Daily Briefing: DPM Tharman urges Singapore to keep social mobility; Grab app glitch made all rides $6 regardless of destination

And Gilstead Mansion’s en bloc sale relaunch puts price lower by $3m.

From Yahoo! News Singapore:

Deputy prime minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that it is critical that Singapore sustains a system where everyone is moving up when dealing with inequality, including those in the broad middle class.

“Because once the escalator that carries everyone up stops, the problems of inequality and all the problems of me against you, this group against that group, becomes much sharper…Once you get stagnation in the middle of society, over a long period of time…inequality becomes a much sharper issue, much more brittle,” he said.

The deputy prime minister pointed out that a number of advanced countries are grappling with the challenges of inequality. In these countries, there is a sense of “pervasive anxiety” among those in the middle class.

Hence, Singapore needs to ensure that the escalator of social mobility is always in motion. “What I get is not just at the expense of someone else. I can move up without someone else moving down, if the escalator is moving up,” Tharman said.

Read more here.

From Channel News Asia:

Grab Singapore was hit by ‘a glitch in the computation of fares’ that cost passengers $6 regardless of destination and had said that they were working to resolve the problem as soon as possible.

"For passengers, Grab will honour fares for all rides completed during this time. We will also compensate all affected driver-partners who have taken bookings with lower fares than usual. We apologise for the inconvenience caused," it said.

Grab Singapore also said that drivers' allocation and cancellation rates would be "kept at the same level as before the glitch period".

The glitch appeared to affect riders and drivers in Malaysia as well as the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.

GrabHitch – the company’s carpooling initiative – also appeared to be affected, with users complaining in a Facebook group that all Hitch rides were now S$5, regardless of destination.

Read more here.

From iCompare Loan:

Gilstead Mansion is up for another en bloc sale with its guide price down $3m to $65m from its June launch price, Teakhwa Real Estate revealed.

The revised price for the collective sale works out to $1,524.70 per square feet per plot ratio (psf ppr) with no development charge payable.

Nestled on a 35,751 sq ft site, the collective sale site has an existing gross floor area of 42,632 sq ft. It is part of the Stevens-Chancery area, in which the increased average unit size of 100 sq m rule would apply for development applications submitted on or after 17 January 2019. Teakhwa Real Estate said the site could yield about 56 new units under the current 70 sq m rule. Also, the site requires no pre-application feasibility study for traffic impact.

Read more here.