Tag Archives: Rising Costs of Living

I recently had the opportunity to observe 2 events at the Gardens by the Bay. Couple of months ago, I brought a class of students to the Singapore Garden Festival. Tonight, I went to the Winter Wonderland Showcase. In both examples I left feeling hollow with the empty consumerism that afflicts this prosperous nation.

In the past, I could find BUDGET and SUPER VALUE Bread, but they have since been taken off the shelf and are being replaced by more expensive breads !!

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has just launched another blow to the embattled taxi industry, which has been under pressure from disruptors such as Uber and Grab. LTA revealed today that they will raise operator license fees from 0.1% of gross revenue to 0.2% this year, and then 0.3% next year. This is the first increase in a decade, but comes at an unusually bad time.

I had a very close relative who had to go and see a doctor quite immediately owing to a sickness. Then upon arrival at the doctor she was advised to go for several scans and then being diagnose with Cancer. Imagine, when asked if CPF Medisave could be used we were told that only $300 for one scan scan was allowed and another $400. Despite having an insurance being taken up we were in total disarray as Insurance here again don't cover Scans etc. as i was told and we had to resort to borrowing credit cards to settle all the scans totalling $7000.

Under the Retail SMP, retailers will get support from the Government in enhancing jobs and business models. More training opportunities will also be provided for retail employees and students. The plan covers four key initiatives, starting with a business remodelling and job redesign study to identify skills and training needs for retail jobs of the future.

The lowest priced 5-room flat in Toa Payoh at $544,000 against the lowest transacted resale price at $500,000 gives a “subsidy” of -9 per cent ($544,000 divided by $500,000). In other words, the BTO price is 9 per cent more than the resale transacted price. So the “subsidy” may in a sense have become an extra “premium”.

The HDB Resale Price Index has dropped by about 9.0% from 146.7 in the 4th quarter of 2012 to 134.6 in the 3rd quarter of 2015. So, if the Resale Price Index dropped by 9.0%, why did the price increase by 19.9%?

According to Shin Min Daily News, Singapore has just seen its most expensive HDB sale yet - a 4 room HDB flat at The Pinnacle@Duxton, measuring only 93 sqm or 1,000sq ft, was recently sold for $990,000, which makes it the most expensive 4 room flat in Singapore history.

Shortly after the Singapore government announced that Government-aided schools would require non-citizens to pay higher school fees in an attempt to "further differentiate fees by citizenship", some self-entitled foreigners have reportedly been up in arms. A number of foreigners, whose children are in government schools, decried the move as an attempt to "please citizens" and "push the foreigners away".

In another unsurprising move to increase prices, property analysts have predicted that the new Housing Development Board (HDB) Build-to-Order (BTO) units in Bidadari estate, located between MRT stations Woodleigh and Potong Pasir, will probably come at a premium.