Comments, opinions and an occasional ramble
Million dollar HDB flat (almost)
I almost fell out of my chair reading the latest record price for a HDB flat. It went for a whopping $890,000. I guess the next record price will be a million dollars.
Rising HDB flat prices in the resale market is a bad thing for many Singaporeans, especially for first time buyers. Of course, there’s always the option of buying a brand new flat from HDB. However, don’t expect a brand new HDB flat to be much cheaper because of the pricing policy practised by HDB.
As an example, I bought my current flat at Jurong West St 93 for $249,000. The blocks have already been completed when I applied for a unit. After talking to my neighbours who got their units 3 months before mine (they were relocated due to SERS), I found out that they paid $30,000 less than what I paid.
Since the flats were already completed, there is technically no change in cost of building. The only reason is probably because the housing market started to heat up in the second half of 2007. My neighbours got their units in the first half of 2007, before the housing market fever started. Of course, compared to buying a resale flat now, it’s still cheaper by $30,000 – $40,000 so I’m not complaining.
However, if anyone is going to buy a new flat now, especially for the build-to-order (BTO) scheme, you might want to think a little harder whether you want to buy it now. Under this scheme, your flats will only be ready in 4-6 years time, and if the market is down in the dumps by then, you are stuck with paying the installments for that high price you agreed to 4-6 years ago. Of course, there’s also the mental anguish of watching the value of your home drop before you even move into it!
Having said all these, it doesn’t mean one shouldn’t buy a flat now. Just know what you are getting yourself into if you intend to buy a flat now.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Aaron Ng on 09/01/2008 at 9:34 am, and is filed under Perspective. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 4 years ago
i was at the boon keng dbss showroom, or at least outside it. tons of people. it’s like a pasar malam. and the price is crazy. private prices with hdb rules. i wonder how people under $8k income can actually survive paying for a $700k flat. it’s utter madness.
resale market is very hot now. 4/5-room flats in serangoon are like 40-80k above valuation. the highest cash-over valuation was $170k. very depressing.
it’s definitely a huge huge disincentive to middle-income newly weds, and first time flat owners, in this period of time.
about 4 years ago
I have always been asking what has this government REALLY provided for us when we worked for and paid for EVERYTHING.
First of all, housing. We now know for a fact that there is no REAL subsidy for them. What they called a ‘market subsidy’ is simply plugging a figure out of thin air, as long as that figure is less than the cost of private housing. It would be fair to call that price a discounted price, but overall they are still making a hefty profit that we paid for!
Now, apply the same principle to education and health care. It makes one wonder if the cost of education and health care charged by our hospitals is also plugged out of thin air using those charged by private ones as a comparison.