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1) The Swap Offer Rate (SOR), or
2) The Singapore Interbank Offered Rate (SIBOR)
However, a banker might sometimes offer you a third option: an Internal Board Rate (IBR), often just called a "board rate". Using the IBR means your home loan interest rate will be determined by the bank.
And they can change it as they like, without you getting so much as a sympathetic nod and a "sorry".
There will not be a major correction next year but factors from oversupply to lending curbs will keep prices of private homes and executive condominiums (EC) depressed, say analysts. They also warn that any let up on cooling measures seems unlikely in the near term as the price falls have not affected most owners.
Mr Desmond Sim, CBRE research head for South-east Asia, told The Straits Times yesterday: "Most developers are still propped up by holding power as well as land prices, which continued to be quite high over the past year.
The United States shouldn't raise interest rates to avoid hurting developing nations dependent on the U.S. dollar, China's finance minister said. Lou Jiwei said the dollar remained critical to the global economy.
"The United States isn’t at the point of raising interest rates yet, and under its global responsibilities, it can’t raise rates," Lou said in an interview published in the China Business News Monday. He spoke during the annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Lima, Peru.
The US central bank has raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point and pledged a gradual pace of increases
This marks the end to the near-zero borrowing costs that have prevailed since the US was struck by the worst financial crash in modern times.
As Singapore faces impending interest rate hike later this year, there has been much concern over the adverse impact on the office capital values.
Since the start of the Quantitative Easing (QE) by the US Federal Reserve in December 2008, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) office property price index (PPI) has been up 43%, thanks to the strong capital flows into Asia and the ultra-low interest rate environment which makes borrowing much cheaper.
The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise its benchmark interest rates this week, and Asia is ready for it when it happens, economists said.
SINGAPORE: The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise interest rates this week, and Asia will be ready for it when it happens, economists told Channel NewsAsia.
Speculation over when the Fed will raise rates for the first time in nearly a decade has dominated the market agenda ever since the central bank ended its historic quantitative easing program in October 2014. Many market watchers have been concerned about a rise in US interest rates, recalling how an exodus of funds from emerging markets was triggered in 2013 after former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke raised the possibility of “tapering” the bond-buying program.
1. What did the Federal Reserve do and why?
The US central bank raised its benchmark federal funds rate for the first time in more than nine years on Wednesday (Dec 16). The rate had been next to zero since December 2008, and was increased by a quarter point to a range of 0.25-0.50 per cent. The Fed says the economy has rebounded enough since the Great Recession that the rate should begin rising, albeit slowly.
LOS ANGELES: For everyone who has been saying interest rates can only go up, well: now is their time. But what does the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates actually mean for your wallet?
Probably not much for the near-term. One small interest rate hike of one-quarter of a percentage point is unlikely to have much impact on your budget, but that does not mean you should ignore the Fed's first rate increase since 2006.
SINGAPORE: After keeping interest rates near zero for seven years, there are expectations that the US Federal Reserve is ready to announce a rate hike at its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting this week, following a two-day policy meeting.
FITCH Ratings said in its latest Asia-Pacific Structured Finance Chart that Singapore's private residential property prices have fallen 8.2 per cent from its peak in September 2013.
The fall has mainly been driven by tighter policy controls aimed at cooling the housing market. Fitch believes if immigration rates remain low with vacancy rates and property supply remaining elevated, property prices will continue to soften.
Property investment in Singapore has long been touted as a sure-fire way to reap attractive returns due to the scarcity of land in the city-state and its status as a global financial hub. Much of this view has also been fuelled by an 83.7% surge in property prices over the last decade. However, this widely-held belief is being put to the test as the Singapore property market enters into a period of softness brought about by a combination of rising interest rates, a supply overhang and the government’s implementation of cooling measures.
ABSD or additional buyer’s stamp duty at 15% is a big liability for developers
SINGAPORE: Singapore is caught between a rock and a hard place.
On the one hand, a slowing Chinese economy and sputtering global trade are squeezing growth in the small Asian city-state. On the other hand, the mighty Federal Reserve's sway on global interest rates is causing a sharp jump in the island's benchmark borrowing cost.
There's one – and perhaps only one way – for Singapore to wriggle out of the tight spot: scrap “ABSD.”
Digital has disrupted the traditional ways of conducting business, especially so for sales.
In the pre-digital age, a salesman would come by selling the latest product with a sales brochure, armed with a good sales pitch and counter arguments, with the goal of convincing the buyer and closing the sale. Typically, this would involve a decision-maker within the company, and if all goes well, the salesman would be successful and close the sale.
Today, thanks to digital and social media, buyers can gather information much faster. They know what they want and why. When today’s buyers have questions, they search for answers online instead of relying purely on information from a salesperson.
Listings soared to a 7-year high.
Singapore’s property auction market witnessed a seven-year high of mortgagee listings in 2015, on back of subdued economic conditions and the continued impact of property cooling measures.
And transport-related prices probably won’t spike either.
According to a report by BMI, Singapore headline inflation is expected to remain subdued in 2016, amid mild commodity price, monetary aggregate, transport, and housing fundamentals. This will extend Singapore’s deflationary trend that’s lasted over the last 12 months.
BMI forecasts that the deflationary impulse from housing will persist as the gradual rollback of decline in the inflow of skilled foreign labour has impacted demand right when an influx of new units poured into the market. Meanwhile, regulators are adamant on property market cooling measures such as loan-to-valuation ratios and additional buyer’s stamp duties.
The recent financial rout in the commodity and currency market has resulted in volatility in the financial market. No longer are businesses whether large or small immune to the spillover effects of external influences on domestic businesses operation.
Positive Currency fluctuation effects on businesses
Based on the latest The World Bank data on countries' export of goods and services as a percentage of GDP, Singapore's percentage in 2014 was at 187.6%1. As a small city-state economy, we have to think of the world as our "oasis".
4,300 manufacturing workers lost their jobs in 3Q.
Employees in the manufacturing sector can’t seem to catch a break as weak demand continues to be the thorn in the sector’s side.
According to a report by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the job losses in 3Q came just after 4,400 workers were laid off in the same sector last quarter.
Warren Buffett famously said, "Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked."
That's true in volatile markets like those experienced in emerging markets this year in anticipation of a Fed rate hike.
Warren Buffett's adage is a reminder that timing is everything when it comes to investments. Unfortunately life doesn't always co-operate with market cycles and that's why liquidity is a much overlooked component of financial planning.
The property sector remained subdued but not really that bad at all. Barclays will show you in 10 charts.
November developer sales rose 39% m/m and 79% y/y to 759 units, bringing 11M15 sales to 7,144 units (-0.1% y/y). While Barclays expects a quiet December, believes sales for full year 2015 could slightly exceed 2014’s full year sales of 7,316 units.
MAS in a review last month noted that “risks in the sector are abating”. Barclays believe a peak vacancy rate of 10% next year and rate hikes will push down prices another 5-8% in 2016. By then the government could be ready for some policy easing, it said.
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