Ghost cities versus ghost buildings in Marina

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

We have heard of ghost cities in China when whole estates were built in anticipation of occupants taking over after being relocated from their villages. The Chinese are no fools and the empty cities are not built simply by opportunists developers who built without knowing if there is a demand for them. The cities will be filled by resettlement cases from the villages, to replace the old homes, just like what we did to our old shanty villages in Bukit Ho Swee, Ang Mo Kio and many other old estates.

Many reports have been written on these ghost cities in China but the Chinese govt is not unduly worried as there are more than a billion people waiting for new and better housing as the country goes into a nationwide rebuilding and renewing programme.

The recent fire at the Marina Bay Suites exposed an untold story of blocks of new housing development, all sold but with few occupants. These ghost buildings, a smaller scale than the Chinese cities, are likely to be spread around the islands. Or maybe the Marina Bay Suites is only an exception. If it is a common phenomenon, then property prices are primed to crash when so many flats have been bought and unoccupied, waiting to be flipped for a profit, for the next sucker to come along.

This is a good topic for the reporters to do some investigative journalism to tell the full story on the housing bubble and speculative play, to warn unsuspecting Sinkies from taking a plunge and avoid being caught in a sinking property market.

How many more homes are coming into the market and how many are bought and waiting to be resold? What is the combined total or supply available for sale? The supply is not just those under construction but those in the unoccupied ghost buildings waiting for buyers.

- http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.sg/2...host-buildings.


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