While some flat owners may keep a distance from their rental flat neighbours, Madam Chin Sui Yau is the opposite.

Every Wednesday afternoon, she welcomes more than 10 residents of the rental flats at Blocks 3 and 4 in Marsiling Road to the void deck of her home in Block 5.

She chats and sings songs with the residents, who are mostly elderly and widowed, over tea.

She and her friends from a nearby church treat them to simple snacks – cakes, bananas or red bean soup.

They have been doing this since 2006.

‘They are very pathetic. Some old folk have come from estranged families and have emotional problems,’ said Madam Chin, 56, in Cantonese.

Her eyes were opened to the needs of her neighbours four years ago when she was told about a lice-infested old woman who was living in one of the rental units.

Together with some friends, she decided to bathe the old woman – whose name she still does not know – and cook for her.

‘Her nails were encrusted with faeces and she was eating mouldy bread,’ recalled Madam Chin, a widow with four children.

A few months later, the old woman died. The episode inspired her to make a difference in the lives of others in the rental blocks.

‘I went to Block 3 and started to make friends. This is what we ought to do as neighbours.’

Source : Sunday Times – 14 Feb 2010

It is a room with a view, but not for long, fears housewife Ho Sock Lian, 60.

Not when a block of rental flats comes up on a vacant plot of land across from her block, obscuring her view of the sky and trees.

HDB announced last month it was building blocks of rental flats in Tampines and Pasir Ris. This is part of a move to build 8,000 more rental flats in the next three years.

‘I’m very unhappy because the view will be blocked if the rental block is so high and I think this

will affect the price,’ said Madam Ho of the ninth-floor, four-room flat for which she was once offered $400,000.

Madam Ho’s views echo most of the gripes of residents spread across the Tampines block and those in blocks 475 and 476 in Pasir Ris Drive 6.

Residents in the three blocks found out recently that rental flats were being built near their homes and met Members of Parliament and HDB officials with complaints about privacy and safety.

Many were also upset that they had not been consulted or informed earlier.

However, most of the more than 30 residents who spoke to The Sunday Times said their main objection was over the loss of an unblocked view and breeze, not their fear of possible social problems their new neighbours may bring.

Said a 50-year-old self-employed Tampines resident who wanted to be known only as Mr Lee: ‘It’s unfair to say we are kicking up a fuss that the people in rental flats will cause problems. We’re not discriminating against them, we’re not very well off either. The main issue is that the new flats will block my view.’

The rental block in Tampines is slated to be 14 storeys high. HDB has not said how high the Pasir Ris rental flats will go.

Residents were also worried about congestion, saying it was already hard to find parking and new blocks would create overcrowding.

Many were concerned about losing the value of their flats too.

Residents in both Tampines and Pasir Ris said their three- and four-room flats were currently worth about $330,000 or more. They expect the value to drop below $300,000.

But a few residents admitted they are afraid their rental flat neighbours will make the area unsafe and even seedy.

Said machine operator Rosman Sairi, 44, who lives in Pasir Ris Block 476: ‘It’s been very peaceful in the nine years I’ve been living here and I don’t know what kind of people will be living in the rental block. What if they commit crimes?’

Property agents said the residents’ fears about their flats’ value taking a nosedive were unfounded.

Mr Mohamed Ismail, chief executive of estate agency PropNex, said there has been no trend of falling property prices near rental flat areas, nor are buyers more reluctant to buy them.

‘For buyers, it’s more important that the flats are near amenities and facilities. As for blocked views, any empty plot of land won’t stay vacant for long. Buyers have to be prepared for that,’ he said.

He cited the case of The Bayshore condominium in East Coast, where buyers shelled out big bucks for the sea view, only to be blocked by Costa Del Sol condominium, nine years later.

Mr Chris Koh, director of Dennis Wee Properties, said the stigma surrounding rental block residents is unfair.

‘Many are young people and young families who are just starting out. If they are aiming to buy the rental flats later on, they would be more likely to look after the flat and the neighbourhood,’ he said.

Only a handful of residents interviewed did not mind the rental flats coming up.

Said housewife Noraffnah Hanapi, 33: ‘I’m not intending to sell this place, so its value doesn’t affect me. I’m not worried about my safety either.’

But many were still riled.

Said Mr Swee Huat Beng, 31, unemployed: ‘I just moved in two months ago. If I knew that my view was going to be blocked, I wouldn’t have bought this place.’

Source : Sunday Times – 14 Feb 2010

Housewife Jenny Chia moved out of her old neighbourhood to get away from the rental flats there, only to find out that she will be living next to them again.

In 2003, she moved out of her flat in Boon Keng, which was next to a rental block.

There were ‘gangsters, gambling and drug problems’ there, she said. While she did not see people taking drugs, she saw trails of syringes.

‘It was not a healthy environment.’

She and her husband paid $410,000 for a five-room flat on the 17th storey of Block 192 in Punggol Central.

She later found out that the two blocks of flats that were recently built opposite her home would house rental units.

Shocked, she said: ‘No one informed me. I have the right to know as a resident.’

The two blocks, which are behind a church and across a road junction from where she lives, look well-designed and clean.

The blocks, which appear unoccupied, are also not high enough to obstruct her view.

Mrs Chia, who has a son aged 23, and a daughter aged 10, said she is not as bothered by the appearance of the blocks as by the residents who will move in there.

She is worried that the problems of Boon Keng would be back to vex her.

‘My investments have amounted to nothing,’ she said. But she will not complain to the HDB.

‘It is too late now. The flats have already been built.’

Source : Sunday Times – 14 Feb 2010

First, you are knocked over by the smell of urine. The stench of faeces follows.

This is not a public toilet, but it has certainly been used as one.

‘There is shit all over. I pity the cleaners,’ said security guard B. Krishnair, who moved into Block 5, Marsiling Road last year after her family bought a three-room unit there.

She was describing the void decks of Blocks 3 and 4, which house one-room rental units, just metres away from her block.

When The Sunday Times visited the estate last Wednesday, the pungent smell hit us when we walked to the two rental blocks, although the common areas were free from mess.

The lifts reeked of stale cigarette smoke. The common corridors were quiet and flanked by rows of closed doors.

We saw a man in his 60s clasping a bottle of beer and sitting on the stairs on the 12th storey of Block 3. He appeared to be drunk.

Madam Krishnair, 41, said she had seen men urinating in the void deck of Block 3, and recounted being stared at in the chest by a ‘loitering uncle’.

‘He just walked up to me and looked at my breasts. It is unsafe living so close to the rental flats,’ she said.

Rental blocks made the news last week when some residents in Pasir Ris and Tampines raised a stink upon finding out that the Housing Board (HDB) was going to build such blocks near their homes.

They feared for their privacy and safety if the flats were to be illegally sublet to foreigners. They were also upset about the loss of an otherwise unobstructed view, which might lower the value of their property, they said.

They were also worried about ’smokers and drinkers’ in the void decks leading their children astray.

There are currently 42,000 rental units across the island. They are occupied by those with low income, mostly families, the elderly and singles. Monthly rent ranges from $26 to $205 for one-room flats and $44 to $275 for two-room units.

The Sunday Times visited six housing areas with these flats – Sembawang, Yishun, Choa Chu Kang, Marsiling, Marine Parade and Punggol – and spoke to about 50 residents from the rental flats as well as those in owner-occupied flats.

More than half of the 40 or so non-rental flat residents interviewed maintained they have no problems with rental flats nearby. The rest expressed some concern, and related negative personal brushes with their neighbours.

Madam Krishnair, for one, has already crossed swords several times with them. Her grievances: unrestrained spitting, urinating and defecating in the void decks of the rental blocks.

‘I told the uncles they would be fined for spitting, but their responses were ‘fine, fine lah’.’

Another resident in Block 12, Marsiling Road, located two blocks from the rental flats, said she did not dare wander around her neighbourhood after dark.

The 40-year-old clinic assistant, who declined to be named, frequently hears shouting, presumably from the two rental blocks. ‘I do not know who they are and do not want to know them,’ she said.

In Choa Chu Kang, a resident who wanted to be known only as Madam Ng, said she has seen men unzipping their trousers during the day at the void deck of Block 9, a rental block along Teck Whye Lane.

She has been living in the adjacent Block 11 for 25 years. ‘I avoid walking past the block after dark,’ said the 58-year-old housewife.

She said her son, now 21, was molested 11 years ago by a man in the lift in Block 9 after visiting a friend there.

There was nothing amiss when The Sunday Times visited the void deck of Block 9, but we spotted 10 men and women in their 40s to 60s playing cards there.

Some residents from Block 11 described them as ‘the gamblers of Block 9′. But we were unable to verify where they live as they did not want to be interviewed.

Like Marsiling’s rental blocks, Teck Whye Lane’s Block 9 had cigarette burn marks on the floors of lifts and spray-painted graffiti at the lift lobbies. Its stairways and common corridors had litter.

Mr Ang Mong Seng, an MP for Hong Kah GRC, said that rental blocks, just like regular blocks, are cleaned once a day in the morning.

‘But we also need residents’ cooperation. Sometimes after the morning cleaning, the block gets dirtied in the afternoon,’ he said.

On the hygiene problems at Marsiling’s rental flats, Mr Hawazi Daipi, an MP for Sembawang GRC, said he has not received any complaints.

In the last 12 years, some residents had given feedback on cleanliness and safety, but the feedback did not portray the precinct ‘as one that is crime-ridden and unliveable’, he said.

‘The precinct is far from that,’ he said, adding that the police patrol the area regularly.

A different world, however, exists in Yishun, Sembawang and Marine Parade.

There, flat owners and tenants of rental flats seem to get along better. In fact, most of the residents in Yishun and Sembawang interviewed were not even aware that the new flats that popped up last year were rental units.

Mr Kamis Abdul Rahman, 55, who has been living in Block 439 in Yishun for 21 years, did not know that Blocks 436 and 438 were rental flats. The part-time library assistant said he is on good terms with his neighbours. ‘If they don’t bother me, I won’t bother them.’

Another resident, Mr Selan, 30, who did not want to give his full name, said he bought a flat in Yishun even though he knew it was near a rental block.

The Sunday Times understands that over 20 families – mostly in their 20s and 30s – have moved into the two rental blocks in Yishun.

Over at Marine Parade, a 31-year-old executive in a charity organisation said she bought a unit in Marine Terrace Block 18 about six years ago to be near her in-laws.

This was more important than the fact that there are five rental blocks in her estate. ‘I do not mind living next to them. They need a roof over their heads just like any one of us,’ she said.

Most of the 10 rental flat residents interviewed said they did not feel any discrimination as they kept mainly to themselves.

Retiree Tan Teck Seng, 56, who lives in Block 3 at Marsiling Road, said he had good relationships with his rental flat neighbours. He has not had a chance to befriend those living in other blocks.

A cook who gave her name as Rose, 43, and who rents a unit in Block 9, Teck Whye Lane, said she was too tired to socialise after work.

Source : Sunday Times – 14 Feb 2010

The growing presence of international schools in suburban areas may lead to a pickup in private suburban rents this year.

Expatriates with families could choose to relocate to these areas for purposes of convenience, said HSR Property Group’s head of special projects, Mr Dennis Yong.

International schools are being built in suburban areas like Districts 17, 18 and 19, he said.

District 17 spans across Changi, Loyang and Pasir Ris. Next to Pasir Ris, Tampines and Simei make up District 18. In the north-east, District 19 encompasses Hougang, Punggol and Sengkang.

Some international schools in these areas include the Australian International School and the Stamford American International School, both in Lorong Chuan in Upper Serangoon in District 19.

The former moved to Lorong Chuan in 2003, and the latter last August. In Tampines, The United World College of South-east Asia will be opening its new east campus by next year. Its present east campus is in Ang Mo Kio. Its main campus is in Dover Road.

Based on Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) data on median rental rates in the third and fourth quarters of last year, rents in these districts have seen some notable increases.

Loyang Valley rates have gone up by 29 cents to $1.77 per sq ft per month (psf pm). At Estella Gardens in Pasir Ris, rates went up by 24 cents to $2.11 psf pm.

Rents at properties in District 19 (Hougang, Punggol and Sengkang) – like Chiltern Park, Chuan Park and Compass Heights – have gone up by 31, 24 and 23 cents respectively.

Director of research and advisory at Colliers International, Ms Tay Huey Ying, said the presence of international schools will help contribute to leasing demands. Ngee Ann Polytechnic real estate lecturer Nicholas Mak said rental gains will most likely be in properties located closer to the schools.

For this year, Colliers expects marginal increases of 0 per cent to 3 per cent in suburban rents.

Savills Singapore also maintains the view that suburban rents will remain stable with small gains, if any.

Away from suburbia, things are also looking up for high-end rentals. Non-landed properties in prime districts – Orchard, Bukit Timah, River Valley, Newton, Marina Bay and Sentosa – saw a 0.9 per cent increase in rentals in the last quarter.

Prime rents have appreciated, largely due to the improving economy, resilient local job market and the return of expatriates, said director of corporate residential leasing at Savills Singapore, Mr Patrick Lai.

Savills expects that high-end private home rents will hold steady and rise up to 10 per cent this year. But movements will ultimately depend on supply and demand, Mr Joseph Tan, executive director, residential at CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) added.

Depending on the types of expats and if there is demand for the more than 3,000 new high-end homes expected to be completed this year, rents will increase at a gradual pace, he said.

Mr Donald Yeo, executive director of marketing at HSR Property Group, sees city-fringe areas, where rentals had increased by just 0.1 per cent in the last quarter, to hold more promise. Rentals in city-fringe areas are relatively more economical and expatriates are not averse to commuting, he said.

Mr Tan of CBRE believes that though competition for tenants will be keen, city-fringe rents could see more significant increases if economic growth remains on track.

Mr Lai said that according to last year’s fourth quarter URA data, private housing supply this year will be about 7,584 units – lower than last year’s 10,448 units. With lower supply and healthy leasing volume, rents are ‘likely to remain on the upward trajectory this year’, he said.

Source : Sunday Times – 14 Feb 2010

TAMPINES and Pasir Ris residents are fretting about new rental flats in their neighbourhood – and the whole affair has a sense of deja vu about it.

Two years ago, private residents in Serangoon Gardens threw a fit when they got wind of plans to locate a foreign worker dormitory there. Now, these HDB home owners are upset about new rental blocks they fear will block their breeze and devalue their homes.

It’s hard not to see the parallels. In the Serangoon Gardens’ case, the bogeyman was the drunken foreign worker cum molester. In Tampines, it’s the drug addict with three hungry children in tow.

One resident summed his fears thus: ‘Smokers and drinkers may gather at the void deck. Many families here have young children and teenagers. We don’t want them led astray.’

Living next to poor people, they reckon, will put them constantly on their guard in their comfortable neighbourhood.

One could be forgiven for thinking that rental HDB flats are full of layabouts, criminals and drunkards. The truth is many are elderly folk living on public assistance, as well as families with valid but low-income employment. And some are young couples trying to save up to buy a modest home of their own.

All tenant households earn not more than $1,500 a month. The HDB says it spread rental blocks across the island ‘to achieve a balanced social mix’. In other words, it tries to integrate rental flat residents with the rest of the home-owning population, so that the underclass don’t form enclaves.

There is good reason for that. Studies, such as those done by Northwestern University professor James Rosenbaum of low-income black families relocated from inner city homes in Chicago to predominantly middle-class suburbs, have found that such moves benefit the poor.

His team found that the Gautreaux Housing Relocation Project, which began in 1976, resulted in such movers being more likely to be employed. Mothers who were reluctant to get a job before because they needed to keep an eye on their kids became more open to seeking jobs when their living environment was safer. Their children were also more likely to go on to university and find full-time jobs at higher wages than those who remained in the inner city.

In Singapore, rental flat residents who live among communities of home owners stand to gain from a more balanced living environment. This is not to say that all families who live in flats they own are better off or better adjusted. Rather, living together with families across a wide spectrum of income groups will prevent both sides from acquiring a distorted sense of reality.

This point is particularly relevant to middle-income heartlanders who worry their children will grow up too coddled to understand the real world. Here’s the thing: Poverty need not be something abstract, learnt from textbooks or school excursions, if children can get some sense of what it’s like to be poor from the kids they interact with in the neighbourhood playground.

They will learn not to despise or fear the poor. They will learn, hopefully, to approach them with modesty and compassion, because they understand that hardship can strike anyone at any point in their lives.

The fortunate thing about this whole affair is that the Government looks unlikely to budge from building the rental blocks. The downturn has swelled the ranks of applicants and prompted the HDB to increase its stock of rental flats by 17 per cent to 50,000 in 2012. That said, one wonders what concessions might be made, such as the separate road entrances in the Serangoon Gardens’ case.

It is no secret that public housing in Singapore functions also as a sophisticated form of social engineering. Housing policies help integrate the races, bond families across generations, and encourage marriage to boot.

As society changes, and new forms of social divides appear, the authorities will constantly tweak the formula further to see how they can bridge the social divisions. For instance, last month Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew spoke about having separate ethnic quotas for permanent residents to prevent them from forming enclaves.

The current quotas limit the proportions of Chinese, Malay, Indians and other minority races in each block and precinct. But these quotas do not affect new immigrants, who have been buying up resale flats near one another. Hence the current review of the ethnic integration policy.

Could rental flats become the next area for social experiments? After all, HDB already has a policy of mixing different flat types in each block to encourage interactions across different income groups.

In a launch early this month, a batch of 750 upcoming flats called Punggol Crest comprised two-room, three-room and four-room units, while another 784 units called Treegrove@Woodlands offered studio apartments for the elderly together with three- and four-roomers.

Given the high number of flats being launched these days, wouldn’t it make sense for the HDB to build new rental flats within the same block as sold flats?

The average heartlander who may baulk at living next to a rental block is likely to be less resistant to the idea of living with one or two families on subsidised rental just down his corridor.

In fact, he might not be able to tell that they are subsidised tenants, and might interact with them without any preconceived notions.

Done sensibly, this merging of rental and sold flats can blur boundaries, reduce stigma and bridge differences.

Given Singapore’s rising income gap, such a policy could prove to be as socially beneficial as the ethnic integration policy.

Source : Straits Times – 16 Feb 2010

Kampung Baru lies in the shadow of the world-famous Petronas Twin Towers, but the Malay enclave may soon have a shine of its own.

Prime Minister Najib Razak recently announced that the government will redevelop the enclave of old houses sited among narrow streets in downtown Kuala Lumpur.

He promised that the plan will include the participation of the residents, but knows he has to tread carefully when talking about the 110-year-old enclave.

Plans to redevelop the area had been announced at least three times previously, but residents and land owners objected to the compensation offered.

Said Mr Haji Ali, 62, who owns a nasi lemak stall in the area: ‘Land owners should be paid the market value of RM2,000 (S$825) per square foot, which is the rate of other properties in this prime area.’

Previous developers offered only RM300 to RM350 per square foot, he added.

Kampung Baru is Malay reserve land, which means it can be sold only to Malays, making it hard to develop.

There is also the issue of land ownership, as some of the lots are owned by as many as 200 people.

This happens because, under Islamic law, the land is passed on to other heirs after an owner dies. Thus, the number of owners can multiply in a hundred years.

There were also attempts to turn Kampung Baru into a tourist attraction, but the project failed to catch on.

With a population of about 35,000, the village is rich in Malay history.

Umno founders held their meetings there. Today, Malay grassroots groups often gather at the famous Kampung Baru mosque to protest against current issues.

The roads, dotted with Malay food stalls, are narrow two-way streets with parked cars taking up one whole lane.

Political analysts said the project would be a good move for the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) as it would attract the vote of urban Malays if Mr Najib can successfully redevelop the area.

‘All the previous prime ministers, including Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his 22 years, failed to do it,’ Professor Shaharuddin Badaruddin of Universiti Teknologi Mara said.

The village falls under the Titiwangsa parliamentary seat in the Federal Territory of KL. Previously under the BN, it fell to opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia for the first time in the 2008 polls.

But they warned that Datuk Seri Najib must tread carefully to avoid a possible backlash, as Kampung Baru holds sentimental value for most Malays.

Political science lecturer Agus Yusoff also said the government must be careful when compensating the land owners and developing new buildings.

‘They have to be careful or there could be unhappiness and a backlash later,’ he said. ‘If possible, the land owners should still be the owners of the newly developed property.’

Another problem is changing the mindset of some of the old residents, who would not be able to accept changes, said businessman Arbain Yahya, 50.

Federal Territories and Urban Well-being Minister Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin, knowing the hurdles ahead, said land owners stand to receive up to

RM4 million each upon accepting the redevelopment concept plan proposed by the government.

He said the value of the 80ha of land is RM20 billion.

He added that the government is looking at the possibility of introducing laws whereby if 80 per cent of residents in a particular area agree to development, the 20 per cent who disagree must accede to the majority.

Location: The 110-year-old village is less than 1km from the Petronas Twin Towers.

Size: About 80ha, the size of 60 football fields, with 35,000 residents.

Restrictions: It is Malay reserve land, which means it can be sold only to Malays.

Problems: Difficult to develop because there are about 1,000 landowners, each owning small plots.

Attractions: Famous for its nasi lemak and Malay food stalls.

Source : Straits Times – 17 Feb 2010

As the US housing market boomed in the past decade and fuelled a bull market in mortgage investments, Norway’s government-owned investment fund went along for the ride, and the fall.

After the fund recorded its worst-ever year in 2008, managers blamed investments backed by US mortgages as a key culprit and began to cut back.

Now, US officials are looking to foreign government funds again.

The Federal Reserve is scheduled at the end of March to halt its purchases of mortgage-backed securities, a move that could drive up the low interest rates that have helped the housing market show new signs of life.

The Fed is gambling that private investors will step in to buy the securities, helping to keep rates from spiking. Senior officials in the Obama administration and at the Fed say they are counting in part on foreigners to keep the housing market funded.

But financial analysts and advisers familiar with foreign government funds, known as sovereign wealth funds, predicted that the United States will get limited relief from abroad.

‘I don’t think it will be enough to fill the hole,’ said Ajay Rajadhyaksha, head of fixed-income strategy for the United States at Barclays Capital.

Nor is Norway’s experience encouraging. Its government’s holdings of securities issued by the mortgage financier Fannie Mae declined from a 2007 high of more than US$15 billion, at current exchange rates, to just more than US$5 billion as of Sept 30, 2009, according to the fund’s public reports.

Contracts with external investment mangers were slashed, and the fund’s guidelines were refocused toward individual stocks, real estate and other deals that the fund’s staff had the expertise to vet.

The largest sovereign wealth funds belong to big exporters such as China and the oil-rich monarchies of the Persian Gulf that accumulate trade surpluses.

These funds often set guidelines for the amount of money they are willing to put into bonds or other fixed-income investments, including mortgage-backed securities. Even if interest rates begin a modest rise, as he expects, Mr Rajadhyaksha said he does not think it will be enough for sovereign wealth funds to direct large amounts of money away from alternatives, particularly US Treasury notes, that are less risky and not associated with the mortgage crisis.

‘A lot of sovereign wealth funds have a vested interest in seeing the US stabilise,’ said RP Eddy, whose Ergo consulting firm advises foreign funds on US and global economic issues. ‘But some wealth fund coming in to save the day? That is not going to happen.’

The securities issued by government-sponsored enterprises such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not debts of the US government, but do carry an implicit guarantee that the companies not be allowed to default. In December, the government carried that a step further, saying it would not limit the amount of money made available to keep the firms solvent.

Senior US officials said the goal was to reassure buyers of the companies’ mortgage securities that they were safe. ‘That’s particularly true for foreign investors,’ said Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

The Fed’s departure from the market for mortgage-backed securities is only one step being taken to wind down the emergency measures put in place by the US government during the financial crisis. But it is one that could have a direct effect on homeowners and potential buyers and on the tentative recovery in the real estate market.

By packaging home mortgages into large bundles that are then sold to investors, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac generate funds that allow banks and other lenders to provide more loans. Keeping that market liquid during the depths of the global credit crisis was a high priority – much so, that the Federal Reserve is expected to own US$1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities by the time the program ends.

If funding evaporates in the absence of federal support, that would mean higher interest rates – making purchases more difficult for buyers and payments more expensive for those with adjustable-rate loans.

Some financial analysts said US officials consider a healthy housing market so vital to an economic recovery that they would roll out new policies to keep mortgage rates low if sovereign wealth funds and other private investors fail to step in with enough funding.

Source : Business Times – 17 Feb 2010

I READ the report, ‘Uproar over new rental flats going up’ (Feb 9), with great concern. Although Singapore is a developed country, we have somehow created divisions in our cohesive society.

People are now more self-centred. Some look at the type of flats they live in and conclude that having rental flats around theirs will lower the value of their property. Some assume that people who live in rental flats are trouble makers.

I grew up in a rental flat in Hoy Fatt Road and later moved to the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) quarters. When my mother retired from PSA, we moved to Telok Blangah Drive, renting a one-room and one-hall flat in Block 45. Our doors were open most of the time. We knew our neighbours well and even exchanged gifts on festive occasions.

Today, many people live in large flats but the doors are closed and neighbours hardly know one another.

Smokers and drinkers are everywhere, but they should not be seen as an unwanted group. Foreign workers are here to help Singapore by doing jobs Singaporeans are not interested in. Without them, many jobs in the cleaning and construction sectors would remain unfilled.

We should not segregate fellow citizens with comments and undesirable attitudes.All Singaporeans should bond together to ensure a better living environment.

Now my family lives in a three-room flat in Tiong Bahru. But if one day we had to move to a rental flat, would we be regarded as potential trouble makers?

Since we are from the lower-income group, I am deeply concerned and distressed.

Dennis Lee

Source : Straits Times – 17 Feb 2010

FAR East Organization said yesterday it has sold 100 units in its latest residential project, the 280-unit Altez in Enggor Street.

The developer said that during a preview for priority customers last week, 100 of the 104 units released were sold. Prices ranged from $1,600 to $2,000 per sq ft (psf).

The units sold comprised one and two-bedroom apartments from levels 10 to 22 of the 62-storey development.

Far East said that Altez, at 250 metres high, will be Singapore’s tallest residential development. It is next to Tanjong Pagar MRT station.

About 60 per cent of the buyers at Altez are foreigners, said Chia Boon Kuah, Far East’s chief operating officer for property sales.

‘The robust response to Altez demonstrates demand for well-conceived products of value in an excellent location in the city centre,’ Mr Chia said.

‘With the wide array of amenities and F&B outlets in this area, an MRT station at its doorstep, the upcoming New Downtown nearby and the possible future transformation of Tanjong Pagar into a waterfront city, buyers of Altez are assured of the positive prospects of this area.’

Far East will release more two-bedroom apartments tomorrow. Market watchers say these are expected to be priced higher on a psf basis than those sold already.

Among other amenities, Altez offers five floors of sky gardens and another two storeys of facilities.

Source : Business Times – 17 Feb 2010