Daily Briefing: Roxy Pacific to sell six sites in 2018; "Worst" home loans

And here are some of the best-performing stocks in 2017.

From ZUU Online:

2017 was a dramatic year for the Singapore stock market, with invaluable lessons for investors to glean from for 2018.

Stocks in the semiconductor and property sectors had a pretty good run in 2017. These were characterised by improving fundamentals, coupled with growing earnings and rising dividends.

Investors should always keep in mind some best practices in investing in stocks, like seeking diversification into stocks with profits and a reasonable price earnings ratio. Investors should also avoid companies with excessive debt load and seek to stay invested over the long run.

Read more here.

From iCompareLoan via Yahoo! Finance:

Because it’s not like anyone enjoys spending the weekend reading about bank interest rates. Most of us will buy a house once or twice in our lives; there isn’t really much awareness of how home loans work, which is why it’s so easy to sucker us. Most of the time, we’ll just take the recommendation of a property agent (they get a commission for referring us), or just use the bank we already save with.

Most people don’t realise that bank interest rates – crudely speaking – move with the bank’s quota. Every bank has a certain amount they want to loan out, as they come closer to meeting that quota, their interest rates rise. There really isn’t any advantage to taking a loan with a higher interest rate; it just means you got suckered.

Read more here.

From PropertyGuru via Yahoo! Finance:

Meanwhile, Roxy-Pacific revealed that it currently counts 10 development sites in Singapore as its land bank. Of these, it plans to launch six development sites for sale this year, including The Navian and development sites at Grange Road, Upper Bukit Timah Road, Guillemard Lane as well as Harbour View Gardens at Pasir Panjang and River Valley.

Comprising a total of 440 units, these projects are expected to positively contribute to the earnings of the group progressively from the first quarter of 2019.

“Over the last couple of years, we’ve progressively accumulated predominantly freehold sites at attractive prices amidst the property downturn,” said Roxy-Pacific executive chairman and CEO Teo Hong Lim.

Read more here.