Every upscale development's made the conversion to wicker poolside lounge chairs in place of the pleb white-plastic chairs(that gets really greasy and reminds you of unsanitary public pools).
For your roof terrace, poolside or even the balcony, turn to:
Ohmm and Gloster
Gloster has very good-looking love seats(with optional sail) at reasonable prices and the sole distributor as I understand it is Fun's Florist and Nursery at Andrew Road.
Fun's Florist and Nursery
551 Thomson Road (Junction Of Andrew Road) Singapore 298180
Tel : 6253-7023
Fax : 6251-1027
Wicker in Singapore
Maharam in Singapore
More on the thread of finding previously-unavailable decor brands in Singapore, FabricNation; a company with a cute name strategically situated on Haji Lane, now carries Maharam textiles.
Maharam, with collaborators like Paul Smith and Andree Putman(Paul Smith allegedly having "approached Maharam in 2002 after seeing I Morosi alla Finestra, a Gio Ponti designed silk, at a Ponti retrospective at the Design Museum in London") delivers fabrics backed by a certain conceptual resonance and progressive use of materials.
Fabricnation (Singapore) Pte Ltd
57A Haji Lane Singapore 189250
Tel : 6299-0538
Fax : 6299-3719
Where to Source Interesting Tiles in Singapore
Previously I'd always have turned to Rice Fields- a small, well-designed tile and bathroom fittings outfit that's recently re-located to the much-hyped Tiong Bahru Neighbourhood.
Recently however, I'd discovered GFA Global as well. With an interesting website, gorgeous accompanying visuals and possibly the only store that carries tiles imitating the textures of leather and metal, GFA Global also carries my much sought-after Bisazza feature tiles.
Check out GFA Global's website here
Another Fengshui ad- Cannot explain: Only Special People Understand!
The cornerstone of most forms of advertising- you 'get it' because you're special...
Herald Newspaper Real-Estate Ad, 1984 (with cute blonde)
To use an oft-employed phrase, a 'retro' ad.
Mocca Bodybuilder Ad - Guy Selling House
A guy trying to sell his house does it by showing off his pipes. Why are Mocca ads so crass?
Invisible City
A documentary about space and memory and how we stake our claim on spaces, no matter how temporary-from the graffiti on the wall or the tissue paper in a food court.
The official website here:
Style:Nordic
Alvar Aalto at Style:Nordic
Kateha- which, according to the Style:Nordic website, references pile rugs in Arabic. A good, modern substitute for my Berber pile rugs, I think- the latter a look I'm getting rather tired of, unfortunately.
Style:Nordic is a Scandinavian concept store, selling everything from Scandinavian furniture to fashion.
Following up on Shawn's post:The website is up- suitably designer-ish, Flash-based, interactive site. Check out the resident artists- Xin&AnnGee, Sokkuan&Kuanth and the ongoing Le Monde est Nous exhibition.
Other blogs that refer to the new gallery cum bar are:
EeShaun's
and Patlaw's
Modern Tropical Luxe
Designed by one of Singapore's top architectural firms- a practice whose signature modern tropical styles have become synonymous with Singapore's emergent architectural identity. This house displays all the 'classic fingerprints'- the powder rooms overlooking a lush garden, a water feature through the walkway and luxuriously sized bedrooms.For more info:http://www.urbanespaces.com/tropicalluxedetached.html
1984 Apple's Macintosh Commercial
It's hard to believe that a brand with such a niche, almost deviant message with an ad that references literary works could have almost mainstream appeal.
The Next Neighbourhood-Again
At around the same time that I was touting the virtues of Pasir Panjang, the Sophia/Niven enclave was of particular interest to me as well. The developments in the area, however, turned out uninteresting and commodified, and, like an out-of-favour stock, I stopped backing it.
Recently, however, I'm hearing news of the formation of a creative enclave involving some of the most respectable names in the industry. Taking advantage of its centrality and the curiously undervalued real estate prices could well be a reason. The seeming 'discovery' (and completion) of neglected conservation buildings could be another. Shawn's post referencing a new bar cum art gallery within a restored 1950s Art Deco building and the recent opening of Air's flagship store(in a breakaway from Park Mall's traditional stranglehold on luxury furniture stores) has me convinced once again as to the neighbourhood's potential- in commercial real estate.
Graffiti'd video
To put this in context, the original video can be found here:
graffiti.vidavee.com allows you to apply graffiti on any video. I'm hoping there'll be a wider variety soon.
Avant Garde Geylang
Muccchhh better with the new photos. photo of bald guy from playitasfred.com and photo of guy pointing gun barrel to screen from trexor14 on stockxchng
Avant Garde on Geylang- To the Tune of Scarface
Am not quite sure about the soundtrack. I could have added better photos to it...
Designer Bedsheets
Straits Times' Urban pages today, the nation's self-appointed purveyor of all things hip, did a cover on Designer Bed Sheets today and educated us on the differences between cotton percale, cotton jacquard, cotton sateen and pure linen('cotton percale is made from high quality cotton and is crisp and cool to touch, launders well, lasting and durable, cotton jacquard comes with an alternating matt-sateen pattern in the fabric, cotton sateen made from a finer thread than percale and pure linen for its crispness, coolness and breathability). I'm not familiar with the terms but cotton percale comes closest amongst the options above vis a vis what I'm looking for in my bedsheets. I love Egyptian cotton- and sadly, not all egyptian cotton is the same(don't ask me why- it just doesn't feel the same) and as far as I'm concerned, threadcount does matter.
A neophyte running her fingers through the sheets at Takashimaya's bedlinen section whenever there's a sale, my favourite is Karen Neuberger's. This year, Armani Casa comes close- I love the colours and the coolness of the sheets come close to Karen Neuberger's but I'd take Karen Neuberger's odd spacey blue colours(the brand does have white, but I will not live with two whites) than the fashionably muted tones of Armani's. Karen Neuberger's website looks like it caters more to the Martha Stewart crowd but nothing in my takashimaya finger-running experience beats the cool, crisp, amazingly high threadcount sheets. A salesman ran the threadcount by me- was particularly impressed but I daren't recall it online in case my memory reveals a tendency to exaggerate
I do not understand the deal with Frette other than its particularly inspired marketing point-of-experience(is that a new marketing term?) with boutique hotels and I do tend to remember houses with Frette linens;-)
All white Modern
I like this the best by far. The alternating images of the blindfolded guy and the legs peeping out of the bed- couldn't have asked for a better mashup.
Fengshui'd modern
The soundtrack might be a little corny but I liked the acid-trippy backgrounds that seem to accompany it.
Designer HDBs
Everytime I comment on how some HDB units are starting to look better than condominiums, my friend starts ranting about the 'unconscionable appropriation of public money' . (Note for the uninitiated: HDB is the local form of public housing. First-time buyers whose income does not go beyond the required level receive a grant for purchase from the government).
I believe it's more a reflection of the increasing sophistication amongst HDb dwellers- the in-betweens who have just started working and are seeking to reconcile their tastes in interiors with their budgets.
The move to bring the local version of starchitects WoHa and SCDA on board to design HDB blocks is a reflection of that trend. The above photo is an artist's impression of WoHa's proposal, with a choice of planter box, monsoon windows, balcony or bay windows by the occupants. The asymmetry and emphasis on outdoor spaces is reminiscent of Moshe Safdie's Habitat complexes.
Am partial to WoHa's proposal based on looks, the ability to customize a facade and the potentially interesting overall facade based on the residents' requests.
Photo below is SCDA's proposal. Photos taken from The Straits Times' 1st September.
Bungee Jumping Agent
I wouldn't trump up strength in numbers if the team consists of 4 people.
Especially appreciate the 'team orchestrated by...' bit.
Seth Godin blogged about real estate agent's business cards.
I remembered my manager telling the class to included 'useful information' like calendars or 995(or 911- depending on which country you're in) type numbers on the back of the card just so that owners will have a reason to keep your namecard in their wallets. That doesn't actually work when the whole class takes him up on his advice and all real estate agents' cards come with the panic button numbers, calendar and a pack of tissues.
Seth suggests Moo for something different-a very interesting looking company although I do remember another company based in Barcelona that had better looking templates.
I don't quite agree on the point of steel business cards though- I loved Kevin Mitnick's:
and of course New York's #1 Escort must agree that steel business cards bring in a lot of- business.
Ours is lenticular(or rather mine is- with plans for other agents to use the same namecards later ):
God is above all
Like in everything else, God is invoked in very odd circumstances in real estate.
And it's good to know we're not the only ones with the 'uber alles' mentality.
(More on) Real Estate Movies
Stephen Malpezzi has a very well-written essay on real estate movies.
It's a topic that I did not feel up to tackle- preferring instead, to limit the domain to movies concerning real estate agents as opposed to real estate as a whole- that'd definitely include every haunted-house story(my favourite's La Casa dalle finestre che ridono, or The House with Laughing Windows- my introduction to the genre of giallo, the latter being something that I have maintained a morbid fascination with ever since), the carpet- baggers in 'Gone With the Wind'(taken up by Malpezzi) as well as stories on every evil real estate developer out there(Fountainhead- or is that about evil architects and Superman's Lex Luthor?- there's a precious quotation cited in Malpezzi's essay:'Stocks may rise and fall. Utilities and transportation systems may collapse. People are no damn good. But they will always need land, and they will pay through the nose to get it'. Sure beats Mark Twain's 'Buy land. They've stopped making it.') and just about every movie where the house somehow plays a central feature. - I'd start with Mr and Mrs Smith or that cool loft in Hitch(Hollywoodbitchslap says that 'the loft interiors were shot from real lofts in TriBeCa and SoHo, with spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline') Malpezzi cites Citizen Kanes' Xanadu and Akira Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress.
Anyway- do check out Malpezzi's essay. I found the inclusion of HouseSitter and Beetlejuice to be especially inspired.
Discount Brokerages
There's a lot of buzz going on about discount brokerages on US-based real estate blogs. At 6% commission on a sale, I'm sure there's a market for discount brokerages.
In Singapore, where the standard agency commission is between 1-2% on a sale, talk about discount brokerages has hardly registered- although recently there has been a lot of debate on the practice of buyer's agents paying the 1% commission for a purchase transaction on a HDB flat.(Read about the debate here )
I do remember though, an agency advertising cash back schemes (not to be confused with HDB's cash back ) where the buyer does his/her own property search through calling up various seller's agents through the classifieds, arranging for their own viewings with these individual seller's agents and then inform the seller's agents that they are being represented by their own agents when they are ready to make an offer. The incentive in doing all the legwork yourself and then calling in the 'discount brokerage' to represent them is that the discount brokerage would be willing to share their commission with you and would return you a certain percentage of their commission.
Am not sureif it's the best way, or most ethical way of conducting a home search, however. The theoretical basis is that the buyers would do all the legwork themselves, organising for viewing schedules and making their own way between viewings. What it could degenerate into is an abuse of the seller's agent's time- where the buyer has various seller's agent picking out a few properties for them , arranging for viewing schedules, and then bring up the matter of representation when they are ready to make the offer.
Sellers' agents are also wont to consider buyers who call in directly as 'their clients' , - which would obligate the buyers to inform every seller's agent they contact that they are being represented by their own agent from the start.
As for the maths- and I'm sure this has been touched upon in a different context elsewhere- co-broking effectively halves the commission for sellers' agents. Which makes them unwilling to negotiate on the asking price. And should we look at the overall picture- where the commission is 1% of the total sale price, the savings could potentially work in the buyer's favour in the case where there isn't any co-broking. Am going to throw hypothetical figures(which in all likelihood would be very much tempered in real life):
On a purchase price of $1m, the agent gets a commission of $10k.
Upon co-broking, it's effectively $5k for each agent- with the discount brokerage giving you a refund of, say, 50%, which equates to a saving of $2500 for the buyer.
In the circumstance where there is no co-broking, however, the threshold for negotiation vis a vis how it affects the agent's commission is a lot higher. Should the purchase price be negotiated down to $800k(might or might not happen in real life depending on the seller's reserve price- but for this example connotes savings of $200k off the purchase price), the commission is still $8k as opposed to the co-broking fee of $5k at $1m-which would indicate that there is a greater incentive for the agent to negotiate on a lower sale price(although in real life there's the issue of agent loyalties- the relationship with an established as opposed to a new client, etc). In real life, co-broking scenarios are common, with very little resentment on the part of the agents involved but sometimes, as the above(rather extreme but illustrative of the message) example shows, the savings in a cash-back, discount brokerage might not justify the overall price paid.
The issue of reconciling agent's motivations/loyalties and the commission structure has been much debated- from Freakonomics to an excellent article I read in the Business Times a few years ago. Agents understand the motivation that comes with commissions and I have met agents who volunteer to pay for the agent's commission(they're on the buyer end in a private market- not typically necessitating a commission) should the transaction value be perceived as being too low to motivate an agent to source for apartments for them. Or the agents who buy their own apartments without trying to get a cut off the commission through co-broking because they understand it disincentivises the negotiation process.
Will continue touching upon the commission/motivation structure, and if there is ever an ideal model in later posts.
Update:-
Philip Greenspun suggests the 6% commission fees might be too low:
People who sell $1 million condos often complain that paying a 6 percent standard (read “fixed by collusion” among realtors) commission is too much ($60,000 for what might only be a few days of work). Economists who have studied the real estate market, however, find that in some ways the commission is too low because realtors don’t work very hard to sell clients’ houses compared to their personal houses. In other words they sell a customer’s house relatively cheap so that it will sell quickly rather than work for many weeks to get the best price and 6% of the extra.
Why haven’t we seen anyone propose a commission structure that says the realtor gets a 25% commission… but only on the amount above the assessed value of the property? Your typical $1 million NY or Boston apartment is assessed at maybe $850,000 and could be sold for that price with almost no effort in a few days so the commission paid on such a sale shouldn’t be more than $1000. If a realtor could sell the place for $1.2 million via clever marketing, however, she should be entitled to a fat commission.
And there's a precious quote on Singapore's commission rates and the kind of agents it spawns:
En bloc art
Image from 'Pages from a Dancer's Journal'
A dance choreographer, forced to move out of rented apartments more than five times over the last three years due to these apartments having been sold for en bloc has channeled her 'mental and emotional distress caused by the physical upheavals (of moving out)' into a new dance called Bleu.
From her interview with Straits Times' Arts reporter June Cheong, Elysa Wendi was quoted as saying: "Nowadays, people can just tear buildings down and rebuild them without feeling. Where's the trace of history from, say, 400 years ago?"
"Resembling a cross section of a collapsed house stripped down to its support beams, the set takes on an important symbolic role in the production, shutting her dancers out but hemming Liong's dancers in".- Straits Times, Life! August 23
FengShui Emperor Hat
I believe the emperor hat refers to a feng shui term, along with the allusions to support, strength and power. Also that the asking price is $8.8m- 8 being an auspicious number.
Interesting property ads, Aug 21st, 2007
The first entry to what I hope would develop into being a series.
I should have kept(or scanned) the earlier ads.
Someone put up an interesting ad in the papers!
Customised M&Ms
For some time I'd thought about cupcakes(C-Cups' look very fashionable) but M&Ms with customised logos in colours of pearl, white and black look great too!
Via Cafe Fernando
Hungry Ghosts May Spook Property Boom
Hungry Ghosts May Spook Property Boom
August- the month of the Hungry Ghost Festival, typically signals a slow month for property sales in countries like Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Since all the factors signal towards a quiet month(see excerpt from Reuters below),
"Hungry Ghost" month deals double blow to Asian business
By Fayen Wong | August 4, 2006
In Singapore, where 75 percent of the population is ethnic Chinese, business associations often run street performances, known as "getai," to entertain the living and the dead.
Apart from inviting popular singers from overseas to perform, these "getai" shows also include auctions for auspicious items such as oranges, pineapples and charcoal -- which are associated with wealth in Chinese, and which are stacked on gold-tinted plates and elaborately wrapped in red ribbons.
this month will be all about getai. From Rosyton Tan's 881 to the actual shows at your nearest spot of public assembly, the tradition of getai would be a fun distraction in a month otherwise characterised by slow sales and tumbling stock markets.
And since I was recently quoted in a local magazine saying that the job alternatives available to graduates of my batch were : real estate agents, taxi drivers and hawkers, please add getai singer to my list.
Photo below is of the winsome Mindy Ong in a very luxe getai costume. Both photos are from Royston Tan's blog
Inflation and Real Estate- Or What Psycho Can Teach You about Inflation
What ‘Psycho’ can teach you about inflation
The price of cheap motel rooms, new bathrooms and Madison Avenue salaries in old movies are a lot more accurate than you’d think.
Via 360Digest
By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer
February 22, 2006: 2:19 PM EST
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - $25 a day plus expenses. That’s what Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) charged to do detective work in 1941’s “The Maltese Falcon.”
Sometimes, money references in classic movies provide the jolt that reminds us of how inflation has changed what we pay for things. After adjusting for inflation, $25 in 1941 is the equivalent of $332 today — a PI today might get between $80 and $125 an hour (or more).
Sam Spade's $25 a day plus expenses is equivalent to about $330 today.
Sam Spade’s $25 a day plus expenses is equivalent to about $330 today.
Mike Myers skillfully exploited the disconnect in the first “Austin Powers” epic. The villain, Dr. Evil, who has just come out of a 30-year deep freeze, is holding the world hostage and demands . . . (portentous music) . . . $1 million dollars to spare it. After some consultation with henchmen, he ups the demand to $100 billion.
Even in 1997 dollars, when the movie was made, a million 1967 dollars only comes to a little under $5 million. Either Dr. Evil was a bit of a piker or the cryogenics had frosted some of his brain cells.
Here is a sampling of some classic movie money moments, complete with a rating of how surprisingly HIGH or LOW they seem from our perspective in 2006
Of Mice and Men: Cheap land?
Some movie prices seem totally divorced from reality. Lenny and George in “Of Mice and Men” are trying to scrape together $600 to buy a rabbit farm in the Salinas Valley. In California today, $600 wouldn’t buy a rabbit hutch.
Rating: LOW. The movie may be set during the Great Depression, but even adjusting for inflation, $600 then is only about $8,500 today. Perhaps Lenny and George were angling for a no-down payment, interest-only mortgage, intending to flip the property in six months.
Psycho: Cheap digs?
In the 1960 Hitchcock opus, “Psycho,” the room rate at the Bates motel is $10 (including a hot shower), which sounds pretty low, but it’s actually the equivalent of $66 today.
Rating: HIGH. Remember, this isn’t the Ritz; it’s a seedy place in the middle of nowhere that the new highway has bypassed, leaving it with no customers. For $66 you can rent a pretty good room in a chain motel and not have to worry about Norman’s mom.
Mr. Blandings builds his nest egg
Few movies spell out prices as completely as “Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House,” the timeless tale of home buyer and home owner angst from 1948 starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. Of course the prices aren’t quite as timeless.
City dwellers Grant and Loy buy a rural Connecticut home on about 35 acres that is in such bad shape, demolition is the only solution. Purchase, demolition and construction ends up costing a total of $38,000 for a home with four beds and three bathrooms — the bathrooms costing $1,300 a piece. That translates into $308,100 total cost in 2006 dollars, with each bathroom going for $10,540.
Rating: Low. Even with all their overspending, the Blandings came out very nicely on their investment. The median price of a four-bed, three-bath home in that part of Connecticut would just over $600,000 today, and that’s with a small lot, not a sprawling 35 acres. The price of the bathroom is spot-on. A bathroom remodeling costs an average of $10,499 today.
Of course, despite Mr. Blandings’ worries during the movie about being stretched financially, he should have been able to handle his spending spree. He was earning $15,000 as a Madison Avenue copywriter. That comes to $121,618 today, (doing far better than Ted Kramer 31 years later). He should have been able to easily handle the $18,000 mortgage identified in the movie, which would have had payments of just over $100 a month, especially if he was able to scrape together the other $20,000 on his own. Top of page
The Next Neighbourhood- Redux
Photo above from hyacinthus.
I personally much prefer Arab Street for the interesting architecture and generally more sedate commercial mix. Do notice a proliferation of creatives heading for Joo Chiat though- a neighbourhood where there's a real mix between photography studios, karaoke joints and seedy bars.
Joo Chiat area fast becoming haven for creative industries
18 Mar 07
SINGAPORE: Rich in history and culture, Singapore's Joo Chiat area is fast turning into a hotspot for the creative industries.
Joo Chiat isn't just known for its hawker food – the area is also a smorgasbord of creative folks.
27-year-old Gayathrie Nahappan started her own art gallery this month.
Having cut her teeth in the arts scene in New York and Stockholm, the Malaysian-born artist could have opened her gallery anywhere in the world.
But she chose little old Joo Chiat in Singapore instead.
She said: "All my friends were like, ‘Why are you moving into Joo Chiat? It's not the best area, it's seedy and not safe’. But I said it's actually quite quaint and I like it for that. I felt like I was going back to the Chelsea of New York. Originally, the Chelsea of New York was just warehouses, now it's become an arts district."
By a rough estimate, Joo Chiat has about 20 to 30 creative companies.
Kamal Mahtanim, 28, is also one of Joo Chiat's newcomers.
He set up his recording studio here recently and loves the peaceful nature of the area.
"When the musicians and artistes come to Joo Chiat, the pace just drops. When they come here, it's a lot more relaxed and calm. This environment here in Joo Chiat will definitely give a lot of people a sense of calmness and everyone would be able to work at ease," he said.
But will the influx of the young and hip erode the charms that give Joo Chiat its unique flavour?
"I really do hope the youth preserve the Joo Chiat area because otherwise we're going to lose something of Singapore that we should really appreciate," said Ms Nahappan.
By Satish Cheney, Channel NewsAsia
__________________
The New Condominium- An exercise in Cross-Marketing
As Soleil@Sinaran partners up with Aramsa Spas to offer spa treatments, Scotts Square decides to partner up with local artists to bring art to the masses and developers partner up with doctors and spa owners to lend their masculine and feminine(respectively) touches to the showflat decor. Excerpts from the article can be found below:
Exclusivity the name of the game in high-end condo sales
4 Jul 06, Straits Times
Developers reach out to potential buyers with private viewings and 'Tatler crowd' parties
By Kelvin Han
THOSE ultra-luxury, ultra-pricey condominiums that make the headlines these days look like anyone's dream home but if you think you might get a glimpse inside one of these dream homes, think again.
Exclusive is the word here - especially when it comes to marketing.
Viewing property at this level means entering a rarefied world of 'Tatler crowd' parties, private viewings of expensively decorated show suites, discreet dinners for potential buyers and auctions that ensure the in-crowd remains desirable.
Take Keppel Land, which recently invited two prominent figures in society, spa and beauty chain owner Ponz Goo and eye specialist Steve Seah, and a third mystery person, to unleash their personal decorating styles on show suites at its Ritz Residences. A series of invitation-only parties were then thrown for friends and possible buyers.
The parties were meticulously planned and executed. 'We don't stint on the catering and entertainment, and attention is paid right down to the grooming and deportment of the sales staff,' he said.
'Privacy is very important for that segment of the market, so deals were done over dinner one on one or in small groups,' he said. Oh, and by invitation only, of course.
Other developers also taking the no-expense-spared approach to wooing the well-heeled buyer.
Naturally, that impression is achieved when 'you have private functions where guests arrive in Rolls-Royces and you can be seen in the company of the who's who crowd', he added.
Interested bidders must pre-register before attending the sale - a move that keeps out the curious while also underlining the exclusive nature of the plots.
Parody real estate agency- Ghetto Fabulous Realty
From the page:
An ideal buy for the do-it-yourself types. This pre-built foundation leaves everything up to you! This lot is all set for you to come in and create the home of your dreams.
And we thought we went the extra mile to fabricate a 'situation'.
A vicar on crack: Estate Agent Decides 'Honesty' is the best policy
Again, lifted off growabrain:
All the charm and poise of a vicar on crack. Hall, cloak room, sitting room, kitchen, bathroom, parking and rear courtyard garden. Suit midget on a budget.'
Mr Bending said: 'I only write these things because they tickle me. Freedom of speech is what this country is famous for and you should be allowed to say whatever you want so long as it doesn't hurt anyone.'
The Diocese of Bath and Wells said it had no objections to the disparaging descriptions of vicars in the shop window.
Spokesman John Andrews said: 'We can't get upset. It's quirky and a bit heavy-handed. We don't need crack to get high. We're reaching for the heavens through spiritual means.'
Original Article can be found here:
There were a few ads in the local papers that attempted to invest some life into the houses for sale- something along the lines of 'hi, my name is dolly. buy me and dress me up.'
or 'i am a penthouse with a large roof terrace. plant your seeds on me on a clear night under the heavens.'
and in the aftermath of the asian tsunami, an ad that read 'invest in singapore- an island safe from natural disasters'. although that's sick, not funny.
these agents should advertise something fun soon. just so i can cut out those ads and scan them in (just to show i wasn't making them all up).
Greatest real estate movies of all time
According to growabrain, the list stands as:
Billy Wilder's 'The Apartment'
'American Beauty',
Tom Hanks' 'The Money Pit' and
Mamet's 'Glengarry Glenn Ross'
Photo from imdb.com
Yuppie ghettoes
Yuppie ghetto shit(h)oles.
Too funny. Urban Cartography(from which the picture above is from) correctly points out the spelling mistake.
I had a similar(ok, not too similar but definitely on the same thread) for the Singapore Biennale next year. Shhh...
The Straits Times' Life Section had a coverage of the Mitre Hotel today- given the nostalgia surrounding it, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the local design mags has a fashion shoot on its grounds these few months. The controversial Wu Xiao Kang's 'A Dose of Light' is being exhibited at the Mitre Hotel from next Saturday to Sept 1st.
Snippets of the report below:
From hotel to lodging house
FIRST built in the 1870s, Mitre (pronounced My-ter) was bought by five members of the Chiam family in 1948 for $61,000. They turned it into a hotel and it was patronised by oil rig divers, divers and backpackers in the 1970s and 1980s.
All the original owners have died except Chiam Heng Luan, 93, who also founded the Sloane Court Hotel in Balmoral Road. The descendants of the original five owners have been slugging it out in the High Court for the past 30 years.
Mitre ceased operating in 2002 and is now being run as a lodging house.
Its shadowy and crumbly compound is a place out of time. The main gate is a creaky, retro, tesselated grill gate which is locked at midnight.
Venture into the main lobby and you will pass rows of dusty sofas and chairs that line the graffiti-ed walls. The odd rat scurries away as you gingerly make your way through. There are three ceiling fans, but only one stirs the air, languidly.
The hotel's quirky dwellers add to the surreal experience. The most famous - or infamous - denizen is Mr Chiam Heng Hsien, 62, a well-spoken man with a shock of white hair and arthritic legs. He spends his nights on a small bed in a large hall behind the bar.
You may catch him making his way up the driveway at night and pushing a market trolley to support his bent legs. Topless.
His wife and two daughters live in a terrace house off Grange Road.
He, like the old building, is a kind of lone ranger.
Mr Chiam, who has a 10 per cent share of the property, is the one who has been holding out against the family's decision to sell the site. He is the son of the late Mr Chiam Toh Moo, one of the original owners.
But he has lost the long-drawn tussle. While he has spent most of his life as manager and caretaker at Mitre, he has to leave the site at least four weeks before the sale is completed.
Life! caught him last Saturday sitting pensively on the porch. He was wary on the subject of Mitre, but spoke freely on stocks, investments and politics.
He graduated in 1968 with a physics degree from the then University of Singapore, and worked briefly as a civil servant. He took over the running of the hotel in 1975.
It was reported that he refused to allow the sale in 1996 unless he received $21 million. So why did he hold out selling, since he'd be rich after the sale?
He doesn't reply.
Was it for sentimental reasons? He says: 'I never think about what I'll miss. A memory is only a memory - if it's gone, it's gone.'
He adds: 'What else is there to do? Except to try to take some pictures of the place.'
Or, like many other thirsty travellers, you can hit the bar on the ground floor, which is lit by the stark glow of a single fluorescent tube.
Manning the bar is a woman in her 30s who goes by the name of Jesse, Sophia or Vivian, depending on who you are and when you ask her.
The chatty eccentric, who mans the hotel from early afternoon to about 10pm when Mr Chiam takes over, is something of a mystery.
She says she started working here six to seven years ago, but does not say if she is paid and why she works here. On what she would do after this place closes, she says: 'Find another job, lor.'
And her bartending is erratic: She serves beer at $7 a can only to regulars - others get 7-Up.
Cheap drinks, smelly toilet
AFTER some rounds, those needing a leak need to pick their way past a large hall which looks and smells like an abandoned storeroom.
Broken chairs, a pool table heaped with debris and empty beer boxes litter the place. When you get to the loo, the toilet bowl will convince your bladder to hang on a little longer.
The murky contents of the bowl is a scary black-brown. Maggots crawl inside.
A walk upstairs, up the creaky staircase, leads you to a large hall, empty compared to the clutter downstairs. Bits of the night sky are visible through gaps in the roof.
You flick on the light switch; surprisingly, it works.
One room is locked, and kept for an Australian - a Mr Matthews - who deals in antiques, says Mr Chiam.
Through a chink in the door, you can see a bed covered with clean, white sheets and a suitcase on the floor.
But this is the only vaguely liveable room. The others are empty and in various states of dilapidation.
Most have thin, dirt-grey mattresses and stained sinks.
Singapore Condo Complex Rips off Nicole Kidman Chanel No.5 Ad
Adrants singles out CDL's One Shenton as a rip-off of Chanel No.5's Kidman campaign.
What they wrote:
Since Chanel No.5 didn't get much ROI off the $15 million they paid Nicole Kidman to appear in one of their ads, someone else might as well get some mileage out if it. Singapore luxury condominium developer CDL replicated the Nicole Kidman imagery right down to the backward necklace to promote its One Shenton condo project. What's that saying? Imitation is the purest form of flattery? More like "We're a sleazy developer who has mo problem freeloading." For comparision, here's the original Nicole ad.
I'm leaning towards Marc Garnaut in that the client probably approved the visual instead of having specifically requested for a Nicole Kidman-in-Chanel No.5 campaign.
On a side(tangential) note, Nicole Kidman's hair looked so much better(there's something about obviously-too-short-hair in a ponytail that's disturbing).
As does the dress, the backdrop, even the jewellery. Am disdainful of badly executed, derivative, "inspired" work
Bachelor padding: Luxury and the single guy(Or what your viewing patterns say about you)
Had a bachelor client who rented a showflat because it had ready, (untouched) cutlery, bedding- bascially the prototypical agent’s idea of ‘move in condition- just bring luggage’ type of apartment.
I tend to categorise bachelor residences into two categories- the pristine, magazine-worthy type with nothing in the kitchen, (apparently the case study of this article in the International Herald Tribune), and the bachelor who cooks, with clothes and dishes left over for the maid’s weekly visit.
This storyline must have been in a telenovella or other forms of pulp fiction I consume on a regular basis but am sure there was a fictional character(somewhere) who had to decide between one guy, his dogs and his country ranch house and another guy(an architect, methinks), and his pet-free, fashionably restored, pristine mid-century modern house.
Charlotte in Sex and the City concluded that a guy buying a townhouse must be planning for a family(voiceover: Carrie-Some people read palms. Charlotte read real estate). Real estate indicators and looking at how someone lives must be amongst the best ways of assessing a person’s marriage-ability. Following that (il?)logical trajectory, real estate agents must make for the best matchmakers around, which is why, apparently, some real estate agents are moonlighting(ok- value added service) as matchmakers for their single clients.
An excerpt from the article-
Brokers are also used to distinguishing between perennial shoppers and relationship-ready clients. Those who view dozens of spaces but find fault with every one, or are always about to make an offer only to back out at the last minute, may not be ready to commit to a property or a partner. That’s why Kleier Forbes says she waited to introduce attorney Amy Schulder, for whom she’d found a rental, to a sports-marketing executive client until he signed a contract for a two-bedroom. “I wanted to see if he was a window shopper or a buyer,” she says. (For the record, the couple clicked and has been dating for a few weeks.)
Dickensian Vestigial Nub...
There are great blogs that both make my day the way they’re so beautifully written and conceived, makes me feel the slightest tinge of jealousy(how can anyone be that good and that prolific) but also cautions me that it’s NOT ok to write (shit) on the blog just so…
Below is an excerpt from the blog- on urban fabric, badass developers and the possible extinction of savile row…
That ‘meaningful sense of place’ is what the developers are playing with when they talk of “reinforcing the Savile Row brand”, but are they best placed to handle this kind of nuanced brand experience? Rhetorical. London and Britain has long suffered the iron grip of property developers on urban fabric. How is a 40% rent increase going to reinforce anything except the simple displacement of the current tenants? From this distance, this would appear to be another example of how British landlords often reject of the opportunity to combine history, context and innovation, and the long-term economic base that could engender, in favour of a short-term profit which (inadvertently?) changes a place’s identity forever.
Notice how trivia like coveted real estate in Monopoly and the Japanese word for suits are so neatly tied in?
Original post can be found here
Tan Chin Tuan Mansions
Is up and ready to be let out.
Units are either 3 or 4 bedrooms- both are roughly of the same square footage and the conclusion I've made is that you either choose to have less(and larger) rooms or more(and smaller rooms). Asking rental is $25k. Completely owned by one family, none of the units will be for sale.
Part of the debate amongst the conservationists and other concerned citizens, the extension to Tan Chin Tuan Mansion recently received the approval(?) of Harp's founder, Mr Terrence Hong:
The head of Harp, Mr Terrence Hong, 26, said: ‘In 10 years, if you want to dismantle the building above the house, it can still be done and the house will be intact.'(Sunday Times, 24 June 2007)
Photo above is from duckweed, posted on skyscrapercity's forums.
Lost Sole(s)
Did not get an opportunity to watch this. From the synopsis, however, it seems very 'Bicycle Thief'-ish(Don't retch with reference to the latter).
I loved the trailer on youtube however and through the flimsiest excuse, will tag this as a 'socio-spatial' entry.
You can view the teaser on youtube:
It's set around the Sultan Mosque- an atmospheric area renowned for the best nasi padang around(it's Warong Pariaman, guys), the Arab-style cafes(and at times-service), made hip when Comme des Garcons decided it was(drop by Haji Lane to check out the aftermath of Comme des Garcons'cameo in the neighbourhood). Also the place where brides-to-be shop for beautiful lace cloths, occasional weddings are witnessed in Kota and where a not unsignificant portion of my childhood was spent trawling through the stores.
Web 2.0
Can everyone stop claiming to unrolling the next web 2.0 site?
User participation and a more democratic platforms are great ideals but personally I believe more in Wikipedia’s model than Youtube’s. And while the philosophy of wikipedia is in delivering a democratic platform and accessibility to knowledge, it’s also (very) much moderated, which detracts from the ideals of democracy, doesn’t it?
I subscribe to that whole Foucauldian power/knowledge dialectic and Lutheran ideals of transferring knowledge(and power, according to Foucault) to the hands of many as opposed to a few but complete democracy as embodied by sites where just about (everybody) can post a video seems too indulgent, too wasteful, too pointless for it to be definitive of a whole generation of websites.
House Hunt- Video
Video 2
Illustrating the frustration of finding an piece of property to buy/rent through the papers. Without an accompanyin g visual element, names of developments rarely give an indication of the design and suitability of the property.
Watch the video here:
The Youtube Videos
Video 1-
Using Ken Knabb's(from the Bureau of Public Secrets) translation of the Situationist Work 'The Passage of a Few Persons through a Rather Brief Unity of Time', we've incorporated the words into a rather senseless (anti) corporate video.
Watch it here:
Penthouses with pools
Penthouses with private pools are almost a fixation with me. This, an updated version within a very Matrix-like development (in the coolest way, possible) asking $15m for around 4800sqft, a penthouse unit in the above development for less than $4m in the above development, one at another WoHa -designed development that has yet to T.O.P and another in the Novena area represents the new generation of 'penthouses with pools'.
It's nothing new- The soon-to-be en bloc'ed(if the latter is a verb) Futura has a penthouse over three floors with a pool(yes, I still lament the loss of the building- someone should immortalise these units in some cool coffee table book...)as does Landmark Tower and a host of older developments that made a splash(pun intended) in their time for the rooftop swimming pool innovation.
Yet, it's still exciting- for its sheer connotations of an 'uber penthouse'- as the 10,000odd square feet penthouses at the Marina Bay Residences are called(side note: an uber penthouse can only be uber if there's a private pool;-)). And yes, the penthouses typically sell first, generate the best publicity for its unique features and as per Keppel Corp's press release, will receive media-worthy unsolicited offers.
Photo above from Heeton Holdings.
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Michael Slater
June 8, 2005 @ 10:28 am
6When I sold my house in the east bay of San Francisco, this is exactly what I did. The commission was tiered and he was better paid the higher the sale price of the house was (starting at 6%) And to be clear, I got significantly more for my house (even considering that I had bought it only 11 months earlier… thanks California Real Estate Market!)
By the way, if you think 6% is low or a lot, consider what the real estate agents in Singapore get…. One Percent.
And yes, the average real estate agent here is about as good as you’d expect for paying only 1%. It’s practically a hobby job for most of them — a bunch of Glen Gary Glenross losers, they don’t even get the steak knives.