from the ground Up

Heavily subsidised HDB units, which are much in demand, are often sub-let to foreigners

SOME tenants in heavily subsidised HDB rental flats have been illegally sub-letting their homes to cash in on surging demand for cheap accommodation.
There are no official figures but tenants in some estates say that as many as one in five rental flats is rented out to foreign workers – a clear breach of HDB rules.
The flats are often leased to workers from Malaysia, China and India – who are either unaware that they are renting illegally or do so because the units are the cheapest option.
Property agents and tenants told The Straits Times that there is an increasing number of such flats put up for rent by people keen to cash in on foreign workers’ demand for cheap housing.

DEMAND has been strong for the latest batch of Housing Board (HDB) flats – despite new rules designed to prevent frivolous applications.
As at 5pm yesterday, 2,397 applications had poured in for the 1,485 premium flats launched by HDB just last Thursday.
Housing experts say demand looks likely to stay healthy, although the total number of applications may drop as HDB’s new rules begin to deter time-wasting and frivolous applications.

ONE of the landmarks of the east, Katong Mall, was put up for sale yesterday at an indicative price of $220 million to $250 million – amid some controversy.
The 99-year leasehold property comprises strata-titled commercial units used as shops and other businesses.
But the site can be rebuilt into a mixed development comprising residential and commercial units, said its marketing agent Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).
Its public tender comes after a contentious collective sale approval process in September last year.

FIRST-TIME buyers can be assured that they will get to select new flats from a reasonable pool before they are sent to the back of the queue, said National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan yesterday.
And, in a separate assurance, the Housing Board said it may exercise flexibility if applicants at the back of the queue have good reasons for rejecting available flats.
The comments came after HDB changed application rules on Thursday, leaving some first-timers worried that buyers offered leftover flats by the HDB will effectively be penalised.

REDESIGNING SINGAPORE MAKEOVER #3: THE CBD - URA draft Masterplan 2008

THE heart and soul of Singapore is about to get bigger – and you might get to live closer to it.
The city centre is set for an injection of 23,000 new homes in the next decade, as the Central Business District (CBD) doubles in size to dwarf even that of London’s famed Canary Wharf financial district.

EFFORTS to green Singapore’s buildings are paying off, with more than 19,000 environmentally friendly homes built across the island and 18,000 more in the pipeline.

THE Government’s bag of carrots to encourage the construction of green buildings just got bigger.
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan announced yesterday that cash incentives paid to developers who put up green buildings will be extended.
In addition, key industry stakeholders such as architects and engineers will now be offered incentives, too, in recognition of the important roles they play, he said.

First-timers who reject two offers to buy a flat lose priority status for a year

THINK hard before you apply to buy a new Housing Board flat: Lodging frivolous applications will now get you sent to the back of the queue.
New HDB rules unveiled yesterday target flighty first-time buyers who have been hedging their bets by applying for flats when they often have no intention of closing the deal.

Whether it’s a windy coastal drive, food, clubbing or comedy, the city is packed with lots of character

IT IS up a little alleyway that I begin to discover the secrets of Melbourne.
The walls of the narrow lane are covered with artistic graffiti and the inconspicuous entrance to a bar, St Jerome in Caledonian Street, beckons as the sound of the crowd on the streets on a Saturday night, slowly fade into oblivion.
Inside, the bar is small, L-shaped and dimly lit. There are young, trendy-looking Aussies milling around, taking swigs of their beer.
My companions and I order some Aussie favourites – Victoria Bitter, Little Creatures, Pure Blonde – and make our way to the back.
It’s a weird world out there: a small courtyard is hemmed in by four-storey-high walls decked with fairy lights strung on pipes running along them. In a corner, a deejay is spinning some alternative house music on neon-lit decks….

SINGAPORE is a long way from his home in Germany, but for Professor Joachim Luther, no place is too far for the pursuit of his passion: solar power.
The atomic physicist-turned-solar expert has been entrusted by the Economic Development Board (EDB) to direct the country’s first research institute dedicated to solar energy.
The task comes with $130 million of seed money to kick-start work at the organisation, the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore, or Seris.
Given that the industry is poised to be one of Singapore’s largest growth engines of the future, the chief executive’s job is challenging, to say the least…

Day 3 of my stake-out and I’ve hit jackpot.

You know, that rush when you know you’ve got all the gems for your story. I can’t say too much, since the story is not published yet, but this week has been hard. I’ve been working daily shifts from 9am to 7pm, then going to some blocks of flats after work to investigate and get more facts/quotes for my story. It was gruelling, at times demoralizing, and most of all, humbling.

So much for capitalism, I saw for myself how the country’s economic boom hasn’t benefited everyone, people living in one-room flats, sparse with furniture, paint peeling, and I thought about how lucky I was, and promptly felt very embarrassed about my earthly desires.

Interestingly, I had a conversation with a colleague today who has, sadly, just resigned. We were debating on the profession and its merits. He said he’s leaving because at the end of the day, journalism doesn’t pay that well and sometimes, it’s just too much leg work. Leg work of the sort I’ve been doing for the past week.

On my part, I have always loved journalism. From the days as an intern, to days of being a temp in London newspapers, to my full-time job now, I have loved (almost) every minute of it. I like the job, what it offers, the people I meet (not all), the flexibility, the unpredictability, the very nature of it - but obviously it’s not the easiest job on earth.

But to me, journalism is all about the ground work. You can’t sit in ivory towers pretending to know what’s happening below, or dish out stories based on phone calls you make - what someone once said to me was phoney journalism.

I have to agree, though, there’s the easy leg work, and the difficult leg work. And there’s different kinds of work you have to do, depending on your beat. For general news, there is definitely much more running around, speaking to strangers, trying not to get the door slammed too quickly in your face… For business journalism, there isn’t the physical tediousness of knocking on doors, speaking to heartlanders, people on the ground etc, so you could say it’s an easier kind of journalism. But then, deciphering documents, financial statements, and balance sheets, is gruelling work of a different nature. And grooming contacts for that business story of the month - be it an M&A deal, a corporate scandal or a high-profile resignation - is also not easy to achieve and involves years of “working the ground”.

I can’t say which I prefer, although I think what I’m doing right now is the healthy dose of each for me. Perhaps I’m privileged to be covering beats I’m actually interested in, and that the scope of my work enables me to do a wide spectrum of “working the ground”. I love that I can be interviewing Lord Nicholas Stern on climate change one day, and then be speaking to a 70-year-old retired uncle who lives in a one-room flat about prostitutes on the other.

The truth is, you’ve got to love everything about journalism to want to do this for life. I’m not surprised my colleague is leaving. It’s a job that isn’t sustainable if you don’t love it completely. And not many do. For me, work doesn’t really feel like work because I enjoy what I do. J oftens says to me he’s so envious that I know what I like, and I’m doing it. For him, his work is a chore, a burden to bear, sales targets that will never ease… It’s the reason why I sleep like a baby at night, and sleep often eludes him while he tosses and turns and murmurs the names of his sales clients each night (which wake me up, btw!).

So although I’m really tired from the past few nights, doing what I was doing, going places that I wasn’t invited, and not being really sure if the story is going to be worth all that, I do it because it’s my job.

And I’m lucky enough to like it.