No more Mr. Kiasu

In the popular imagination, the average Singaporean is a cigarette smoking, white singlet-wearing, 45 year old ‘uncle’ who wears flip flops and drinks Tiger with his ‘kakis’ at the local hawker centre.

But thanks to a survey done by stockbroker CLSA, we now know that Mr Singapore is, in fact, under 40, hankers for a BMW rather than a Mercedes, has a diploma level or higher education, and still believes property makes the best investment. But the global financial crisis has not been kind to Mr Singapore, who saw his average income decrease by 10 % over the year and whose key concern is a rising foreign population that may lead him to lose his job. In the same survey done in 2007, most Singaporeans were worried that rising numbers of foreigners would increase the cost of living.

Government the big winner
So in what other ways has the global financial crisis changed Mr Singapore’s situation and outlook? Perhaps surprisingly, Mr Singapore has an even greater appetite for risk even though he is earning less. 20 % of people surveyed by CLSA planned to buy stocks in the next 12 months, compared with just 4 % in 2007. And the risk appetite does not stop there, with 81 % looking forward to the opening of the integrated casino compared to 74 % in the previous survey. The big winner in the survey was the government, with 89 % of respondents expressing confidence with the government’s ability to manage the downturn compared to 84 % who were happy with the governments performance in the 2007 survey. Dhruv Vohra, Head of Research in CLSA, said Singaporeans are so optimistic in this crisis in large part due to the government response. “I think Singaporeans came out pretty well; they really benefited from the government’s surplus.”

Property is also again on the agenda of Mr Singapore, and even though 85 % of those surveyed live in HDB’s, 18 % want to buy another property in the next 12 months compared to just 8 % in the 2007 survey. Given that home ownership already stands at 90 %, this signifies a strong outlook for demand for property, and does not include the foreigners who also want to buy.

“This, we believe, is due to the recovery in property prices, low interest rates being offered by banks and the average Singaporean household’s low gearing. Overall, Singaporean households are emerging from the recession in much better shape than we had expected. This is beneficial for domestically oriented businesses, such as property, retail and banks,” said Dhruv. But there are still dangers ahead and that may affect Mr Singapore. “The country is still dependent on a global economic recovery, given its heavy reliance on trade flows and the fact that more than 50% of corporate earnings are derived from outside the country.” So Mr Singapore may be a bit down, but he is far from out and pretty happy with things.