My Thoughts About the New Property Measures
1. I still won’t be able to buy a decent place.
2. I will not buy an old HDB flat and be stuck there for more than 5 years. Too many horror stories about weird neighbours, loanshark problems, and other stuff.
3. If after getting your place, your fengshui master tells you that the house is not suitable for you, then you are stuck for the minimum 5 years.
4. If you want your kid to get into a good school, it means you can’t move house to be near the 1km. If your kid can’t get into the school beside your place, it means being stuck there for another few years before you can move, and that means additional money on transport, and getting people to take your child to school.
5. If you have to take on a job at the opposite end of Singapore, it means you can’t sell your place and move there to save on travelling. You try telling those people who are out of work. They would rather go without a job than take public transport to wash toilets and see their meager salary be spent on transport and more expensive food in town.
6. Buying an HDB flat either resale or new come with so many restrictions. That includes not being able to buy property overseas. That means you will never be able to ride a property boom.
7. To upgrade to private property means forking out 30% cash and CPF, which means it’s probably at least $300k. Who has so much cash flow if you had already depleted your CPF account trying to pay for your flat?
8. If you want to avoid getting only a 70% loan, it means you will have to sell your house, buy your private property, and then rent and wait a few years before TOP. That means that buying a place at preview prices is out. That also means you can’t take your pick and choose your favourite unit.
9. If you are applying for a new HDB flat, you would have to wait a longer time before you can consider selling your place. It will also mean you don’t have your own place to live in after getting married. If you happen to break off the marriage agreement, tough luck, happy waiting again.
10. It all goes back to the point, why should we be penalized for wanting to buy a new place?
11. If you sell your private property and want to wait to be eligible for hdb concession loans, it is a good long wait. Where are you going to live?
12. That also means if you were retrenched, you can’t afford your private housing, you will face a lot of problem getting help.
13. If after having children, and you really need to get your parents-in-law or parents to live with you, or you move over to live with them, and your 5 year occupation is not up, then you cannot rent it out. That means paying additional money to your parents, and paying for your housing loan, without having any rental income to offset the cost of bringing up children.
14. If you made less than $3000, and qualified for a 3-room flat, and then later on have so many children or your relatives need to live with you, you are stuck with a small place and cannot upgrade to a bigger place.
15. If you are thinking about divorce, then you would be stuck if you don’t want to lose a roof over your head.
16. They tell us to live within our means, but if we want to make sure that we have enough space, that means forking out more money, which would be extremely taxing on our pockets.
17. If you get an overseas posting, you would need to pay rent over there. However, you can’t rent out your place, which means the place is empty, which becomes a liability.
18. Now that people can’t buy another HDB flat or can’t afford another private apartment to spend their extra money, they will start doing stupid investments that they are unfamiliar with, and then get burnt. So I foresee hearing more stories of people being duped by unscrupulous people.
19. If after buying a private property, you realize that there are so many problems with the place, such as extremely poor workmanship and other defects, you would be penalized for selling it too quickly.
20. Those with enough money to buy a HDB flat for investment may turn to mass market private property for investment, which will still put those who can’t qualify for public housing in a position where they can’t afford a single thing as they would push up the prices.
21. I still have lots more grouses but SM Goh says don’t complain so much.
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[...] One of the easiest ways to make money in Singapore is to buy property. Since prices are on the high side, and since the property market works in cycles, you might want to save your money now and buy them after prices fall in 2013, where a large number of units would be completed. Short term investments cannot work at the moment because of the high percentage you need to pay for stamp duty on your purchase if you sell within 4 years currently, based on the recent new property measures in Singapore. [...]