Singapore is a top property investment market since 1990s. Singapore property investors have at least made three times the amount of capital outlay. Foreigners are curious as to their eligibility to purchase a property in built in Singapore. The answer is yes but it comes with more restriction compared to a citizen in Singapore. Two main investment categories available are residential property as well as commercial property. Within the residential segment and commercial segment itself there are sub categories and foreigners will only be able to invest in certain sub categories.

Residential property types in Singapore include HDB flats, Executive Condos, Private Apartment, Private Condo and Landed houses. Only Singaporean and PR holders can officially buy HDB houses which are subsidized housing schemes by the government. Foreigners have no ownership rights to HDB. Executive Condos are subsidized condo for Singaporean and PR. For PR holders, they can buy one after 5 years have passed from the completion of building, or commonly known as the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP). Foreigners are allowed to purchase one after 10 years. Private condos and apartments can be bought by foreigners, and there is no restriction on the number of units one can buy, just the average cost is around $2 million SGD so only for wealthy. For landed houses, foreigner keen on the houses must have government consent where owners have to prove that they contribute meaningfully to Singapore's economic development. There is a dedicated online portal for application.

For commercial properties, some of the sub categories include shop houses, office blocks and units, hotels, warehouses, factories, shopping malls and many others. Commercial property can also be freely bought and sold by foreigners. Leasehold property and freehold property are 2 only property tenures in Singapore. HDB as well as executive condos has a 99 year leasehold term. Private condos and apartment has 99, 999 years term or freehold. Leasehold property means Singapore government owns the land and property owners are leasing it back from the government for a small annual fee. The land is to be returned to government at the terminal lease period. Foreigners can own both freehold and leasehold properties.

Property taxes are additional cost added to the purchase price of Singapore property. These taxes include buyer's stamp duty, seller's stamp duty, annual property tax, income tax on rental and GST (goods and services tax). Buyer's stamp duty rates are 3% less SGD5400 for property price above SGD360,000 and additional buyer's stamp duty rates are 15%. Free trade agreements signed by Singapore and countries such as Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, USA and Switzerland will see the buyer exempted from additional buyer's stamp duty if the foreigner is a valid citizen or PR from the foreign countries mentioned.

There will be a seller's stamp duty tax imposed if sale of property is made within 4 full years from date of acquisition. The rate starts from 16% for sale occurring on the 5th year, with gradual decrease every following year. Annual property tax for residential property is dependent on the use of property. If a property is for private stay, tax rates ranges from 0 to 12% of annual property value. If a property is rented to outsiders, tax rates ranges from 10 to 12% of annual property value. Property tax rates for commercial properties are 10% of annual property value. Property annual value is derived from the gross annual rental rate for properties being rented out, excluding furnishings and furniture maintenance fees. Estimated market rental rates for comparable properties are used as comparison estimation. Rental income used to derive the Income tax rates on rental is net rental inflow after deducting directly attributable expenses ie interest on home loan, commission for real estate agent, maintenance fees, property tax and others. Foreigners are required to pay 20% net rental inflow tax rate, but will increase up to 22% beginning from YA 2017. GST in Singapore stands at 7% and payable to any commercial property buyers who are individuals.

Locals and foreigners alike have made huge capital gains and realized profits by property investment in Singapore but there are many who also lamented missed opportunities over the years. Singapore economy is expected to grow with gradual rising property market as better infrastructure are built such as new MRT lines and expressways. One must be brave to take the necessary action in view of the stable political scene in Singapore with very low unemployment rate.

Buying property can be summarized in few key steps. Firstly, perform a quick loan assessment on you own financial standing. Check out the mortgage markets and packages with a mortgage specialist. Proceed to discuss on desired property types and location with the property agents. Shortlist desired units and make arrangements for viewing. If you are satisfied with the price and conditions, proceed to pay a booking fee and arrange for loan and you will soon be accepting the keys to your first property purchase.

Cannot be denied, lately, Asia has risen a number of a middle class, due to the economic growth. According to the fact that Singapore Economy sector has to face the decline for a bit, there also a good sign that statistic has shown an increase in consumer spending in Southeast Asia, and in air traffic at Changi Airport as a regional hub. A raised in a middle-class people of the Asia region absolutely will increase their domestic consumption. This consumption also includes a high-tech product and increasing the number of the manufacturing sector. This also has an impact on their import number to increase, and the last, adding their investment in the foreign country. Despite the political uncertainty which occurs in some countries of South East Asia (associated in Association of South East Asian Nation), EDB was certain that Singapore can take an advantage of the growth of the population of countries like the Philippines and Indonesia. ASEAN country has a 5 percent growth in the economic sector. It will give Singapore a chance to get profit, as long as they open up the economy and have some policies that friendly with the market. EDB also certain it will last for about a long term.

Economic Development Board of Singapore, as the lead government agencies built in 1961, is an institute that developing strategies to keep Singapore become a global business center.

EDB has the aim to attract the foreign investor to boost the Singapore manufacturing industry sector. EDB is the future preparation for the Singapore nation. They have established a strong position in the global economy, and not less important is they have to create a competitive environment in order to save the city's standing inside and outside of the region. EDB's aim becoming tough since the statistic has shown that Singapore export-oriented has been flat for the first quarter. But the EDB aim has been strengthening by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) by issuing a policy to not taking appreciate from currency. EDB thought this policy aim is to stabilize the cost structure in Singapore, which will pull out the business competition and encourage them to step up to the market. Further, this policy has kept the cost structure to be in competitive range. Nonetheless, the currency will become a big problem. This policy has put aside the currency problem and lead to a growth number of exports.

The cost structure has become so important because it has an impact transmitted to external demand and import prices. The MAS set to zero appreciation path to make a nominal effective exchange rate policy, to bend the imported and domestic pressure of inflation.

The government has put an effort to tightened the application process for the foreign workers, not by sorted of their nationality, but more oriented to the target which is valuable and investment- potential. Beh Swan Gin from the EDB said that if a company is servicing a Singapore's customers, then it will not make a sense to have all of their staff come from a foreign country.

A vital part of Singapore's economy is the electronic industry. This industry accounts for twenty five percent of Singapore's total manufacturing output. The industry has approximately eighty thousand workers and many of these works stand out. A couple of these hard working people where profiled and this article speaks a little about them.

Kevin Koh is a thirty four year old that leads the central processing unit team at Media Tek Singapore. This team works with many other team from around the world to make better the CPUs that are installed in everything from phones to internet boxes. With the demand for higher performance Mr Koh's believes to combat this with multiple CPU installed on the silicon chips of electronic devices that will increase the capability of the device. The energy efficiency of the CPUs is also something that Mr. Koh's team of technicians have worked on. Anyone can relate to their phone's battery going dead in crucial moments due to power leakage. The prevention of this s also a task that the team has been charged with.

At the time of Mr. Koh's employment to Media Tek as a physical design engineer the demand for digital performance was not as high as it is today. Even Mr Koh himself used a simple phone that allowed him to make calls and messages. He has upgraded somewhat to a device that runs on a quad core that enables him to take pictures, send email and a host of other task right from his cell phone. He commented that personally using the devices that his team had worked on the CPUs is the best and perfect way to test the quality of the device while making note on the required upgrades that will make the device more dynamic.

It is the belief of Mr. Koh that customized machines are always better and less expensive than conventional ones. He finished University with a degree in electronic and electrical engineering in 2005 and spent his first year of employment at Fujitsu Microelectronics Asia Limited. He then left to join the team at Media Tek and was shortly promoted staff engineer and then to manager of the CPU high performance team. He has currently completed a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering.

The Singapore Silicon Laboratories has a forty eight year old design director that goes by the name Leung Kafai. Ms. Leung Kafai has always been fascinated with how things work and spent most of her time playing in her father's tool box as a child. At that time she was only skilled at pulling apart devices but as she grew so did her skills. She attended Texas A&M University and attained a Bachelor of Science in nineteen eighty five after which she worked as a system designer in Texas. She shortly attained an Electrical Engineering master's degree in Austin at the University of Texas.

She became a part of a startup organization in the year two thousand called Cygnal Integrated Products. This company was soon later swallowed up by Silicon Labs. Her new job title at this point was senior engineer and as her new company established a team in Singapore she got the chance to be the team leader of the microelectronics design. Her team is the one responsible for the artificial intelligence of electronic devices such as their energy efficiency. She leads a team of twenty that is responsible for the design of chips. She is a strong believer in having a social life and she tries to keep hers and her teammates weekends free to spend with friends and family. She also plans get together for her teams and their families.

The next hard worker to speak about many love and without even knowing they do. She is the designer of the chip in television sets that allow you to channel surf. She gets very proud whenever she sees a television set on knowing that it was possible thanks to something she created. She commented that the rapid advancements in microelectronics is what keeps her so interested and intrigued to the field. She worked in Britain for a couple of years where she eventually finished a Master's in Electronic Circuit Design and Manufacture. This was from the University of Dundee. She worked for a couple companies back in Singapore before becoming a part of the Broadcom team in the year two thousand and five.

During the 1990s, Asian Tigers comprising high powered economic growth for Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan dominated the headlines. Airports together with national carriers were fast developing as well for rapid expansion of freighter fleets. China's rise put the Asian tigers growth pale in comparison. Cargo volumes at Changi Airport fell 3.2%, with overall growth for the 1st 7 months of 2013 rising a mere 1.3% in tonnage. Singapore will be parking a B747 freighter in June. Mr. Kelvin Wong, director of logistics for EDB sees static volumes for airfreight as success indicators. This is due to Singapore moving up the value chain for logistics, with products becoming smaller in size. Singapore used to export bulk boxes of printers and computers. Now it is transporting cutting edge medical devices, aerospace components and microelectronics. Businesses are always looking for ways to be more efficient and lower costs. A shift to sea freight is taking place as well. Hence flying is regarded as 2nd choice in terms of cost savings. A solid volume base is a sign of still healthy sector.

Air cargo enterprises are thriving in Singapore, due to its strategic hub location and World Bank has consistently ranked Singapore as top 2 best places for logistics. Singapore is a popular destination for being foreign companies' Asia hub. For instance, Texas Instruments just partnered DHL and Swisslog to launch Autostore, a high end automated logistics system.

Dyson, a UK based electrical goods maker famous for its vacuum and fan, has been churning products form Singapore since 2004 and will continue to invest in a new manufacturing facility. Medtronic, a pacemaker company for human heart is also launching a worldwide centre of excellence, adding base to its Asia Pacific HQ.

Rolls Royce launched its Trent engine for Boeing Dreamliner, a first in Asia. Cargo for air gets bigger at the same time. Logistics is in Singapore's DNA and a pillar of support for Singapore's economy. Sound economic planning ensures simultaneous development in its air, sea and custom clearing development with minimal friction. Singapore's seaport is known to be the largest transshipment hub. Strong custom agreements with global economies put cargo clearing in Singapore within minutes. All a freight operator needs is one portal to satisfy all regulations.

Many logistics players are expanding their footprint in Singapore. Panasonic recently transferred its whole purchase and logistics department from Japan Osaka to the island state. Infineon will partner as its exclusive supply chain manager. About 10% of world silicon wafers output and 40% of hard disk devices originated from Singapore. Established forwarders like SDV are rapidly expanding, with the latest opening of a 42,000 square meters huge warehouse aiming for servicing the luxury segment, health care, oil & gas and aerospace. DB Schenker, another heavyweight will also launch as even bigger 54,500 square meters logistics centre targeted at the electronics, automotive and healthcare segment, estimated to begin operations by Q2 2014. Singapore will emerge as the control tower for supply chain management based in Asia. Singapore has all the perks and infrastructure to make a supply chain more responsive due to expertise honed by its skilled industry veterans.

Many raised doubts about the space for new development as Singapore is already saturated and crowded. Wong has no qualms about the issue as EDB is always proactive in factoring all concerns into their master planning and resourcing plans. Changi Airport will be seeing new 4th and 5th terminal being built and fully operational by 2020 and expanding current runway no.3 into one full length 4000m commercial ones. The expansion plans will see passenger capacity doubling, and space extension for higher air cargo volume. It will be a win win solution for air freight operators wanting more space and airside facilities.

FedEx has just launched in prior years.

EDB has provided full support for its e-freight at Singapore project, which is a project involving government running a centralized database for forwarders and carriers to exchange trade information. 17 companies had shown full commitment to this initiative and 37 more have shown huge interest. All participants are committed to IATA goal for attaining 80% routes covered by e-freight by 2016. Singapore has shown tremendous potential as a favorite airfreight hub due to India and China. ASEAN, with its 600 million strong population has as big an economic region compared to Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou. It has the same scale as South America.

ASEAN plans to have a unified economic integration by 2015 and this will double trade flows with 25% occurring within Asia. Markets in Asia are key to many companies. ASEAN will be as important economic bloc as China.