Lauer

You can use any ratio for plot ratio, whether it is 1.5 or 0.6. I am just using the plot ratio of 1.5 to illustrate how the factor you used to measure if a rebuild is justifiable, what it said for 2009 and what it said now. A landed investment comprises a land and then the building that sits on it. It is firstly the land that an investor will assess; in other words, the location, the environment of the area where the land sits, the overall mix of landed housing in its neighborhood. Why? Because he can't change these, whereas he can change the existing house of the landed he plans to buy. He can tear it down and rebuild, or refurbish it etc. Therefore, a landed investment is really all about the land; not the physical plot size or whether the plot size is big or small. A GCB investor don't really care about the cost of refurbishing or rebuilding an existing house. Cheers!

And for the music break. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xweqsdRpG9Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player Enjoy!

I am just a newbie la, not seasoned at all...Anyway, just my 2-cents thought below. I don't know but I don't use the factor you used to calculate justification. When the denominator is the land (as used in calculation of the factor), in 2009 at the trough the land price was $500 psf, it cost about $225 psf ($150 psf of construction cost x plot ratio of 1.5) so the factor was 45%. Now, the land price is averaging $1250 psf, and it cost about $450 psf ($300 psf x 1.5) so the factor yields 36%. But in hindsight, it was clearly justifiable to rebuild a house in 2009, even when the factor yielded a higher percentage. When we study the maths, it shows that in this bull market, the increase in land price outpaced the increase of home price. There is a newspaper article that appeared a few days ago, that said basically the same thing for other sector like condo etc. However, In my informal pricing observation there is evidence that an investor who bought a landed house in its original condition in 2009-10, sat on it without embarking on a rebuilding, the profit he can get when selling it today is not much different from another investor who bought a similar landed but rebuilded the house. Nevertheless, the investor who rebuilded a new house is able to benefit from consuming the new house until he sells it. Cheers!

And for the music break. Enjoy!

Yes, you should consult the MC to determine if the works are permitted before proceeding.When you already have a design in mind, and the design does not involve extensive structural work, the involvement of a PE should be sufficient where a submission is needed. Looking at the items, I supposed that an ID is able to cover these. The conversion of the balcony space is a structural work so you will want the ID to seek the opinion of a PE to validate whatever design he comes up with for the balcony. Builder, contractor, people used the term interchageably. To BCA, a builder is one licensed by it to carry out construction works, and there are different category of builder as well. For you, don't worry too much because you probably will engage an ID for these. Now, whether to get an ID to handle all the works, or separate contractors to handle the individual works (tearing down a wall & building another, tiling, electrical etc etc) is a separate subject altogether. I don't have an opinion on which route is better, because it really depends on how much you know about a wall construction, tiling, electrical etc etc and how much time you can afford to manage all these contractors. Cheers!

I am not an expert, so others please add or amend the comments as following. In order to know what you can do to a house, first there is the legal title to understand. In this case, all houses in a condo development is strata-titled. This means that all structures (the individual housing units, the building(s) within which the housing units are found, the carpark, the club house, the facility etc, and the land on which these structures sit, collectively called the Common Property is ttled to an legal entity called Management Corporation (MC in short). The MC is an entity created and empowered by the Strata Title Board to manage the Common Property. A housing unit in the design of a terraced is still part of the Common Property. When you buy a housing unit in a condo development, you buy a share of the Common Property. Now, most condo developers tend to market a housing unit of terraced-design as a townhouse. I thought that this is incorrectly described, because the legal title of the land for a townhouse is not the same. For example, say we have 3 units of townhouse sitting on a common land; the ownership of the land title is collectively owned by the 3 units, not a MC. And so, coming back to the question, because you don't own the structure of the house, you cannot modify things like extending a room by removing a balcony, changing the window (or the color of the window glass), or even painting the facade to a color of you prefer. And within the house, there are walls considered as the Common Property as well, such as the common wall shared between the house and the neighbor's. Just my 2-cents thought. Cheers!

And for the music break. Enjoy!

Yes, you should use real story, good or bad, to illustrate FS. My apology, but I found the listing of a classical FS text or extract, and then trying to interprete what it meant, without an illustration is dry. After some stories, I may just contribute a story, a puzzle that intrigued me, although I don't know if it has anything to do with FS. Cheers!

KC, Not laughed at you la...or at FS for that matters. Enjoy!

我欲乘風歸去 ... Enjoy!

Enjoy!

Enjoy!

As a layman, I read with more laughters than frustration. It is clear that all these discussions served to create more confusions about FS, especially when the reader is a consumer of FS practice. "People like to say 一命，二运，三风水，四积阴德，五读书, In actual fact, is 一读书，二积阴德，三风水，五运，六命. " When you read something as quoted above, it is not orthodox FS; again, I am a layman, but I know the interpretaion is personal and is not orthodox. Music is still better for me. Cheers!

And for the music break... Enjoy!

重重克入 立见死亡 位位生来 连添喜气 Cheers!

Hi, Thank you for sharing again. It will be nice if some examples or scenarios given to illustrate the above. TIA!

Hey Mae, It is nice to see your here. Intuitively, I thought that should be the case, as a layman. If we take a chronological approach, that the Bazi of a person has something to do the FS of a house he is buying, then after having bought the house, there should be a relationship between the subsequent FS (the 30-40% part) of the house and the buyer's Bazi? For example, after buying the house, when the buyer proceeds to modify the interiors. TIA!

Hey, no need to be so humble leh... You are doing fine. Cheers!

Hey, how are you? So, what is your view of my question if a person Bazi has anything to do with the FS of a house he is buying? Cheers!

Thank you for sharing. You wrote that FS has nothing to do with Bazi. But when a person is buying a house, has his Bazi anything to do with the kind of house he decides to buy? That is, he will be buying a house with good or bad FS. TIA!

How is the stock market nowadays? Cheers!

Yes. Therefore, before exercising the OTP, I will advise a buyer to bring an ID or an architect to look at the condo (or HDB) or landed respectively, with the specific objective of identifying any possible defects. But what is a defect? In construction-speak, a defect is not the same as workmanship. A defect refers to a piece of construction item that is not properly built. For example: - A dry wall that rainwater seeps is a defect; a dry wall without this problem but plastered unevenly is a workmanship, - A wet floor that doesn't channels water to the floor-trap properly is a defect, - A leaking water-piping is a defect; when embedded in the wall as in condo, it can be costly to fix, sometime involving dismantling of cabinet, - A leaking bathroom is obviously a defect (send the ID to your downstairs neighbor to enquire if water leaks down to his unit), - A smelly bathroom is a defect, because of the sewage pipes routing. This is almost impossible to fix for HDB or condo because the piping is also involving your neighbors, - A poorly constructed balcony door that allows rainwater to seep in, is a defect. ..... When a purchase is completed, money has changed hands, there is practically nothing one can do to seek compensation for the defects (except where the purchase is a new flat from a developer). As mentioned, before the completion of a purchase, a buyer is still able to seek compensation from the seller with the identified defects. It is a question of how much defects, and if they are costly to rectify. The lawyer can advise the buyer what to do. Cheers!

Unfortunately, no. There is no way to back out of an executed OTP, but you still have the option not to complete the purchase. Having said so, I will caution that you must not seek this option without consulting with your lawyer. What kind of defects? If the defects are really defects, and they are really costly to rectify, then consult your lawyer for the solution. Good luck!

Wow, 600m? I am not an expert, but my understanding of strata regulation is that, a standalone staircase is not a common structure. In this case, you may be to do something about it. If it is attached to a common wall, such as the wall between your unit and neighbor's, the wall which the other side is the sky, or common corridor, then the staircase is not standalone. Regardless of whether or not you can modify a staircase, creating a loft is illegal but.I know some managed to do it while the MC is sleeping on the job. Aluminum cannot support a floor la... Cheers!

Ya lor. See is the best. Cheers!