Do note that for the $850 salary case, it is higly dubious. 1. based on $850 per monthly, it will take around 20 years to accumulate $40k in ordinary account. This means there must be other income from another person or that that guy used to draw a higher pay. 2. Without the $40k down payment, some guy on the internet had computed that he would need to pay $237 from his ordinary account instead of $83. (i din bother to verify) 3. After paying for the house with a 30year loan, the guy will have neglible savings in CPF for retirement. So he might have to do sale and lease back of his house in future. Common sense would tell you that a person earning $850 will have trouble getting by with daily expenses. So by buying the flat, are we not in essence "paying for rental upfront"? After the big hoo-ha, minister had to say the focus should not be on the $1k or $850 and instead, the focus is on the availability of help... You can draw ur own conclusions la.... my conclusion is that though you are smart, we may not be that stupid.