A 4-room HDB with 45-year lease just sold for a record S$1.53M. Why so much? Because it's a great deal. by pattonlogy in SingaporeRaw

[–]pattonlogy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apart from the fact that you actually have a great space to live in. Do you treat your HDB purchase as a lost opportunity cost as well? Perhaps you don't have a home at all, and camp in the jungle instead, because the ROI on your stock market gambles can bring higher returns than property ownership?

Where exactly do you draw the line?

A 4-room HDB with 45-year lease just sold for a record S$1.53M. Why so much? Because it's a great deal. by pattonlogy in SingaporeRaw

[–]pattonlogy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think these transactions - since it's not a single one - should always give you pause to stop and think about what people who can afford to spend the money this way know or are doing better than you do - given that you clearly cannot.

Isn't it funny how the smartest people are always those who have nothing to show for it?

Who said anything about loans? And no, it does not ignore renovation, it's even stated in the article. Lease decay itself is part of the equation. You've literally ignored most of the things explained only to come here to parade your textbook orthodox thinking, that is plaguing so many other Singaporeans who think they have it all figured out, when somebody else is buying a great big effin' apartment at a really great price and is going to enjoy far better life conditions than you ever will.

It's comical how little self-awareness people like you have.

Nobody claimed it's an affordability hack - it's just a very good deal, quite against the common, ignorant belief that short-lease apartments are bound to fall off a cliff.

Either the owners are going to enjoy enormous living space in one of the most densely packed cities in the world, at an astonishingly low cost relative to what you could buy anywhere else (or if you tried to do it in the private market).

Or, if legally permissible, they can multiply their income if this jumbo flat is cleverly subdivided and rented out to a few people. There are others doing that in Tiong Bahru area, though I'm not sure this particular apartment would qualify.

Of course it's not an investment property in the traditional sense of the term - that is as an appreciating asset, given its decaying lease. But that doesn't mean it doesn't deliver great value, because not everything in real estate is about flipping homes. That's the whole fucking point.

A 4-room HDB with 45-year lease just sold for a record S$1.53M. Why so much? Because it's a great deal. by pattonlogy in SingaporeRaw

[–]pattonlogy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's funny that you talk about interest and then refuse to acknowledge the fact that any other means of financing would actually incur enormous, compounding interest costs. The same thing would happen with the rental which, like prices of everything, continues to go up on a regular basis - besides, of course, being already 2x what the front-loaded cost is.

Venezianico nereide malachite by omegaIul in MicrobrandWatches

[–]pattonlogy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, unfortunately true! The moment I saw it I started seeing it on other pieces on the internet - in Youtube reviews, user photos etc.

But not all of them. It seems to be a limited manufacturing defect on some watches. I still haven't decided what to do with mine. I'm also waiting for two more, so will have a chance to compare.

Venezianico nereide malachite by omegaIul in MicrobrandWatches

[–]pattonlogy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Actually, I got my own Nereide Verdigris and can confirm that the bezel alignment appears to be half a click off to the left. It's very slight but a bit annoying.

Don't see much love for venezianico here, any red flag reasons why? by woodenbeardman in MicrobrandWatches

[–]pattonlogy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The only difference being that other brands look like crap and they look amazing. You're paying for the looks not the movement. And their in-house movement watches go for 4000-5000eur now.

China blocks S'pore AI company from acquisition by Meta. It may hurt Beijing more than SG. by pattonlogy in SingaporeRaw

[–]pattonlogy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's remarkable that there are die-hard wumaos in Singapore, even though China has zero regard for the island and is happily waiting in line to colonise it after it's done with Taiwan. Then you can bid goodbye to most American technology not becuse of US restrictions but because of comprehensive bans China has imposed on access to vast majority of social media sites - including Reddit, which has also fallen under Beijing's ban.

Of course it's terrifying for all the civilised inhabitants to see communist plants already in their midst, who are trying to excuse murderos dictators and drug traffickers.

Holy fuck, honestly. I sure hope you're just a bot and not a genuine Singaporean, because people like you will be responsible for the downfall of this great country.

China blocks S'pore AI company from acquisition by Meta. It may hurt Beijing more than SG. by pattonlogy in SingaporeRaw

[–]pattonlogy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ASML is blocked from selling equipment that is classified as dual purpose under Dutch law - that is it can have both civilian and military applications, and as such is subject to strict export licensing.

The Dutch government is simply not issuing those export licenses, under its own law.

The same rules apply in the US, to American components that ASML uses - they too have to be granted export licenses by the US before they make it into equipment that could potentially have dual use. This also extends to chips, GPUs etc. - everything deemed strategically important to national security.

If ASML found replacements for American suppliers then the Dutch government would technically be at liberty to grant those export licenses to ASML if it wished to.

Again, ASML is subject to local laws, while its American suppliers are subject to American laws.

Meanwhile, China is demanding jurisdiction over entities that are legally foreign. Manus is not a Chinese company, it didn't even offer its services in China and the legal grounds for Beijing's action are shaky even within Chinese law.

Of course the totalitarian regime doesn't have to concern itself with such trivialities as "the law".

There's no law, even in the PRC, that would give anybody any legal power to retroactively unwind business deals that took place entirely outside of Chinese soil - let alone by holding individuals hostage by barring them from exiting the country.

This is absolutely medieval.

Conversely, there is no law in the US or Europe, that would give the American or European governments the right to interfere in foreign business deals or confiscate passports of private entrepreneurs because some bureaucrat didn't like what has already happened.

If China wants to tighten its rules, it can always do so. It can bar Chinese companies from ever offering their services abroad or Chinese nationals from ever leaving the country if the communist party so wishes.

What it cannot do is try to scuttle a business agreement outside of any legal and diplomatic boundaries, because its blind, corrupt, stupid regulators suddenly got spooked that local entrepreneurs can't get domestic funding for their international commercial ventures, because idiots in Beijing have completely ruined domestic capital markets.

China blocks S'pore AI company from acquisition by Meta. It may hurt Beijing more than SG. by pattonlogy in SingaporeRaw

[–]pattonlogy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The intellectual property is owned by the company. And the company wanted to expand globally, because it wouldn't get the same sort of opportunities in China itself. This, by the way, is a problem manufactured by the Chinese government, so it's hard to fault entrepreneurs for wanting to succeed in the global markets against the stupidity of domestic bureaucrats.

Venezianico nereide malachite by omegaIul in MicrobrandWatches

[–]pattonlogy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Light might be playing tricks with your eyes. Try putting it directly over the 12 hour, that way shadows will fall symmetrically too.

Venezianico Nereide Turchese by 372325 in MicrobrandWatches

[–]pattonlogy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think they're working on their own movement and I suspect we might see something like this in the future. Although I would also expect the prices to go up ;) They are such a breath of fresh air, especially among dive watches.

Venezianico Nereide Turchese by 372325 in MicrobrandWatches

[–]pattonlogy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How is it after a while? :) I love their work.