Money Senses

Buying a house is never easy.

Having bought a house in 2 days of search and forking out huge amts of cash for COV, agent fees, reno/furnishing.. etc (the list goes on n nvr ends), i could have be asking myself was it worth it afterall. Why not a new flat right from the start?


We did try, but...

- lady luck wasn't shining on us for the HDB balloting exercises: the no. gets bigger each time.

- We were not willing to wait 2-3 yrs for a Build-To-Order exercise. Locations of such exercises are usually way too far from our preferred place to stay as well.

- DBSS. Another waiting game. With a higher price tag (of cos nicer deco/layout), n in my opinion not worth slogging 30yrs for another condo-alike HDB. Or simply, not within my comfortable means.

- Location, location, location. It has to be in the East. No more no less. That's where we both grew up n where our roots were. :)


I did my calculations (not a very meticulous one, there were still glitches in planning occasionally, thou nothing destructive) and decided the price tag we can afford. Things that played a major part in my planning were:

1) Cash - Simple reason. Cash for COV, cash for agent fees (usually 1% of selling price), cash for renovations (that determine how extensive a reno shd go and how much COV i'm willing to fork out).

2) HLE - Housing loan eligibility. How much HDB is willing to loan us. I noticed that HDB's extremely generous, given us an in-principle approval loan amt that we wouldn't dare take. Would cost us handssss and legsss to finance that monthly installment.

3) CPF savings - Enough to cover downpayment after Housing Grant? Do i need to fork out cash for monthly installment thereafter, or would my monthly contribution be sufficient to finance the installment?

4) Other financial contingency plans.


With the common consensuses that we are looking forward to upgrading our house in future, we would rather be prudent, get a reasonably nice house with budget renovation n fittings. Afterall, what matters most is just being comfortable with loves one in your place call home, not showroom. :)