Fully Sold--Thanks Be To God!

Sorry about the light posting lately, everyone. We're all OK more or less, except Violet has some kind of mysterious pox on her face and head (not chicken pox). Itchy, but doesn't seem to be bothering her all that much, though it's painful to touch so a little tricky getting cream on it. Well, now that I re-read what I've written so far, that's actually a little pitiful, but she's really not all that sick.

My relentless fascination with various US real-estate markets continues, despite the fact that we're not planning to move back at the moment. It's partly schadenfreude of the sort only sustained reading of the Irvine Housing Blog can provide, partly an attempt to understand the gloomy mood and fortunes of my native land. All my friends in the states say things seem really ugly right now. And then I've always enjoyed imagining that I lived in various houses I might pass in my daily life. Even the Bay Area appears to be succumbing to that harsh mistress of gravity.

Sadly my local dream house was torn down a few months ago to make room for a 30-story condo tower. Singapore is visibly in the stage of the market where you overbuild luxury condos; in the 1k region around my house there is 1 recently completed complex (3 towers) and 9 more complexes on the way in various stages (15 towers of 20 or 30 stories each.) Granted, it's a nice neighborhood really close to Orchard Road, with 2 MRT stations nearby, and it's not really reasonable to expect there to be lots of low-rise, single-family housing this close to downtown. Nonetheless, I just can't believe that there can possibly be enough people to fill all the luxury condos going up at the moment (and my neighborhood is not unique in this respect).

My mom was very amused by one condo now under construction near us (just a hole in the ground and a show-flat when she was last here) with a banner sign saying "Fully Sold--Thanks Be To God!" You'd think He might have cyclones or something to deal with ahead of making sure the Lippo group sells all 100 units, but whatever...

Comments

[The Modesto Kid]

Also, picture being one of the people who has bought a share in this condo-to-be, and seeing the seller put up that sign. Can't be too instilling of confidence to picture him wiping his brow and exhaling in relief that his risk has all been offloaded onto shareholders...

[The Modesto Kid]

My previous comment contains one too many instances of the verb "picture". Please substitute "imagine" for the first instance when you are reading it.

[belle waring]

I'll just picture you saying imagine.

[The Modesto Kid]

Thanks.

[dsquared]

Also, picture being one of the people who has bought a share in this condo-to-be, and seeing the seller put up that sign. Can't be too instilling of confidence to picture him wiping his brow and exhaling in relief that his risk has all been offloaded onto shareholders

would actually be quite confidence inspiring, as typically these things are presold as a means of financing; one you've seen that all the units are sold you can be reasonably sure the thing's actually gonna get built ...

[I.E.]

Hey, thanks for the site recommendation. Ever since you posted about it a few months ago, I've read the IHB almost daily---an unambiguous pleasure to read.

[Matt]

Maybe it's Monkey pox.

[lalehk]

Well, actually Beirut is the same, and most of the buildings stay empty, but some sort of weird financial shell-game (with loans given or underwritten by the EU) allows it...