As a realtor, a statement I often hear from LGBTQ+ clients in their 30s would be: “Oh, this will be my forever home”. The reality is that most of us will likely not be living in the same home that we first purchase. Think of the childhood home you grew up in. Is that still the home you are living in? The answer is often no. As LGBTQ+ people, even though starting a family with kids is not as...
In the last few days, there have been countless articles and social debates on the Repeal of 377A and the protection of the definition of marriage. I am not here to debate on that subject.
However, I have been asked to comment on housing issues and how the repeal of 337A and the tightening of the marriage definition will affect the LGBTQ+ in the long run. So here are my thoughts.
In my years of helping LGBTQ+ clients with their home selection in Singapore, most of them would opt for HDB flats either from BTO scheme, or the resale market. For financially better off individuals, they have the additional choice of private properties like condominiums, apartments or even landed housing. However, there is one property class that is often missed out by the LGBTQ+ community - the...
For many Singaporeans, living in a rental may not be the first thing to come to their mind because 91% Singaporeans own a home of their own (according to figure in 2018). So the vast majority of tenant pools comes from expats and foreigners working and living in Singapore, renting up rooms, or whole units of apartments around Singapore. There are small percentage of locals who move out of their home to...
Think of Greenwich Village in New York City, West Hollywood in Los Angeles, Castro in San Francisco, Newton in Sydney, and Le Marais in Paris. What do these cities have in common? They are all well known ‘gay villages’ that have gone through gentrification. Formerly known for being less developed and run-down areas, they are now the hip and trendy high-end districts today because of the queer...
When I first started writing about LGBTQ+ property issues, a lot of people asked me what’s so different about the queer community and their property purchase? Isn’t a property purchase the same for all? You simply choose to buy a private or HDB, depending on your available budget and needs. When purchasing a flat from HDB, most people will just opt for the Singapore Single Citizen or Joint Singles...
Before you jump into your objection mode to give me a whole list of why new projects are too expensive, too small, and current PSF are way too high vs resale condo, and why it is not a good buy, do allow me to explain why I think otherwise, especially for first time LGBTQ+ private home buyers.