Third year on, fourth to come?

Time really flies; another year has quickly come and gone.
 

2012 was a year characterized by private home prices that seem to defy gravity. This is despite the additional rounds of cooling measures implemented by the government to try and cool the market. The year has also seen renewed interests in Executive Condominiums (ECs), with record number of new launches. And speaking of ECs, developers have suddenly decided to build bigger and bigger “super-sized penthouses” and “presidential suites”. The mother of all such is a 4,349sqft penthouse at CityLife@Tampines that was sold for $2.05 million, an all-time high for an EC unit. How/Why the government would approve the construction and sale of such “luxury” units in housing projects that are supposedly meant for the so-called “sandwiched class” is quite the mystery (certainly the URA or whatever relevant department cannot claim ignorance on the unit sizes and designs for new ECs that developers want to build).  This is especially when the land cost for ECs is subsidized and many eligible families are given subsidies to purchase such class of semi-public housing.

2012 has also been somewhat of a watershed year for the wife and I. One of us had decided to change job and with it, our daily lives have become increasingly grinding. In addition, our Primary 2-going son needed closer supervision in his studies, which meant more time (and added pressure) on his parents. Given our busier schedules, something had to give and thus the reason for the less frequent blog posting and new project reviews last year. Matter of fact, we had totally forgotten about our third anniversary (December 7^th) until it suddenly dawned on us while we went on vacation last week.

There were several junctures in 2012 when the wife and I had contemplated closing shop on SG PropTalk, but we eventually decided to take it by the day and see what happens. And before long, SG PropTalk has “survived” another year. One of the reasons that kept us going was the support and encouraging words from our readers, which we are extremely grateful.

Going forward, the wife and I don't know how long more we will continue blogging, as it is becoming quite the chore rather than enjoyment. And we did say previously that we will stop blogging once it is no longer fun to do so. But we really hope that come December7^th  2013 (or thereabouts), we will be sitting somewhere penning our little anniversary note.

Happy New Year, everyone!

P/S:   The last paragraph was actually written on a piece of tissue paper while our flight was descending towards Changi Airport earlier.