A man from China spent about SGD$14,000 to fly to Singapore, where he was supposed to start his new job as an algorithm engineer at Shopee, according to Lianhe Zaobao.

He landed in Singapore on 25 August and was supposed to start his job on 29 August, but he received a call from Shopee on the same day he landed in Singapore, telling him that they have retracted their job offer for him.

Speaking to Mothership, after Shopee revoked his job offer at the very last minute, the man and his wife are now staying at a hotel and applying for jobs and interviews.

Zaobao reported that the 28-year-old man, who comes from Shanghai, finished a doctoral programme at a Chinese university and he first received an offer from Shopee in September last year.

He was scheduled to begin his employment with the company on 29 August this year, with the delay being caused by the pandemic.

He said that he had received offers from other companies and ultimately chose Shopee.

He shared that he heard rumours about other people having their job offers rescinded by Shopee, so he called them to check about his own offer, and he was allegedly told that there was no problem with his job offer.

The man even received a welcome email from Shopee, with instructions for his onboarding into the company, one day before his flight to Singapore on 25 August.

Facebook user Seah Angeline Yoko shared how she has been facing “noise nuisance” every day since April last year.

She shared that her upstairs neighbour’s children would start jumping, running, throwing beads, dragging furnitures, slamming doors and dropping heavy objects every day from 1.45pm to 8pm.

She then added that it is even worse on the weekends and school holidays, and the noise would last from 8am to 8pm.

She also said that the husband of the family upstairs allegedly told her to wear earplugs, before allegedly asking his wife to close their door on her.

Here is what she said (SIC)

I HAVE BEEN FACING NOISE NUISANCE DAILY SINCE APRIL 2021. THE KID WILL START JUMPING, RUNNING, THROWING BEADS, DRAGGING FURNITURE, SLAMMING DOOR AND DROPPING HEAVY OBJECT DAILY WITHOUT FAIL FROM 1.45PM TO 8PM PLUS.

ON WEEKEND OR SCHOOL HOLIDAYS NOISE WILL BEGIN FROM 8AM PLUS TILL 8PM PLUS .

ALL THESE DESPITE SEVERAL VISITS FROM THE POLICE AND HDB AND 2 MEDIATION SESSION(WHICH WAS USELESS BECAUSE THE OFFENDERS DIDN’T TAKE THE MEDIATION SERIOUSLY AND THERE WASN’T A PENALTY)

ONCE I WENT TO THEIR UNIT TO INFORM THEM OF THE NOISE BUT INSTEAD OF APOLOGIZING , THE HUSBAND TOLD ME TO WEAR EARPLUGS AND ASKED HIS WIFE TO CLOSE THE DOOR AT ME.

MEANWHILE, I AM WAITING ANXIOUSLY FOR NEW LAW/RULES TO BE IMPLEMENTED AND TO PUNISH THIS RECALCITRANT NOISY NEIGBOUR .

A POFMA Correction Direction was issued to The Alternative View for their Facebook post implying that HDB profits from the Ang Mo Kio BTO flats.

Ministry of National Development’s statement

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS REGARDING A FALSEHOOD ON THE ALTERNATIVE VIEW’S FACEBOOK POST

The Facebook post published by The Alternative View on 1 September 2022 contains a false and misleading statement.

2 The Minister for National Development has instructed the POFMA Office to issue a Correction Direction 1
to The Alternative View as its Facebook post communicates the falsehood that HDB profits from the sale of the Central Weave @ AMK BTO flats. The platform will be required to insert a notice against the original post, with a link to the Government’s clarification.

Clarifications regarding falsehoods

3 On 1 September 2022, The Alternative View published a Facebook post, which reproduces the headline of an article from AsiaOne (dated 31 August 2022) stating “Ang Mo Kio BTO flats: Strong demand for 5-room units despite prices of up to $877k”, contains an image of the Minister for National Development holding a bag of money, and ends with the caption asking “How much profit is HDB reaping from this?”. Implicitly this post is stating that HDB is making profit from the sale of the Central Weave @ AMK Build-to-Order (BTO) flats, which are part of the August 2022 BTO sales exercise. This statement is false.

4 HDB will not profit from the sale of the Central Weave @ AMK BTO flats. In fact, it will incur a loss from this project, as the estimated amount to be collected from the sale is lower than the estimated total development cost of the project. If we take into account the CPF housing grants that HDB will extend to eligible buyers, the deficit is higher still.

5 The amount HDB collects from the sale of flats in every financial year is less than the costs it incurs, including the total development cost (comprising land cost and construction cost) and CPF housing grants. HDB incurs a deficit every year.

6 For the Financial Year (FY) 2021/2022, HDB incurred a deficit of $3.85 billion in its Homeownership Programme. The average deficit incurred by HDB in the last three years (FY2019/20 – FY2021/22) was about $2.68 billion per year. The annual deficit, funded by Government grants, is reflected in HDB’s audited financial
statements published annually.

7 HDB’s deficit is largely due to the significant subsidies extended for new flats and the disbursement of CPF housing grants for eligible buyers. Because of this, most firsttimer buyers use less than a quarter of their monthly income to service their housing loans. Close to 90% of first-timer families service their HDB loans using CPF with little or no cash payments.

8 HDB will continue to use the allocated resources judiciously to provide affordable and quality homes for Singaporeans.

9 For the facts of the case, please refer to the Factually article “Corrections
regarding HDB’s BTO programme” (https://www.gov.sg/article/factually040922).

Issued by: Ministry of National Development
Date: 4 September 2022