HDB affordability

Mortgage to annual salary ratio of 30% - not a good indicator
Bcos pple who cannot afford flats are not captured

Also loan tenure is 30 yr
About 56% of all HDB buyers take 30 yr loan

Price to income ratio
4 rm
2000 4.7
2009 5.5

5 rm
2000 5
2009 5.6

Global average 7-9x

HDB flats have become less affordable in the past 9 yrs but still more affordable vs global average.

Who is driving up HDB prices?

PR buys 20% of all HDB resale flats

23,000 HDB flats are rented out illegally (est)

Salary: Singapore vs Asia Pacific

Pakistan 9.6%
Vietnam 8.5%
India 8%
Singapore 2.8% (No.7 out of 19)
HK 2.3%
NZ 2.2%
Japan 1.9%
Average 4.8%

Salary freeze ratio
2009 50%
2010 16%

Resignation rate
2008 16.7%
2009 6.2%

HDB new flats

HDB new flats
2007 2,000
2008 8,000+
2009 8,000+

There are roughly 24,000 marriages in Sg every year

Median selling prices
3 rm $240k
4 rm $320k
5 rm $380k

80% of households qualifies for grant

Orchard Road

7 mn tourist in 2008

8mn sqf of retail space of which
1.2mn sqf are new retails

HDB rental

'The highest you can fetch in rent for an HDB flat in a good location is probably $2,000 plus. Any higher, people will go to condos,' ERA agent

HDB figures show that a three-room flat in Ang Mo Kio, Jurong West or Serangoon typically fetched rent of about $1,400 a month in the second quarter of in 2009.

Military Spending

US 607bn (41% of world total)
China 85bn (5.8%)
France 65.7bn (4.5%)
Britain 65.4bn (4.5%)
Russia 58bn (4%)

Per Person

Israel $2300 (total 16.2bn)
US $1900 (607bn)
Oman $1700 (4.5bn)
Singapore $1700 (7.5bn)
Kuwait $1600 (4.7bn)
S. Arabia $1500 (38.2bn)
Norway $1250 (5.9bn)
Greece $1100 (12.6bn)
Britain $1050 (65.3bn)
France $1050 (65.7bn)

Total global military spending $1.46trn (4% increase YoY)

Reported by Swedish thinktank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

Prime Grade A Office Rental and Vacancy Rate

Formidable Apple

8% of all computer users are Mac users

10 mn Imac sold in 2008
54mn Ipod sold in 2008
12 mn Iphone sold in 2008

Sg deposits

S$150bn in banks in SG
Reserves being unlock to cover potentially all withdrawals

Sexually active teens

Singapore 14-19 years old - 8%
US 15-19 years old - 46%!

Survey of 4000 students in Sg done in 2006, US 2002

China poverty

20% of Chinese living in poverty ie less than $1 per day
A huge drop from 80% in 1981 though

Retail rental in Singapore

Location 2005 2008
Orchard (high end eg Paragon) $35-56psf $50-80psf
Orchard (mid eg Taka) $28-35psf $30-50psf
Orchard (low eg Far East) $3.6-31.5psf $4-35psf
Suntec and Marina $16-20psf $20-25psf
Suburban $2.6-6.8psf $3-8psf

Monthly breakeven revenue
Orchard $80k
Suntec $30k
Surban $8k

Singapore Reserves

Figures in USD
1965 1bn
1981 15bn
1984 23bn
2008 330-450bn

CASE stats

THE Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) has handled about 263,486 cases since it was established in 1971. It has also mediated 869 cases since its mediation centre was opened in 1999.

Case has received an average of 20,000 complaints every year in the last five years and managed to recover about $4 million annually over the last two years in disputes for consumers.

Number of cases involving Sim Lim Square retailers
2004: 69
2005: 103
2006: 119
2007: 188
2008: 244 (1.2% of all CASE complaints)
2009 (up till February): 48
Complaints include unsatisfactory service and overcharging.

Motor car industry
2006: 1,435
2007: 1,562
2008: 1,709 (8.5% of all CASE complaints)
2009 (up till February): 272
Complaints cover problems such as defective goods and misleading claims.

Spa industry
2007: 98
2008: 113
2009 (up till February): 12
Complaints involve pressure selling and failure to deliver services promised.

Beauty industry
2007: 1,105
2008: 1,275 (6.3% of all CASE complaints)
2009 (up till February): 151
Complaints include misrepresentation and failure to honour contracts.

Dividends

USD 736bn of dividends paid in 2007
25% decline or more in 2008

Financial firms contributed to 1/3 of USD 736bn

Dividend accounts for 30-40% of overall returns of stocks (about 8-10%)

Rights issue

S$ 8bn rights issue in past few mths
Capitaland S$ 1.84bn

Mkt cap of STI S$ 224bn
ie 3.6% of mkt cap from rights issue!

Rights issue = bad capital management
Forcing shareholders to cough out more money

Sg co.s: bad track record for prudent capital management
Top of the list: Capitaland

Online email users

Hotmail 283mn users
Yahoo! 274mn users
Gmail 113mn users (1mn business users)