About 50 homebuyers walked away from deals in October

[leveraged]

3 weeks of november has gone by, and it's not looking anymore prettier than Oct......hold on tight everyone...

[rumour]

To increase the bidding levels on COE a free condo will be thrown in

[to PP]

Haha, this is a good one 

But seriously, Singaporeans are very slow waking up to face the bad news. Even in September the sales of new cars actually INCREASED:

"They tell me it's a worst recession since 1930. The heck with them, I'm going to commit to a 300.000 car..."

I guess they need someone like DBS for a wake up call.

[$2]

COE has dropped to $2 so that says a lot about the economy.

Sure, this will lure customers back to the showrooms and the second hand car market will collapse.

Also, what happens when massive retrenchments start in 2009, the new buyers affected will soon realise what a stupid mistake they made in parting with $75k.

[holisong]

Haha, this is a good one 

But seriously, Singaporeans are very slow waking up to face the bad news. Even in September the sales of new cars actually INCREASED:

"They tell me it's a worst recession since 1930. The heck with them, I'm going to commit to a 300.000 car..."

I guess they need someone like DBS for a wake up call.

apparently singaporeans arenot alone in slow to waking up to reality.some joker in Ozland just did the same thing.
Damien Murphy

November 25, 2008

Oh Lord, won't you sell my Mercedes-Benz

My friends all lost fortunes I must make amends.

(With apologies to Janis Joplin.)

PICKLES Auctions last night had its biggest sale of repossessed luxury cars in years, and a quarter of the vehicles that went under the hammer were Mercedes. And 80 per cent of the late model German cars had been repossessed. The repo men also offered a large haul of BMWs, Audis, Porsches and a Ferrari for finance companies to recoup some of their losses.

The auctioneers reckon the novated lease on one, a 2008 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG (RRP $160,000) with only 2979 kilometres on the clock, must have been signed only the day after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy last September.

The chief Pickles auctioneer, Steve Allen, said nearly 60 per cent of the cars were repossessed. He blamed economic times and expected worse to come.

"There's been a steady increase in repossessions in recent months, but the real story is the number of people attending our auction who are after a bargain in these straitened times.

"We would have been lucky to get 500 early in the year, but now we've got 1500 looking at the vehicles."

Pickles offered about 100 vehicles at its quarterly auction of luxury and prestige cars at the Royal Hall of Industries in Moore Park last night.

"I guess luxury cars for executives are one of the first things to go when times turn tough," he said.

The downturn had only really started this month. At Pickles's September quarter sale, only about 80 cars were on the block, and most of them were private sales.

Mr Allen said there had been a big rise in the number of luxury cars coming up for sale at Pickles's auction in Melbourne on December 9.

"As a barometer on the economy, Melbourne normally lags well behind Sydney, but we've already got some 22 cars coming up for auction down there next month, and the dealers will flood in in the days before.

"Strangely enough we've got a huge number of prestige cars coming up in Queensland, which suggests the economy up there is not going all that well."

[lifestyles in recession]

Due to massive peronal losses world-wide,

In Aust, people are selling their second or high-end cars, 
In USA, people have been leaving their homes for the last 18 months,
In UK, people have shelved their holidays for good and are now leaving their homes with a shocking 71% increase in repossessions,
In S'pore, people are selling their expensive $25k watches for $4k ()

[reality sets in]

From The TimesNovember 27, 2008

Property asking prices tumble as reality sets in

Gráinne Gilmore, Economics Correspondent
 
Homeowners desperate to attract buyers have cut asking prices by an average of nearly £17,000 over the past fortnight, figures suggest.

Experts said that the cuts could indicate a dawning appreciation among homeowners that the housing market is in a dire state, prompting them to reduce their prices in the hope of securing a sale. House prices have fallen by more than 15 per cent since their peak in August last year, according to Halifax, and some experts say they could fall by a total of 35 per cent.

Recent reports suggested that sellers were refusing to budge, with some increasing their asking prices to offset discounts being demanded by bargain-hunting buyers. However, this trend has reversed, with some homeowners in the wealthiest parts of London cutting their asking prices by more than £100,000, according to Globrix, the property website.

[November2008]

Well, November is almost over and it will be interesting to look at the reports next month to see if less than 50 properties were sold.

Prices have crashed by 10% since last month as small developers are desperate.