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Can you still invest in properties in Singapore?

Singapore, with a small land size compared to many developed countries, is one of the best places to invest in properties. With a small land area, it is inevitable that the supply of land is limited, and hence, property prices are always on the rise. However, property prices has shot through the roof in the last 4 years, and this has prompted the government to take necessary measures to cool down the market.

This is because of a risk in building up a property bubble, one which we have seen how much damage it can do to cause a financial crisis, such as the infamous one in USA in 2008. As such, the Singapore government has implemented many rounds of cooling measures to make properties more expensive and investment less lucrative.

With that in mind, is Singapore still the right place to invest in properties? This is what our discussion will be on today. But before that, let’s see what the government measures has done to the property market here.

According the statistics by Singapore Real Estate Exchange SRX, private home sales have hit a 21-month low since October 2012. People are now buying the same properties at a lower price compared to few years ago. SRX has also predicted the price will continue to fall.

However, if we look out of the statistics, we can see that land developers are still launching new condo projects in this ‘cooling’ period. One example is the North Park Residences in Yishun, which is an upcoming project to be launched in Dec 2014.

north park residences yishun

With over 900 units up for grabs, it is still early to say what the response will be. But with all the cooling measures still in place, the psf price for North Park condo might be lower than the previous condo launches are Yishun area.

This can be a great deal for people who are waiting for a drop in price in the property market before entering it. Families who want to upgrade their lifestyle from a HDB apartment to a new condo can grab this chance, before their HDB price falls further.

Other than just the North Park residence condo, there are also many other ‘golden opportunities’ that are yet to be uncovered. Only when you are open to investment, you can find them.

Singapore is still one of the best places for property investment, and good deals can be found everyday. People are still making money when there’s government intervention in the market. Grab that opportunity today.

by admin

Gorgeous Universities Around The World

Whenever we talk about universities, the common topics that dominate the conversations are ‘costs’, ‘discipline of study’, or ‘future prospects’. However, most of the time we didn’t take a step back and be mesmerised by university we will be spending 3-4 years in.

We have gone around the web and looked at some of the gorgeous universities around the world. Some of them looked amazing, and some of us even want to include that as part of our travel itinerary when we visit the country.

Here are the 7 of them, in no order of ranking.

1. Harvard University

havardu

 

2. Cambridge University

cambridge-u

 

3. University of Toronto

toronto-u

 

4. Moscow State University

moscowstate-u

 

5. University of Bologna

bolognau

 

6. Oxford University

oxfordu

 

7. University of Cape Town

ctu

 

We have just picked out 7 amazingly beautiful universities for our post here. Of course, there are many more gorgeous ones we have yet to discover.

The above photos are from Telegraph, we have compiled a list of 16 beautiful universities. If you would love to see more, head over there to pick your favorite!

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The Three Things You Cannot Save For Your Wedding

We know wedding dinners are not cheap. They can cost quite a bit. If you are a price-conscious person who wants to budget your wedding properly, this article maybe for you. If money is never a problem, then this article might irritate you.

Yes, wedding dinners can cost quite a bit, but there are three things that you shouldn’t cut your spending on. You can save money on other areas before or after the wedding, but probably not the 3 things on your wedding day.

1. Your Wedding Planner

This is subjective. Not everyone will have the budget to hire a wedding planner. But if you are to hire one, please hire a good one that has the experience to manage a wedding. If you are preparing a wedding or smaller scale, then you probably may not have so much to handle.
wedding-planner-work-overload
If you are looking at a wedding that has about 400-600 people, then be prepared. You have many things to handle, and someone who is inexperienced in weddings will probably be as stressed as you on that day. Get an experienced planner, and you can rest assured that everything is well taken care on your wedding day.

If you have a friend who is helping you, do give them some tips (the most among all your friends) as their workload is really heavy. It is never an easy job to be a planner.

2. Your Wedding Photographer

For your birthday party, smart phones may do the trick, to help you get a few selfies or group shots. But please. They don’t work for your wedding. Not even those simple handheld cameras. I know of people who get their friends to be their photographers because they have DSLR cameras.

No offense to your friends, but wedding is an important occasion. No one can redo wedding because the camera is not working or the photographer miss the best shot (the kissing shot!). You never want your friend to tell you ‘sorry’. That sorry may haunt your life forever.
get a professional photographer
Getting a professional wedding photographer Singapore can ensure your best moments are always captured, in the best possible way. You will not worry about camera angles, blurred images, or even cameras running out of batteries. These will hardly happen to a professional.

If you need a recommendation for a trusted photographer, do check out actual wedding day package from ThatPhotographer. They are quite nice people and you can discuss with them your requirements for the wedding day photos.

3. Wedding Venue
the-wedding-venue
This will make up the largest proportion of your wedding budget. How much should you spend on the venue, again, depends on what kind of wedding you want to have. As advised earlier above, you don’t want a venue that destroy your happiest day. You want a venue that you are happy with, and your guests are too.

How do you select your venue? This again, depends on different culture. Some parents want to decide their child’s wedding venue, while in some places, the child make all the decision. But to have a really happy wedding, do take into consideration for both parties.

Do note that whatever the venue is, you must be happy, your parents must be happy, and at least 50% of your guests are happy :)

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What Wedding Couples Need To Know About Actual Wedding Photographers

wedding day photography

Wedding is a big day for two loving person.

It is the day that they finally commit their lives to one another.

It is also this day they make the announcement to all their family, relatives, and their friends.

It is a very important day. However, one huge mistake that wedding couples do on this day is going cheap on the services that will make their event a hugely successful one.

There are wedding services like the venue, photography, wedding gowns, wedding banquets. For the venue, wedding gowns and banquets, most couples spend the most amount of money on making themselves and their guests look great.

However, not many thoughts are being put on wedding photography on the actual wedding day. Many thought that it is just ‘photography’, and it is something that can go on cheap, and not worth to spend thousands of dollars on, like wedding venue and banquet.

However, what thing they didn’t realize is that a professional photographer’s job is to ‘take photos’. Their real job is to capture moments. Their real job is to catch your unforgettable moments and keep them in images for life.

Many wedding couples risk their wedding by going for free photographers, mostly who are beginners in their field, who want to take photos for their own portfolio or collection. They just want to have some exposure, and so they look for wedding couples who are willing to give them the chance.

Sure, you can have these free photographers on your wedding day, but they should not be the ones who replace the real photographers who will do the best job for you. The worst nightmare that you can have on your wedding day is not about worrying something bad will happen.

The worst thing about your wedding that can happen are the photos or videos that are taken on your wedding day, not up to your satisfaction, or worse, did not capture any beautiful moments that worth to be kept. When these happens, you can complain about the ‘free’ photographers. You can tell all  your friends not to hire them ever again. You can demand them to make a compensation.

But one thing you cannot do, is to hold your wedding dinner again.

Actual day wedding photography makes a big difference to your overall wedding experience. They make or break the whole event. Saving a few thousand dollars can help you to buy a new TV set or a new furniture for our new home, but it can never compensate for the pain of a horrible wedding experience.

We hope this piece of information will educate you on the importance of professionalism.

There’s a quote that goes “If you think hiring a professional is expensive, wait till you get an amateur.”

This article is written by ThatPhotographer.sg – Actual Day Wedding Photographer Singapore. Having rich experience with wedding photography and capturing beautiful and alluring moments of wedding couples and their loved ones, they never fail to deliver happiness during, and after your wedding day.

 

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The Power Of Education

Education has shaped the world.

As we look back into the years how far we have come, we can indeed say that many things have changed. People have become more educated, people have become more sophisticated.

Let’s look at the definition of Education from Wikipedia:

Education in its general sense is a form of learning in which the knowledge, skills, and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through teaching, training, or research.

Now we’re in the 21st century.

The world is very much educated. Technology has come into our lives. The world is not as simple as before. We people demand more. We people want to get things faster. We want to achieve more with less time. Our expectations are always rising, but not our work ethics.

Here’s a video about education in the 21st Century.

We no longer live in the world of the past. We cannot expect things to be the same. That also means whatever we are studying right now, will no longer be relevant in 10 years time.

Education is a never ending process. It does not start in school, it starts at home. It also does not end in school. It only ends when you left this world. This is how we should view education from now on wards.

If you do not move forward, you will be left behind. There are no places for people to stand still, because everyone is moving so fast. You have to keep improving yourself, not just to get ahead of others, but just to simply keep up with your peers.

Education has raised many people from poverty to prosperity. It is not just in terms of monetary value. It can be seen as an uplifting of a nation. With education, people know more about health, technology, food, environment, and many more. Only through education, we can truly improve the lives of many people, and make the world a better place.

Let your education starts today.

Not tomorrow.

Let your education ends only on the day you leave.

Not on the day you leave school.