SMRT vs Legless Thai Girl

Poor Nitcharee Peneakchanasak lost her legs after she fell into the tracks at Ang Mo Kio station last year and an oncoming train rolled over her. Fucking sad, also fucking mad if she managed to win that $3.4 million law suit against SMRT and even LTA for her accident in April 2011. Poor girl as she not only lost her legs, she will lose her law suit also soon.

I don't remember of any local who accidentally fell onto an MRT track. Not one. Jumped onto an incoming train to splat himself and have his messy inconsiderate suicide inconvenience thousands of commuters in peak traffic, yes and lots of them until SMRT had to build that stupid glass barrier that made platforms stuffy on hot days. However, I never remembered any horrible accident of  someone who slipped onto the tracks. WTF.

Most likely she was some clueless Thai girl who stood too near the yellow line. Any streetwise urban person would know to back off from that line until the train has stopped. MRT commuters should always be prepared that their stalker Ex, former recruit they tekan during BMT, employee they sacked and replaced with a cheaper foreigner, neighbour who hated their curry cooking or mahjong or marble dropping on the floor etc, is waiting for the chance for revenge and push them onto the tracks.

The Thai girl even said she was pushed although CCTV footage supposedly showed that the platform was not crowded. Huh? Like that also can ah? To win $3.4 million in a law suit, must try harder rather than that lame story right?

It looked that the poor Thai girl and her family decided to scam some money and take advantage of the situation. Maybe SMRT did not give her enough compensation in the first place and she pissed and wanted payback, literally. Anyway, WTF it was clearly damn sad she fell onto the tracks and for better or for worse, she only lost her legs. However, how was SMRT liable I don't know as I'm not some crafty glib-tongue lawyer. Is her lawyer going to say that former butch SMRT CEO spent more money on SMRT retail rather than on SMRT rails at the platform and it was SMRT gross negligence that led to the poor accident? Wow.

ERP Up! LTA MoFos

From 1st November, LTA is going to screw morning drivers. Some ERP rates jumped 400% and others jumped 500%! OK lor since ERP gantries are up already might as well charge charge charge. What is different this time is that usually they increase some gantries, decrease some gantries so that there is some sense of trade-off for drivers. This time, it is increase all the way! Mofo. Next time, they would increase the tolls on the other ERPs too! Greedy mofo.

Morning peak hour ERP rates to be increased at 6 gantries

SINGAPORE - The Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) rates for six gantries leading to the CTE and ECP will be revised from Nov 5.

Four of the affected gantries are located on the southbound CTE after Braddell Road. From 7.30am to 8.00am, the ERP charge will go up by S$1 to S$4.

Two other affected gantries are located at Fort Road leading to the ECP and the KPE slip road onto the ECP. From 8.30am to 9am, the ERP charge will go up by S$1 to S$5.

The rates for the other gantries remain unchanged.

The Land Transport Authority announced the rate revision after completing its quarterly review of traffic conditions on ERP-priced roads and expressways.

Ravi Mad to Think Loser No Need Pay Legal Costs for Winner in Court

Mdm Vellama duped big time for being dragged into the mess by Ravi. Now they must bear legal costs as Ravi and her lost the case that the by-election must be held within 6 months of a parliament seat being vacated. Always the case where loser foots the legal fee of the winners. WTF Vellama is now in a tight spot. If she cannot pay, then how? M Ravi pay up for her which is the right thing to do as he started the mess, he should clean it up.

Judgment reserved on costs in Hougang by-election case

SINGAPORE: A High Court judge has reserved judgment on whether a Hougang resident will have to bear legal costs following her bid to bring the Hougang by-election case to court.

Madam Vellama Marie Muthu had initiated the case in March this year, after former Hougang Member of Parliament Yaw Shin Leong vacated his post.

The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) then sought costs against Madam Vellama after her bid was dismissed by the court in August.

The AGC said that this was in accordance with the general legal principle that the winning party is entitled to legal costs.

The AGC added that on at least two occasions, after the writ of election was issued and the by-election for Hougang single-member constituency completed in May 2012, Madam Vellama was asked to discontinue her proceedings, but she rejected both invitations. This led to further costs being incurred.

Last week, Justice Philip Pillai directed both parties to submit their findings on whether there are exceptions to the general rule that the losing party pays the winning party in such cases.

He further instructed them to research if there were judicial precedents in Australia, New Zealand and United Kingdom.

At a closed-door hearing on Tuesday, Madam Vellama's lawyer Mr M Ravi referred to a previous judgment by Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong which asserted that public bodies must be protected from paying costs in carrying out functions that are of public interest.

Mr Ravi said that while Madam Vellama is a private citizen, she was carrying out a public duty in her court bid and that it gave closure to an issue of general public administration.

As such, the "wide public interest" of her bid should exempt her from the general rule of paying costs.

Mr Ravi, who is representing Madam Vellama pro-bono, also noted in his submissions that in that respect, it would be both "unjust and unreasonable" for costs to be ordered against her.

Justice Pillai will deliver his judgment at a later date.

Rental Market at Crossroads

Now at least 3 times slower to find rental for property! Rental cash cow is mooing softly rather than loudly as more supply in the market, economy is shaky and fewer foreigners. Triple whammy! If the whams continue harder and harder and rentals, if any, cannot keep up with monthly mortgages for those who stretched the monthly payments and prayed for rental to cover it, added pressure on correction of the property market coming soon to a mass market condo near you.

Pray for more PRC and Indian foreigners and tenants to work here and save our heartland landlords! Never mind, I stop cooking curry and start watching Bollywood movies to bond with these foreigners and make them welcome! WTF Rental yield already good at 3% plus and any lower yield, might as well buy high yield aka junk bonds instead of buying property for yield! Lower capital outlay, higher yields and errr just as risky. LOL

Add the other pressure on older folks finding harder to get home loans after the new MAS age and tenure restrictions imposed imposed last weekend to cool the market again, are we going to see resale property market correction especially? Owners want to sell but some segments they hoping to sell to cannot afford to buy as not enough cash, not enough time!

Rentals for private homes expected to ease: experts
by Wong Siew Ying
Updated 07:07 PM Oct 09, 2012

SINGAPORE - Rentals for private homes are expected to ease in the next 12 months, especially those in the luxury segment.

Experts said current rentals for private homes are just 1 per cent off the peak recorded in the second quarter of 2008.

It used to take about a month to secure a tenant for private homes in the rental market last year.

Now, it takes about three to four months, according to analysts.

While rentals have edged up slightly in recent years, the vacancy rate too has gone up, especially for high-end units.

Mr Ku Swee Yong, CEO of International Property Advisor, said: "In the luxury segment, if we were to include Sentosa Cove, then the vacancies are as high as 9 to 10 per cent, whereas islandwide, we are still seeing...average vacancies of about 5.5 to 6 per cent."

On average, it would cost about S$5 to S$8 per square foot per month to rent a luxury home.

Some analysts said rentals for high-end units could come under pressure over the next 12 months, in view of the uncertain economic outlook and the additional supply of new units hitting the market.

They said average rentals could dip by 3 to 5 per cent next year.

Mr Donald Han, special advisor at HSR, said: "Corporates are looking at reducing its cost, and part of the cost that will be reduced is expatriate housing allowances, so the first top-tier of that market being the luxury end of the residential apartments, some good class bungalow projects have seen a drop in terms of actual transacted rents."

Mr Han said that for instance, the rent for a 15,000 square feet good class bungalow which is about 10 years old went for S$28,000 to S$38,000 per month last year, but rentals have dropped by 3 per cent since.

Meanwhile, the rental prospect of mass market units remained fairly stable.

Some analysts said the rents for such homes could see a 1 to 2 per cent upside in the year ahead.

Industry players said average rental for mass market homes currently ranges between S$3 and S$4.50 per square foot per month.

But there will be stiffer competition for areas like Hougang, Pasir Ris, Sengkang and Punggol, where many new housing projects are lined up.

"My own estimation is that these areas would account for 50,000 new homes by 2015, and that is a significant addition to that stretch," said Mr Ku.

Mr Nicholas Mak, executive director of SLP International Property Consultants, said: "Whenever a new project is to be completed in a certain area, the owners who are planning to rent it out are probably being approached by many agents, and tenants typically would prefer newer apartments with newer amenities. So we will definitely see some tenants being drawn away from the older developments to newer ones."

With some key events coming up, industry players expect overall rental rates to stay soft in the coming months.

The events include the US presidential elections in November and the ongoing efforts to fix the eurozone debt crisis which is now into its third year.