snoozee

Her intention is to max out the loan. Any bling bling stuff they add in after construction starts will become VO which they need to settle in cash first before bank will approve drawn down. So kind of defeats the original intention of maxing out the possible loan amount

He has a semi-d

Do note that HDB will perform numerous inspections before the units are handed over. Not to mention that checks would have been performed during and after construction to make sure that the construction is according to plans. So chances that there is so much deviation of the size/dimensions is unlikely to happen.

firstly, do you have an existing housing loan? if not, then you could get up to 80% of the purchase price as mortgage loan. construction loan is usually at 75% of the quotation of construction works (based on info from 3 local banks). so if you want to get a higher mortgage loan, then don't discuss the construction loan at this point in time. just sort out what you need to purchase the house first and then apply for the construction loan after you have decided which builder you want to go with. cos you will need to submit the quotation from the builder for the application of construction loan. just make sure the bank you are taking the mortgage loan from does offer construction loan as well. work out a spreadsheet on the various bank's offers and then decide on which one to go with. the lowest rate you get now doesn't mean you will benefit in the long run due to other factors. When I took my home loan, I didn't go with the cheapest rate simply because I knew I needed to take a construction loan and the bank with the lowest rate doesn't do construction loans.

Yes, best to hack down the entire wall and redo which will resolve the issue once and for all. You can try to keep patching but since the wall isn’t constructed properly, the issue will just keep coming back. Alternative is to remove the add on part and have that redone properly with the proper rebars added to join the new top wall to the old bottom wall. Honestly, if you are planning to sell in 2 years time, why bother to spend money to do all the changes? The money you throw into this renovation may not be able to increase your house value at all. Better to just leave as it is and then sell the house when you decide to do so in 2 years time. if you want, just do the repainting so that you can refresh the house a bit for the new year. Repainting won’t cost you too much.

do note that your floor plan is showing dimensions based on outside of the unit and include the wall thickness as well. you will lose about 150 to 200mm for the external wall thickness so interior should be about 4550 to 4600mm. as ryanyth mentioned, get an actual measuring tape to do the measurement

How long more are you planning to stay in this house? If for long term, maybe better to redo the walls rather than trying to fix. Does your dry kitchen has a basin? If yes, are you prepared to hack your flooring to do the move? If you intend to have a basin for the new location, then the floor need to be hacked to run a new waste pipe to connect to a floor trap.

As long as still in same position no need since you increasing the width and not changing to another location

Not sure what you mean by lower end. I think you are still confused by how the loans work. bsd is based on the current valuation or purchase price of the property depending on which is higher. my bsd is based on the purchase price which is the same as the valuation of the house. Bank can grant me up to 80% of the purchase price as loan. construction loan was never factored in besides the knowledge that the bank that we are taking the mortgage loan from also offers construction loans. my construction loan was taken almost 2 years after the house purchase so basically it is an additional loan on top of the mortgage. Meaning I have 2 loans now. When applying for the construction loan, bank will perform a valuation and request confirm that the value of the house in the current state is worth an X amount and based on the architectural plans, the house will have a value of at least Y value after completion. The difference between X and Y must be more than what the bank would be loaning to you as construction loan. Eg, cost of construction is 400k, bank will only loan up to 300k. So difference between X and Y must be more than 300k. So the bank will loan you this 300k as construction loan at a different interest rate than then home loan rate. This interest rate is almost at prime rate which is between 4 to 5 percent. So you can see this interest rate is much higher than the normal home loan rates which has now dropped below 2percent again. However, after TOP or CSC(depends on bank requirements) the outstanding construction loan amount can be merged to your mortgage loan and you pay lower interest rate which is your home loan rate. But the bank will do a valuation again after completion to confirm that the value of the house is now at least the Y value or more. so you can see, construction loan is never part of the original purchase loan and bsd. The only reason why you need to factor the construction loan now is mainly due to the TDSR. You need to know that when you intent to take the construction loan, you can still qualify for the additional loan amount based on TDSR. If not the bank can only loan you up to the maximum allowed based on your income. This requirement is same across all banks since TDSR is a government requirement and banks are unlikely to deviate from this requirement and grant you more loans than what they are allowed to.

Banks usually have a list of valuers they use. Ask your banker if they will be doing another valuation after you sign with them for the mortgage loan when I was buying my house, the seller had valuations which were higher than the final transacted price. When my bank did a valuation after I signed, the valuation came back to be the same as the buying price. One of the valuations which the seller had gotten was from the same bank which I had taken the loan from. I was surprised at why the valuation came back lower until I realized why this is so. Hope you can read between the lines.

Firstly, which party did the request for the valuation reports you have seen now? If it’s the seller side, then of cos valuation is high so that they can get a higher selling price. The bank which you’re getting the loan from should do another valuation once you sign on the line with them. Check with your banker on this. Let’s say your construction cost is 400k. The bank will only lend you 25percent which is 300k. So you will have to fork out 100k to pay your contractor before the bank will start disbursing their loan which is the draw down. The construction loan is different from the mortgage loan. So you will have 2 loans to service until you get TOP where both loans would be combined into 1. the bank can only give you a loan for what is needed now which is the mortgage based on the purchase price. How can they give you more loan for the renovation when you are not the legal owner yet even if have gotten a quotation for the renovation works? That’s why usually there are 2 separate loans. I suggest you sit down with your banker and get them to rope in their colleagues from the proper department to explain to you how the whole thing works.

bank valuation will differ from bank to bank based on their valuers' interpretation. for BSD, you will pay based on your offer price which is accepted by the seller. the bank which you are taking the mortgage loan from will then get a valuer to perform the valuation again and this value will be the agreed buying/selling price of the house. don try to get a higher valuation that what is the agreed price as this would mean you pay more BSD but your bank loan will still be based on the buying/selling price and NOT the valuation. remember that BSD is based on valuation or buying price whichever is higher. the only way your bank will grant you more loan is when your purchase price is higher which does not benefit you at all. when you need to do recon/A&A, your bank will loan you the money as a construction loan which is different from the mortgage loan. this construction loan will be at a higher interest rate during the construction phase until the TOP/CSC is obtained where it would then be converted to part of your mortgage loan at the lower interest rate. (this is from my understanding, check with your banker if this is the case or not) now, bank will NOT loan you the full 100% for the recon/A&A. the will loan you usually between 70 to 80 percent of the quotation for the recon/A&A. so this means you will need to fork out CASH for the first 20 to 30 percent of the construction until the milestone is reached where you will start to draw down the construction loan. the repayment for the construction loan will be based on how much is drawn down plus intereste. eg: if your total loan is 500k, and your first draw down is 50k, then you will pay for the installment for this 50k first. if your 2nd drawn down is 100k, then your next installment will be for the 150k which is drawn down and disbursed to the contractor. before the bank will loan you money for the recon/A&A, you will need to get a quote from the contractor as well as provide the architectural drawings for the house after the recon/A&A. the bank will then get a valuer to value the house again for AFTER recon/A&A based on the architectural drawings. the valuation of the house AFTER recon/A&A MUST be more than the value of the house BEFORE recon/A&A plus the loan amount that you are seeking. eg: current value is 2.7m. you are looking to borrow 500k for recon/A&A, so valuation of the house AFTER recon/A&A must be more than 3.2m. do note that the minimum value AFTER recon/A&A is determined by the bank. if the value AFTER is lesser than what the bank is looking at, that would mean the bank will loan you less money. in summary, you are looking at taking 2 loans. mortgage loan for you to buy the house and construction loan for you to renovate the house AFTER you officially take over the house.

It’s more about compliance with the fire code. What did you hear about?

look like mould. concrete ceiling could have some leaks hence seeping through the gypsum board and causing the mould to grow.

lets just say in the street where i'm staying now, there are 7 overground boxes within a 1km stretch of road. not to mention at the junction within a 10m radius, there are 3 of them. you can go to google maps to check on your area and see how many boxes there are honestly, this is the first time i'm hearing about concerns about these boxes. these boxes are there to provide power to be distributed to the houses. for example, if your house is currently on a single phase power supply and you wish to change to a 3 phase power supply, SP services will find a nearby overgound box which still have enough capacity to run the power cable from the box to your meter compartment.

If you are talking about overground electrical distribution boxes, don’t think there’s any health issues compared to high frequency signal towers not sure about the fengshui part though. anyway in landed estates, overground boxes are common. If you are so particular about being near one, then could be hard to buy a house unless you go to GCB areas

There is no way to prevent any cracks from appearing in the long run. You need to understand that after a building is built, it can take years to settle. So soil movement below the foundations may cause some cracks to appear. No brand of cement will prevent this. what you need to be concern with is how many years warranty your builder will warranty against leakages for wet areas. your architect will spec out what kind of water proofing systems, how much to upturn,etc. but he/she is unlikely to go down to the detailed brand to use and instead specify the technical specs of the materials to be used. so when the contractors quote, they will quote based on what is specified in the tender documents. after the quotations are received, your architect should be interviewing the contractor and from there ask what brand of products would be used. The architect should be knowledgeable enough to know whether the product is suitable or not and if needed, request for alternative brands from the builder. normally the builders will use hollow bricks which are bigger in size as it is faster to build and hence save time as well as materials. Unless your house design calls for facing bricks, it is unlikely you will be given solid bricks. Of cos you can insist on solid bricks but it will also increase the cost since you will need more solid bricks to do up a wall of the same size as hollow bricks. electrical wiring is standard and nothing to specify. The only thing is to specify the use of Cat6 cables for the network points. Please don’t go and request for anything more than Cat6 as you will just jack up your cost without any additional advantage. paint will normally be from the 2 major brands locally and which one to chose depends on the colours you want to paint. As long as the correct type of paint is used for the appropriate areas (Exterior paint for outside the house) then nothing much to specify. as long as your architect specify everything properly, thing should be fine since the architect is supposed to look after your interest

Get an architect. They will spec the materials to be used by the builder. if you want to deal with a builder directly, make sure you are there almost daily to check. Else things may move so fast that you can’t even see the materials being used

if you really want clear and accurate information, go and talk to an architect as they would be well versed with the building requirements from URA and BCA. not all builders would be able to give you accurate information since URA updates their guidelines quite often.

Nothing you can do except wait for town council to check the roof and apply water proofing coating at the area above your kitchen. Water proofing doesn’t last forever and normally HDB will redo the waterproofing on the roof after some years. Try to call town council again and also email your MP to get them to expedite the case. Last time I also had to wait for a few days for town council to send their staff and contractor to perform a site visit to fix the issue.

Since it’s in a 3 storey zone, just built an additional storey which is much simpler. You can use steel columns and beams for the new storey and install a metal roof so that the loading on the existing structure is lesser than RC landed need or no need mezzanine is subjective. If you are in a 3 storey zone already, then you can build up to 3 storey and attic which gives you 4 storeys. If want more space, can add in mezzanine storey in between some floors which would then be like a 5 storey house. approval is not difficult as long as all URA and BCA guidelines are adhered to FYI, my own house which is under construction is a 2 storey house with attic and mezzanine. Mezzanine is located between first and second storey.

The only way you can get a mezzanine to pass BCA height requirements is to redo the roof. But once you touch the roof, it will no longer be considered as A&A. So might as well create an attic storey since you will need to pay the higher submission fees already Else is just do a loft in the higher parts under the roof which would most likely be considered as A&A

You need to know if the height from the 2nd storey to the underside of the roof has 5m clearance or not. If don’t have, there’s no way you can do any mezzanine. authorities fees would just differ by a few k between doing A&A and reconstruction if your intention is to gain as much space as possible, then built a new attic storey rather than trying to squeeze in a loft which would end up as more of being a storage area since you are unlikely to get the needed height to make use of it properly

I may be wrong but my understanding is that loft is built to sit on the existing floor slab whereas mezzanine would be built as part of the building’s structure a mezzanine storey cannot be the same size as the lower storey. So if your house is in a 2 storey zone, how are you going to built a mezzanine? You still need to be able to roof over the part where the mezzanine is not covering the 2nd storey. In this case you would be better off building an attic storey rather than figuring out how to build a mezzanine.

You can’t built a mezzanine on a storey. A mezzanine is technically a storey by itself though URA now doesn’t consider it as one as long as it is reasonable in size. Technically mezzanine is only up to 50% of a normal floor area but URA does allow bigger now subjected to approval. in order to build a mezzanine, you need to have enough headroom clearance above and below the mezzanine which is at least 2.4m. So after factoring in a floor slab thickness of at least 0.15m thick, you will need to have at least 5m of overhead clearance for your 2nd storey in order to build a mezzanine. Also, the mezzanine would need to be tied back to the columns of the house and have additional beams to support it. this is different from a loft which does not have a overhead clearance limit above the loft and is usually a structure built to sit on the floor slab which in this case is your 2nd storey