Singapore Estate Law – Can You Will Your HDB to Siblings?

Here’s another interesting snippet from Sunday Times. Agent friends should flip up Sunday Times and look out for the Invest Section – Your Personal Adviser: Finance

hdb

Question:

I would like to know if I can make a will and name my siblings as beneficiaries so they can inherit my HDB flat when I die. I am single and registered as the sole owner of the flat. Two of my siblings already have their own HDB flats, while another has a private property.

If it is not possible to will the flat to them, what will happen to the property after my death? Would HDB buy back the flat and then distribute the funds to my estate, and would it pay the original price or the market rate?

Continue reading “Singapore Estate Law – Can You Will Your HDB to Siblings?” →

Caspian & Alexis Sells Well – Singapore Property Mid Tier Market Still Strong

Mid Tier Developments Moving After Chinese New Year

Alexis @ AlexandraOver the recent two weeks, we’ve heard Fraser’s Centrepoint Jurong Lake District Caspian condo selling well (over 60% sold of their 712 units) and Alexis @ Alexandra (of 293 units) by Yi Kai and Fision Group sold out in 3 days.

This shows our HDB upgraders and property speculators are still around despite the midst of the worst economy crisis that has ever happened to Singapore. While it’s a relief that the cash is still there, some of the buyers of Alexis has been seen trying to flip their just bought options for profit (Interest Absorption Scheme was offered and the owners are allowed to have 3 weeks to decide whether to take up loans from the exclusive bank)

With the successful launch momentum that Alexis and Caspian enjoys, Guocoland grabs the opportunity to re-launch its remaining units at The Quartz with a 10% discount on its tag (around 595psf). The Quartz is a 625 unit strong condominium residing near Buangkok MRT Station and has a balance of 182 units till date.
Continue reading “Caspian & Alexis Sells Well – Singapore Property Mid Tier Market Still Strong” →

My Mobile Work Station – Property Agent Tools

Here’s a doze of my mobile station that allows me to work anywhere be it in the car, in the washroom or when meeting clients :)

workstation

HTC Touch Pro


The former Dopod 838Pro (Hermes) was retired last year. I was one of the first few who jumped into the sliding keyboard form factor when Dopod launched its old 838Pro despite its brick like size.

XDA Developers has been my creed for the past few years on mobile upgrades, customed ROMS which work usually wonders than the original ones provided by HTC and tweaks that maximises the phone’s potential.

With the TouchPRO, reminders and calendars are the boon to Realtor jobs, friendly Opera browsing and email functions are pluses (which I dont really use much since 3G/HSPDA connections tax alot on the battery life usually)

ps. I’ve just gotten the news that Touch Pro 2 is to be released by HTC this Q2. Pfft.

Continue reading “My Mobile Work Station – Property Agent Tools” →

PropGO – Network your Group of Real Estate Agent Friends!

Besides getting hitched with its Win $10,000 worth of advertising competition for the Best Singapore Agent award, here’re some other benefits that I’ve experienced over the past 1 week of fiddling with PropGO.

Networking

Networking with PropGo ;)
Networking with PropGo ;)

A new agent friend that specialised in commercial listings gave me a private messaged to touch base with me. Continue reading “PropGO – Network your Group of Real Estate Agent Friends!” →

One Amber – Maryland’s Park Pride

There’re 3 main segments with brand new projects in District 15 to look at, namely the St Patrick’s Area, the Maryland Park/ Seaview Area and the Fort Road Area.

I’d be touching the middle one which has sprung a couple of building and just completed projects in the past 2 – 3 years (Maryland Park/ Seaview)

In this particular segment of East Coast, we have The Seaview by Wheelock Properties, which has already TOPed in 2008, The Esta by MCL Land which recently gotten its TOP status and One Amber by UIC which is still in construction phase.

Realtor’s Project Information on One Amber

To assist fellow property agents on One Amber, I have uploaded a full copy of the One Amber catalogue to share with agent friends as well as potential buyers. If you need a clean version without the watermark, contact me.

One Amber - Artiste Impression
One Amber - Artiste Impression

Continue reading “One Amber – Maryland’s Park Pride” →

Windows Mobile 6.5 – How does it Look

Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile

A video from jkOnTheRun seems to have showed a HTC phone using the latest 6.5 build of WM 6.5.

It looks erratic and weird to me, and there doesn’t seem to be huge improvements over its 6.1 built except eye candies like a honey-comb design.

Well I’ve been a WM user long enough but I’m curious if the Graphical User Interface (GUI) changes for WM 6.5, how would HTC’s TouchFLO interfaces with the new WM on the latest lines of HTC Phones (Touch, TouchPRO, Touch HD).

Honeycomb looks.. weird.

IRAS – Tax Rebate and Defer Your Income Tax Payment

Every eligible Singapore tax payer should have a letter hitting their mailbox from our friend, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) on 2 things coming from the Singapore Budget’s Resilience Package.

One-off Income Tax Rebate

So everyone gets a 20% one-off income tax rebate or maximum of $2,000 for tax payable for 2009.

Defer Your Income Tax Payment

You could choose the option to delay your payment for 3 months using your SingPass. Note that you’ll also have to be paying your tax by GIRO to be eligible for the deferment.

Well, 6 month’s isn’t a bad thing (IRAS starts computing in 3 months and starts collecting the instalments 3 months later, making it 6 months in total) for people who might have cash flow problems in the meantime to sort out.

Signing Up

Head to http://www.iras.gov.sg/defergiro

Look out for the big red button on the corner, it looks like this

iras-1

Pump in your SingPass details and you’re done! Remember, the latest date to sign up for deferment is on the 15th of March 2009, so please don’t miss it :)

Sign up for IRAS Deferment
Sign up for IRAS Deferment

Sometimes it’s really impressive and scary to think of how the government keeping tabs on all its citizens with SingPass to all the government portals and statutory boards.

No More Heading to the Gym in the Morning

Especially during the peak hours. I didn’t know it’s so serious until I kicked off the car to head towards Mount Faber SAFRA to fully utilise the EnergyOne membership I have. Being health conscious in Singapore isn’t easy, especially when it starts off with the travelling to sweat.

The Journey

First gantry, $1.00 towards PIE (PIE after Kallang Bahru on Woodsville Flyover), that’s fine *accelerates.

Second gantry $3.50 towards CTE (PIE into CTE). $3.50!? I know people who crosses ERP on daily charges of up to almost $20.00 a day for a stretch and sympathize with them, but you’ll have to experience it real-time to feel the pain.

erp-scare

Track your ERP Spendings

Sign up for Motorpay to keep track of your ERP spendings and to avoid spending on $10.00 administrative fees of insufficient cashcard fund.

Do your planning before you head out if you’re always on the road.Or better still, gym at 7am to avoid the ERP charges.

Singapore Estate Law – Can Foreigners Inherit Landed Property?

Sunday Times is always the best source for uncommon Singapore Real Estate laws. Here’s the snippet and answer:-

My boss is a Singaporean but she lives in Malaysia as she’s married to a Malaysian. She has a few landed properties in Singapore. In the event of her death, can her children and/or husband legally own the properties if willed, as they are not Singapore citizens or permanent residents (PRs)?

Professional answer coming from KhattarWong Partners, Lim Choi Ming,

In general, only Singaporeans are allowed to own land and landed properties in Singapore.

The following descriptions of land/landed property in Singapore are classified as restricted residential property:

  1. Vacant residential land;
  2. Landed property (that is, detached house, semi-detached house, terrace house including linked house or townhouse); and
  3. Landed property in strata developments which are not approved condominium developments under the Planning Act.

Foreigners and PRs are allowed to own restricted residential properties only if they have obtained the prior approval of the Land Dealings Approval Unit (LDAU).

Your boss may will her landed property to her husband and/or children even if they are not PRs or Singaporeans. However, upon her death, a foreign beneficiary will have to obtain LDAU approval before he is eligible to legally own such landed property.

If the foreign beneficiary is not granted approval to acquire the landed property, the trustee of the estate of the deceased person will have to sell the foreign beneficiary’s share in the landed property within 10 years of the date of death of the deceased person.

If, for some reason, the trustee is unable to sell the property within the 10-year time limit, he will have to apply to LDAU for a time extension.

So if you have a landed property being passed down to you if you are a foreigner, you would have to dispose it should you decide not to reside in Singapore unless you have very special reasons that you could write to LDAU to allow you to own the house and at the same time reside in your home country.

At the very least, you could still wait and dispose your property at the right time since there’s no restriction on when you have to dispose the landed property within the 10 years timeframe.