Singapore's central bank on Wednesday said it is increasingly concerned about rising prices, citing a property boom that has prompted commercial banks to lend aggressively to home-owners and real estate developers.
In its annual report, the Monetary Authority of Singapore reiterated its 2007 economic growth forecast of 5-7 percent, which it said would be driven by the transport engineering, biomedical, and services sectors.
With annual inflation at a one-year high, the MAS said it would be vigilant about price pressures and would continue to allow a modest and gradual rise in the Singapore dollar -- its main monetary policy tool -- to temper import costs.
"For the year as a whole, headline CPI (consumer price index) inflation is expected to come within our forecast of 0.5-1.5 percent, albeit at the upper half of that range. MAS will closely monitor the cost and price developments in the economy," MAS Managing Director Heng Swee Keat told a news conference.
The warning comes as the island's markets are riding high.
Singapore's stock market rose to a record high last week and the Singapore dollar hit a 10-year high on Tuesday.
The Singapore dollar was trading at 1.5282 per dollar at 0900 GMT, slightly weaker on the day. The main stock index was down 0.8 percent, in line with a weaker markets in Asia.
Singapore's annual consumer inflation rate hit 1.3 percent in June, a one-year high but still low by regional standards. However, prices for private residential property are at a 10-year high and salaries in sectors such as banking have escalated.
Heng said inflation is forecast to creep up to 1-2 percent next year, adding that the MAS is watching for second-round effects of rising property prices, such as higher rental costs being passed through into the prices of goods and services.
He also noted a "significant exposure" in the banking sector to the property market.
"We watch these developments carefully, in particular the risk of property prices taking momentum of its own," Heng said.
The central bank's warning is not the first sign of alarm.
Three weeks ago, Lee Kuan Yew, a former prime minister who still holds a cabinet job, cautioned that Singapore must not allow prices to rise as high as those in rival Hong Kong.
In a bid to cool the property market, the government last week raised a charge on redevelopments to 70 percent from 50 percent. The news knocked Singapore property stocks lower.
SIGNIFICANT EXPOSURE
Singapore's loan market is dominated by three domestic banks; DBS Group Holdings , United Overseas Bank , and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. .
"The banking sector's exposure to property and construction sectors, as well as the housing loans, is significant. We will be watching developments in the market very carefully," Heng said.
Citigroup said in a recent note to investors that about 26-28 percent of loans by Singapore banks were property-related, below a 35 percent limit set by MAS.
OCBC said it was in compliance with the limit but declined to comment further. DBS and UOB declined to comment.
In a broader context, Heng said Singapore was not immune to the possible spillover from the U.S. subprime mortgage sector, which has sent shivers through credit markets globally.
Singapore's economy grew at a higher-than-expected annualised rate of 12.8 percent in the second quarter and Heng said he expected growth momentum to continue if external conditions remained positive.
After the latest figures, economists raised their full-year forecasts. The government is seen following suit, by lifting its forecast of 5-7 percent closer to last year's 7.9 percent.
While Singapore's trade-dependent economy is benefiting from demand for oil rigs and pharmaceuticals, the MAS warned that information technology, a pillar of manufacturing, remained under pressure and was not expected to recover until later in the year. (Additional reporting by Koh Gui Qing and Saeed Azhar)
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Hot Decorating Tips: Go from Drab to Fab with these Ideas
Every homeowner eventually wants to make a change, but if you're like many people you haven't a clue where to begin. Just like fashion styles, interior designs change with the times as well. So, if you've been in your home for a long time and are ready to sell or are just ready for a makeover, read on to see if the hottest trends are suitable for your home.
Go ahead and slap a fresh coat of paint on the walls. But don't make it sterile white or boring beige. At the very least use these colors along with some vibrant accent colors on a single wall or two.
"We've gone through an era of everything being very muted and quiet and what we see with the younger generation coming up is that we're really going to use lots of colors. Colors on the walls, color on the furniture such as lime greens, browns, oranges and bright reds," says Dixie Lovejoy, owner of Arizona-based Apple Interior Systems, Inc.
A little paint can make a major change to a home. It's always a good idea to put on a fresh coat or at least touch up the paint before you place your home on the market. It gives a buyer a feeling of cleanliness and that the home has been well cared for over the years.
"Paint is a very inexpensive way to do something [new] and not have your house seem dated as time goes on," adds Lovejoy.
Think big, but buy less.
"People used to buy accessories on a very small scale. In our office, one of our slogans is: bigger is better," says Lovejoy.
She says that means things like pots, statues, fountains, and flower arrangements should all be bigger. So instead of having a lot of knickknack items, you buy less but when you do, you buy big. The idea is to make a statement with your decorating rather than make your home look cluttered.
Accent pillows are a must!
The key home décor ingredient that no home should be without gives new meaning to pillow talk. Lovejoy says accent pillows will get your houseguest chatting about your harmonizing décor. "Accent pillows are kind of a key to all design that ties everything together," she says.
Bye-bye sliders
In my opinion, sliding glass doors have always been a bit of an eyesore, but so many tract homes have them. Now, Lovejoy says, sliding glass and even French doors are losing ground. The new alternative creates wide open space even in a residential tract home. Instead, doors that virtually vanish or disappear are appearing in more homes and allowing better access to the great outdoors.
"They actually can slide all the way into a pocket that's built into a wall or stack on top of each other so it becomes one small window on the left or right side but the rest of your house is all open. There are also folding doors that do that," says Lovejoy.
She says the typical narrow three-foot opening on sliding or French doors just isn't suitable for what homeowners want today.
"The newest trend is opening up a 12 to 22 or 30 feet of glass. It gives you almost the lanai effect like you have in Hawaii where the inside and the outside all become one," explains Lovejoy.
Of course, this is ideal for homeowners who have big parties or events at their home. "You can just open up your house and the traffic flows inside to outside," says Lovejoy.
Then the outside is decorated much like the inside with fireplaces, couches, chairs, coffee tables, and Lovejoy says even drapes and pictures hanging on the walls on the outside of the house. All of this makes the determining line between the outside and inside of your house disappear.
Furnish your outdoors like your indoors.
"We traditionally out here don't even use regular patio furniture. We upholster couches and chairs and everything in outside fabric because it's gotten so incredibly intricate. It's not the old red, white, and blue fabric that we used to think of [for outdoor furniture]," says Lovejoy.
Today, designers are using big patterns made from velvets and even sheer materials on outside furniture which begs the question how does this fabric hold up on a couch or chair?
"We're the toughest market there is with the weather and everything else. … And we're the dustbowl of the world out here but even the moisture that you have in the costal cities wouldn't affect it," says Lovejoy.
Need to clean your furniture? Don't hire a professional, Lovejoy says, "You can take a hose to it and wash off the couch or chairs or you can vacuum them just like you do inside so there's really no difference," says Lovejoy.
When it comes to flooring soft is out, hard is in.
"I think that we're going away from soft surfaces on the flooring," says Lovejoy.
Traditionally, homes have always had carpeting in the bedroom areas and maybe tile or hardwood flooring in other parts of the house. That's changing to create a better flow between the indoor and outdoor living areas.
"That way when you open up your house for entertaining, the patio or the lanai on the outside, or your sunroom, has the same surface as the house so you get that huge expanded feeling," says Lovejoy.
Of course, area rugs are making a huge impact in the marketplace because of homeowners wanting to have some cozy, soft areas on the floor near beds, couches, and fireplaces.
Even just a few changes to your home can take it from drab to fabulous with these hot trends.
Go ahead and slap a fresh coat of paint on the walls. But don't make it sterile white or boring beige. At the very least use these colors along with some vibrant accent colors on a single wall or two.
"We've gone through an era of everything being very muted and quiet and what we see with the younger generation coming up is that we're really going to use lots of colors. Colors on the walls, color on the furniture such as lime greens, browns, oranges and bright reds," says Dixie Lovejoy, owner of Arizona-based Apple Interior Systems, Inc.
A little paint can make a major change to a home. It's always a good idea to put on a fresh coat or at least touch up the paint before you place your home on the market. It gives a buyer a feeling of cleanliness and that the home has been well cared for over the years.
"Paint is a very inexpensive way to do something [new] and not have your house seem dated as time goes on," adds Lovejoy.
Think big, but buy less.
"People used to buy accessories on a very small scale. In our office, one of our slogans is: bigger is better," says Lovejoy.
She says that means things like pots, statues, fountains, and flower arrangements should all be bigger. So instead of having a lot of knickknack items, you buy less but when you do, you buy big. The idea is to make a statement with your decorating rather than make your home look cluttered.
Accent pillows are a must!
The key home décor ingredient that no home should be without gives new meaning to pillow talk. Lovejoy says accent pillows will get your houseguest chatting about your harmonizing décor. "Accent pillows are kind of a key to all design that ties everything together," she says.
Bye-bye sliders
In my opinion, sliding glass doors have always been a bit of an eyesore, but so many tract homes have them. Now, Lovejoy says, sliding glass and even French doors are losing ground. The new alternative creates wide open space even in a residential tract home. Instead, doors that virtually vanish or disappear are appearing in more homes and allowing better access to the great outdoors.
"They actually can slide all the way into a pocket that's built into a wall or stack on top of each other so it becomes one small window on the left or right side but the rest of your house is all open. There are also folding doors that do that," says Lovejoy.
She says the typical narrow three-foot opening on sliding or French doors just isn't suitable for what homeowners want today.
"The newest trend is opening up a 12 to 22 or 30 feet of glass. It gives you almost the lanai effect like you have in Hawaii where the inside and the outside all become one," explains Lovejoy.
Of course, this is ideal for homeowners who have big parties or events at their home. "You can just open up your house and the traffic flows inside to outside," says Lovejoy.
Then the outside is decorated much like the inside with fireplaces, couches, chairs, coffee tables, and Lovejoy says even drapes and pictures hanging on the walls on the outside of the house. All of this makes the determining line between the outside and inside of your house disappear.
Furnish your outdoors like your indoors.
"We traditionally out here don't even use regular patio furniture. We upholster couches and chairs and everything in outside fabric because it's gotten so incredibly intricate. It's not the old red, white, and blue fabric that we used to think of [for outdoor furniture]," says Lovejoy.
Today, designers are using big patterns made from velvets and even sheer materials on outside furniture which begs the question how does this fabric hold up on a couch or chair?
"We're the toughest market there is with the weather and everything else. … And we're the dustbowl of the world out here but even the moisture that you have in the costal cities wouldn't affect it," says Lovejoy.
Need to clean your furniture? Don't hire a professional, Lovejoy says, "You can take a hose to it and wash off the couch or chairs or you can vacuum them just like you do inside so there's really no difference," says Lovejoy.
When it comes to flooring soft is out, hard is in.
"I think that we're going away from soft surfaces on the flooring," says Lovejoy.
Traditionally, homes have always had carpeting in the bedroom areas and maybe tile or hardwood flooring in other parts of the house. That's changing to create a better flow between the indoor and outdoor living areas.
"That way when you open up your house for entertaining, the patio or the lanai on the outside, or your sunroom, has the same surface as the house so you get that huge expanded feeling," says Lovejoy.
Of course, area rugs are making a huge impact in the marketplace because of homeowners wanting to have some cozy, soft areas on the floor near beds, couches, and fireplaces.
Even just a few changes to your home can take it from drab to fabulous with these hot trends.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
How Not To Choose A Contractor
When you hire unlicensed, uninsured help, you get what you pay for -- the work of an unlicensed contractor with no regulatory oversight.
When you hire unlicensed help, there's often no way to check on the worker's credentials, registered complaints or quality of workmanship. Should something go wrong, redress is up to you and, perhaps, civil court -- criminal court if he or she happens to be a crook.
Nevertheless, one in 10 residents polled in a recent survey said they would hire an unlicensed contractor to save a few bucks.
"The tragedy of hiring a casual laborer is that it can cost homeowners hundreds of times the money they saved, and worse, it can jeopardize their safety," said Jon Osterberg, spokesperson for PEMCO Insurance.
PEMCO, the Seattle-based pollster of an insurance company, hired Informa Research Services Inc. to ask 606 Washington state residents about their choice of hired help.
Providing anecdotal evidence to underscore what can happen, the insurer recalled refusing a claim on a lean-to car port, that, well, leaned too far.
A homeowner hired an unqualified contractor to retrofit the lean-to onto his home, but the builder used materials that were too heavy and fastened them to the home's siding instead of the studs.
The carport collapsed, immobilizing a mobile home.
"The sad part of the story is that PEMCO had to reject the insurance claim after an engineer determined the carport was improperly built," Osterberg said.
Osterberg said without educational and sometimes in-the-field experience requirements typically required by law for a license, you could get stuck with a builder lacking current building code knowledge. Building codes are designed to keep the occupants safe and healthy.
"It only takes a few minutes for a homeowner to verify if a contractor is licensed and bonded," said Osterberg. "It takes much longer to repair shoddy work."
"Unlicensed, uninsured and unskilled" can also describe some homeowners who insist they can do it themselves.
"It's usually more expensive to fix work done improperly than to pay to have it done right the first time," Osterberg said.
Electrical work can result in some of the most shocking errors, said Osterberg recounting the homeowner who connected aluminum and copper wires of different gauges without using a junction box. The resultant fire led an inspector to order the entire house rewired to the tune of $20,000.
"Do-it-yourselfers should never fool around with bearing walls, foundations or serious plumbing, electrical or mechanical work. These are areas for professional contractors only. The cost in potential damage can far outweigh any advantages," says Ken Willis, president of the League of California Homeowners, an online resource for home remodeling and related issues.
Beyond verifying the license status, liability insurance, bonding or other documents required by local regulations, here are some additional pointers for finding good help.
Get at least three referrals from family, friends, co-workers and others you trust who were recently satisfied by work performed similar to work you need completed.
Choose a specialist in the work you want completed -- a carpenter for wood work; an electrician for low-voltage lighting; a mason to build a fireplace.
Trade group affiliation doesn't guarantee quality performance, but membership, which typically mandates licensing, can be considered as a positive factor. Trade groups often provide another level of education, ethics, standards of practice for the professional and redress for the home owner should a problem arise.
Ask the contractor for referrals to recent customers, customers from a year ago and customers from three or more years ago to determine how the work holds up. Examine the work and interview the referrals to learn about the contractor's habits, cleanliness, on-time performance and other concerns related to your job at hand. Privacy concerns about you entering strangers' homes to examine work is a good reason to get referrals from those you know.
In addition to the license check, check the company's trade group status and contact the Better Business Bureau to determine if any complains have been filed, how they were resolved and if they are still open. A resolved complaint or two may not necessarily exclude a contractor. Look for patterns of unresolved cases.
Accept only written estimates and contracts from contractors who also pull the required building permits and work with blueprints or professional drawings. Refuse to work with any contractor unwilling to put out when it comes to paperwork. The lowest bidder isn't always the best choice. Refer to completed work you've examined.
Be sure the contract is complete, clearly indicating the steps of the job, supplies and materials, payment schedule and time line for completion. Don't sign a contract with blank spaces. Don't sign an incomplete contract. Deposit 30 to 50 percent of the total price to initiate the job and to cover most of the contractor's materials expenses. Never pay the balance until the job is completed to your satisfaction.
The same regulatory body that enforces licensing requirements can provide you with information about hiring contractors, often from the comfort of your personal computer.
When you hire unlicensed help, there's often no way to check on the worker's credentials, registered complaints or quality of workmanship. Should something go wrong, redress is up to you and, perhaps, civil court -- criminal court if he or she happens to be a crook.
Nevertheless, one in 10 residents polled in a recent survey said they would hire an unlicensed contractor to save a few bucks.
"The tragedy of hiring a casual laborer is that it can cost homeowners hundreds of times the money they saved, and worse, it can jeopardize their safety," said Jon Osterberg, spokesperson for PEMCO Insurance.
PEMCO, the Seattle-based pollster of an insurance company, hired Informa Research Services Inc. to ask 606 Washington state residents about their choice of hired help.
Providing anecdotal evidence to underscore what can happen, the insurer recalled refusing a claim on a lean-to car port, that, well, leaned too far.
A homeowner hired an unqualified contractor to retrofit the lean-to onto his home, but the builder used materials that were too heavy and fastened them to the home's siding instead of the studs.
The carport collapsed, immobilizing a mobile home.
"The sad part of the story is that PEMCO had to reject the insurance claim after an engineer determined the carport was improperly built," Osterberg said.
Osterberg said without educational and sometimes in-the-field experience requirements typically required by law for a license, you could get stuck with a builder lacking current building code knowledge. Building codes are designed to keep the occupants safe and healthy.
"It only takes a few minutes for a homeowner to verify if a contractor is licensed and bonded," said Osterberg. "It takes much longer to repair shoddy work."
"Unlicensed, uninsured and unskilled" can also describe some homeowners who insist they can do it themselves.
"It's usually more expensive to fix work done improperly than to pay to have it done right the first time," Osterberg said.
Electrical work can result in some of the most shocking errors, said Osterberg recounting the homeowner who connected aluminum and copper wires of different gauges without using a junction box. The resultant fire led an inspector to order the entire house rewired to the tune of $20,000.
"Do-it-yourselfers should never fool around with bearing walls, foundations or serious plumbing, electrical or mechanical work. These are areas for professional contractors only. The cost in potential damage can far outweigh any advantages," says Ken Willis, president of the League of California Homeowners, an online resource for home remodeling and related issues.
Beyond verifying the license status, liability insurance, bonding or other documents required by local regulations, here are some additional pointers for finding good help.
Get at least three referrals from family, friends, co-workers and others you trust who were recently satisfied by work performed similar to work you need completed.
Choose a specialist in the work you want completed -- a carpenter for wood work; an electrician for low-voltage lighting; a mason to build a fireplace.
Trade group affiliation doesn't guarantee quality performance, but membership, which typically mandates licensing, can be considered as a positive factor. Trade groups often provide another level of education, ethics, standards of practice for the professional and redress for the home owner should a problem arise.
Ask the contractor for referrals to recent customers, customers from a year ago and customers from three or more years ago to determine how the work holds up. Examine the work and interview the referrals to learn about the contractor's habits, cleanliness, on-time performance and other concerns related to your job at hand. Privacy concerns about you entering strangers' homes to examine work is a good reason to get referrals from those you know.
In addition to the license check, check the company's trade group status and contact the Better Business Bureau to determine if any complains have been filed, how they were resolved and if they are still open. A resolved complaint or two may not necessarily exclude a contractor. Look for patterns of unresolved cases.
Accept only written estimates and contracts from contractors who also pull the required building permits and work with blueprints or professional drawings. Refuse to work with any contractor unwilling to put out when it comes to paperwork. The lowest bidder isn't always the best choice. Refer to completed work you've examined.
Be sure the contract is complete, clearly indicating the steps of the job, supplies and materials, payment schedule and time line for completion. Don't sign a contract with blank spaces. Don't sign an incomplete contract. Deposit 30 to 50 percent of the total price to initiate the job and to cover most of the contractor's materials expenses. Never pay the balance until the job is completed to your satisfaction.
The same regulatory body that enforces licensing requirements can provide you with information about hiring contractors, often from the comfort of your personal computer.
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