Anchorvale Horizon project, why can’t HDB accede to the requests from the new residents to pay them some compensations for the defects in their units so that they can get their own contractor to rectify the problems? This is especially so since Jingye is not able to rectify the defects or HDB is unable to supervise its contractor Jingye to do a proper job.

The grassroots leaders even roped in Seng Kang West MP Lam Pin Min to visit Anchorvale Horizon just to show him how terrible the defects are. Thus he advised that HDB personnel in front of us to check with his higher authorities if they can work out with some reimbursements for owners. But HDB turned a deaf ear to the issue. No follow-up was done with regard to compensations except HDB going back to their old tricks of rectifications after rectifications, hoping one day, you will give up and accept whatever they provide you.

In the case of retirees who, when they were looking for their first homes, were not eligible for HDB flats because of the salary conditions, they had no choice but to buy private property. For many, the choice then, when there were few condominiums, was either a single- or double-storey landed property. If such a retiree needs to sell his private home today, he cannot sell it to a foreigner, who is likely to have greater buying power, as the house is less than seven storeys high - a restriction that does not apply to condominium units.

To avoid the sun from shining directly into your windows, don't choose units that face east or west. Provided that nothing is blocking your flat, the north-east and south-west facing units will get more breeze due to the monsoon winds. If possible, avoid choosing lower floors which have windows facing the multi-storey carparks (MSCP) as not only will it be harder for you to sell your unit next time, but you may have your peace disturbed by the closing of vehicle doors, the odd alarm sounding off, and exhaust fumes.