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Advice on HDB rules for buying a flat

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johnnybev
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Advice on HDB rules for buying a flat

Post by johnnybev » Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:36 am

Hope someone can help with some ideas...I'm a UK national, been renting here almost 3 years now, and got PR status just after Christmas after marrying my wife Denise (Singapore citizen)...

We're looking to buy an HDB, unfortunately combined income is JUST above the 8k that would qualify for a HDB grant. Initial calculations done by our estate agent (we've just started looking) resulted in us having to pay about $79k upfront based on a 400k flat at 80% bankloan. I don't have any CPF - my wife has 23k in her CPF, but we're advised thaat half of it has to be 'set aside' to cover other expenses, so not much to offset...

We don't have 79k laying around, and to borrow it on a personal loan or moneyline would mean the repayments for that and the bankloan would be more than the 2.4k we're currently paying for rent! Are we too poor to buy a 4 room flat???? Is there any way around the HDB grant threshold or anyone who provides good rates for the downpayment loan? ANY comments are more than welcome, thanks!

John and Denise.

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sundaymorningstaple
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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Sat, 13 Jun 2009 1:49 am

If you are a first time buyer, and you don't have the scratch to come up with the 20% downpayment it's going to be rough. You might just have to wait a year or two to accumulate some more CPF to lesson the load. You also might want to downgrade into a smaller rental HDB around 1500-1800/mo area to maybe free up 12K a year towards the downpayment. I had to come up with around 60K when I bought my resale flat 10 years ago (first time buyer as well). I took a 14 year mortgage for the balance. Fortunately, Between the grants and the down payment and an unfortunate shortage of CPF funds I still had to take out a 175K mortgage for the 14 years. But in 3 years 11 months from now it's paid for!
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Post by cavalier » Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:29 am

But who's counting? :cool:

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Re: Advice on HDB rules for buying a flat

Post by nushk » Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:46 am

interesting post.. I'm also thinking about buying a place in singapore too, so will be keeping a close eye on this thread.

johnnybev, or anybody else who can help answer, do any banks here offer 90% mortgage bankloans? or is it strictly 80%? does the current economic climate makes more banks veer towards 80% bankloans, or even 70%, or is the government helping by getting banks to give us 90% bankloans?

johnnybev wrote:Hope someone can help with some ideas...I'm a UK national, been renting here almost 3 years now, and got PR status just after Christmas after marrying my wife Denise (Singapore citizen)...

We're looking to buy an HDB, unfortunately combined income is JUST above the 8k that would qualify for a HDB grant. Initial calculations done by our estate agent (we've just started looking) resulted in us having to pay about $79k upfront based on a 400k flat at 80% bankloan. I don't have any CPF - my wife has 23k in her CPF, but we're advised thaat half of it has to be 'set aside' to cover other expenses, so not much to offset...

We don't have 79k laying around, and to borrow it on a personal loan or moneyline would mean the repayments for that and the bankloan would be more than the 2.4k we're currently paying for rent! Are we too poor to buy a 4 room flat???? Is there any way around the HDB grant threshold or anyone who provides good rates for the downpayment loan? ANY comments are more than welcome, thanks!

John and Denise.

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Post by amiee40 » Tue, 16 Jun 2009 6:02 pm

Someone can correct me if i am wrong. Max is 80% but be prepared for 70%. You would need to sit down with mortgage advisor, he will do all the calculations for you.
I didn't know this either until i spent a boring Saturday afternoon looking around for a new condo. Sat down with one of those on the spot mortgage advisors and nearly fell off the chair. Now i spend my boring Saturday afternoon day dreaming instead... :cry:

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