Buangkok

 

Buangkok is a neighbourhood situated in the north east part of the island. Its boundaries are fairly nebulous, but in general terms it covers parts of Sengkang and Hougang, specifically Compassvale and Trafalgar. Its name comes from the Chinese word for “united” and was given to the area by the Chinese who settled in the area.

 

History

Those Chinese farmers were the first people to really settle in the area now known as Buangkok. In the early part of the twentieth century, they started to move onto the land that was at the time largely made up of rubber plantations, and in fact the land was jointly owned by the state and the Singapore Rubber Plantation Ltd.  Over the proceeding decades the area became a thriving neighbourhood made up of many different villages and kampongs. The Buangkok of today started to take shape in the last few years of the twentieth century as developers moved in, removing many of the original villages. Development continued over the years until by 2009 all but one of the kampongs had been cleared.

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Kim Keat is the project that enjoys a high number of applicants for its future units

Kim Keat Beacon, located in Toa Payoh, is a residential unit that got a lot of attention lately, as soon as it was announced that it is going to be transformed into a Built-To-Order project. With a capacity of 542 units, all of them being flats with three and four rooms, ideal for families, this development attracted no less than 2,400 applicants. The Housing Board is in charge of the process while implementing new ways that will support young families to get a house faster. Overall, there were 3,970 units offered for sale this May, with a total number of applicants reaching 7,603.

But, in spite of the apparently good numbers, the key executive officer of ERA Realty, Mr. Eugene Lim, said that the number of applications was rather low in comparison with the sales launched in the recent past, which can be closely connected to the somewhat inconvenient locations of the units were provided. Concerning the popularity of Kim Keat Beacon, he said that it was expected from homebuyers to swarm in, as Toa Payoh was always among the most preferred residential areas. It provides a wide range of amenities and has a central location, allowing its residents to reach any destination in no time.

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Decline in hiring cost of a foreign employee

Firms usually spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on employees’ hiring. This is because they want to find the perfect match. The perfect match who is able to perform the task for what they are hiring them for. It is costly but in the long run the firm face benefits from these employees who excel and thrive for success. Hiring expats used to be expensive because according to the firm logic these people were better trained, probably due to a greater exposure and knowledge learned.

 

Throughout the past year, hiring expatriates has become very flexible for the firm. By this what I mean is that they are cheaper to employ. The salaries have dropped dramatically. For example a fully skilled expat manger was to receive $235545 if it was 2016 but no happens to receive $223095. The reason as to why the worth of expatriates was in decline was due to two factors. One was that they belonged to prestigious countries like Europe and US but now p pole are being employed from all over the globe, even the third world countries. Secondly, they are now being treated just like other Singaporeans. This suggests that their salaries too have to be altered if they are now the equals.

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Jurong Lake District left hanging at HSR’s decision

For the past few years, the Singaporean government had been allocating land for developments of the High Speed Rail (HSR). However, in recent news, the government is going to put a pause on some of these projects. The 12 hectares land in Jurong Lake District is being left on hold too. This leaves behind an empty hole in all the areas that await Malaysian leaders to reconsider the project developments.

 

Around 67 hectares of area in the Jurong Country Club (JCC) was set aside for the HSR to construct the Jurong East terminus on. This project was said to be a noticeable development that would advantage the business sector including hotels, restaurants, offices, etc. JCC also had a site reserved for the building of another golf club: Raffles Country Club (RCC). RCC is expected to be giving the land for these two 18-hole golf clubs by July 31. The club is 143 hectare in total. Unlike the initial stages of the agreement, they have to give in a bigger portion of their land for the development of HSR projects. However, all these projects are being affected by the recent rumors of HSR cancelation.

 

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