Possible To Find A Flat With Low Cov?

[lcy 0]

Hi everyone,

Thought i will also jus share my househunting experience with everyone here since mine involved COV too.. Basically me and my gf started househunitng like 3 months back zooming in on either Yishun or Clementi (as near to our parents place). We also tried our hands in balloting but of coz like the majority of applicants we cant even get a date for selection.

Then sometime in Mar we saw this flat in Yishun blk 11X which is one of the newest flats there value at 372k with COV of $30k. Think we were quite ganjiong and just put down the 1k for OTP as the flat seems well maintained with high floor, corner unit and nice unblocked view.

But having done that and with 14 days to exercise the OTP, we decided if buying this block of flats in Clementi that had been selected for enbloc will be a better choice. The reason is that we understand the value of any property is location,location and location. We asked our friends opinion if the purchase price for the yishun unit based on total purchase price of $402k is worth it and everyone said at that price it just seems inflated for the location though of coz they did not see the unit physically.

So we concentrated for that 1 week to look at these flats in clementi ave 1 slated for enbloc and eventually we decided to buy this 3rm flat of value 195k with cov of $57k(purchase price is $252k). The reason why we decided to 'invest' in this unit is so that we can get to choose from 3-5 rm unit at the new clementi flats which will be ready by end2011 plus the fact that govt will give $30k subsidy off the price of this replacement flat. But of coz this 30k subsisdy means that we will only pay less from our CPF rather than a cash rebate. Also the pricing for the replacement flats has already been locked since last yr with the most expensive 5rm unit at 40th storey to be ard $347k (after 30k discount). We foresee if we look to sell our unit in 5-10yrs after moving in, we should be able to sell much higher barring any major economic catastrophe or property market collapse.

So how to 'recoup' the other $20plus k? we may rent out our place for the next 3 yrs which may not recover in total but at least partial of the sum.

So we have paid a high cov but we look at it as an investment for the long term..would you have made this move too if you have so much cash and considering the present sarcity of new flats in matured estates?

[lovee_cdc 0]

well if i have so much cash in hand, i probably will make the same movement too ...

having a lot of cash always means plenty of choices .. not like mine

[kiira 0]

popcorn, its blk 253a..

goin to see a 4rm at sembawang

[Assassin 0]

Hi everyone,

Thought i will also jus share my househunting experience with everyone here since mine involved COV too.. Basically me and my gf started househunitng like 3 months back zooming in on either Yishun or Clementi (as near to our parents place). We also tried our hands in balloting but of coz like the majority of applicants we cant even get a date for selection.

Then sometime in Mar we saw this flat in Yishun blk 11X which is one of the newest flats there value at 372k with COV of $30k. Think we were quite ganjiong and just put down the 1k for OTP as the flat seems well maintained with high floor, corner unit and nice unblocked view.

But having done that and with 14 days to exercise the OTP, we decided if buying this block of flats in Clementi that had been selected for enbloc will be a better choice. The reason is that we understand the value of any property is location,location and location. We asked our friends opinion if the purchase price for the yishun unit based on total purchase price of $402k is worth it and everyone said at that price it just seems inflated for the location though of coz they did not see the unit physically.

So we concentrated for that 1 week to look at these flats in clementi ave 1 slated for enbloc and eventually we decided to buy this 3rm flat of value 195k with cov of $57k(purchase price is $252k). The reason why we decided to 'invest' in this unit is so that we can get to choose from 3-5 rm unit at the new clementi flats which will be ready by end2011 plus the fact that govt will give $30k subsidy off the price of this replacement flat. But of coz this 30k subsisdy means that we will only pay less from our CPF rather than a cash rebate. Also the pricing for the replacement flats has already been locked since last yr with the most expensive 5rm unit at 40th storey to be ard $347k (after 30k discount). We foresee if we look to sell our unit in 5-10yrs after moving in, we should be able to sell much higher barring any major economic catastrophe or property market collapse.

So how to 'recoup' the other $20plus k? we may rent out our place for the next 3 yrs which may not recover in total but at least partial of the sum.

So we have paid a high cov but we look at it as an investment for the long term..would you have made this move too if you have so much cash and considering the present sarcity of new flats in matured estates?

hi you made the right decision. Though blk 11x are consider the newer range of flats at Yishun, the location is not very convenient. Its not near MRT and town centre. But it is suitable to those who like chong pang coz its near to it. And also those who work in Sembawang or Woodlands coz there are buses right at the door step to these places.

[lcy 0]

hi you made the right decision. Though blk 11x are consider the newer range of flats at Yishun, the location is not very convenient. Its not near MRT and town centre. But it is suitable to those who like chong pang coz its near to it. And also those who work in Sembawang or Woodlands coz there are buses right at the door step to these places.

Hi Assassin,

Indeed you are right! You stay near there isit? But another thing gd about those new yishun flats is that it has a basement carpark and for a moment looks like a condo-style environment as in the centre of the flats has a nice big area too for relaxation,etc. However as what u said above, unless one likes Chong Pang and works in the north,i feel the price to be paid may not justify its location.

Hey lovee_cdc,

Dont be disheartened with not enough cash for now.. anyway the trend seems to be moving to a higher valuation price and lower cov so i am sure if u look hard enough, u will find a resale flat that meets your expectation both in terms of location and cash!

[Assassin 0]

Hi Assassin,

Indeed you are right! You stay near there isit? But another thing gd about those new yishun flats is that it has a basement carpark and for a moment looks like a condo-style environment as in the centre of the flats has a nice big area too for relaxation,etc. However as what u said above, unless one likes Chong Pang and works in the north,i feel the price to be paid may not justify its location.

Hey lovee_cdc,

Dont be disheartened with not enough cash for now.. anyway the trend seems to be moving to a higher valuation price and lower cov so i am sure if u look hard enough, u will find a resale flat that meets your expectation both in terms of location and cash!

I stay in Yishun but I dont stay near there I do know Yishun quite well. Anyway I will be shifting to my new house soon once renovation finish

[popcorn 0]

popcorn, its blk 253a..

goin to see a 4rm at sembawang

Ah, nice and quite area away from all the traffic. Just beside the landed property at Sembawang Hills.

[lovee_cdc 0]

Hi Assassin,

Indeed you are right! You stay near there isit? But another thing gd about those new yishun flats is that it has a basement carpark and for a moment looks like a condo-style environment as in the centre of the flats has a nice big area too for relaxation,etc. However as what u said above, unless one likes Chong Pang and works in the north,i feel the price to be paid may not justify its location.

Hey lovee_cdc,

Dont be disheartened with not enough cash for now.. anyway the trend seems to be moving to a higher valuation price and lower cov so i am sure if u look hard enough, u will find a resale flat that meets your expectation both in terms of location and cash!

Hai Icy ..

Thanks so much for your encouraging comment really appreciate ..

ya i guess should wait for another few months & will try on balloting in oct also .. wish me luck

[lcy 0]

Hai Icy ..

Thanks so much for your encouraging comment really appreciate ..

ya i guess should wait for another few months & will try on balloting in oct also .. wish me luck

Hey no problem! In fact u definitely will be much luckier as in there will be 1 less balloter (thats me =p) who will 'compete' with you for that queue number!

Cheers

LCY

I stay in Yishun but I dont stay near there I do know Yishun quite well. Anyway I will be shifting to my new house soon once renovation finish

Congrats! So where is your new place gonna be? Any blogs to keep us updated on your reno progress??

[big orange 0]

Hey no problem! In fact u definitely will be much luckier as in there will be 1 less balloter (thats me =p) who will 'compete' with you for that queue number!

Cheers

LCY

Congrats! So where is your new place gonna be? Any blogs to keep us updated on your reno progress??

Dear icy,

Upon reading our sorry. I have a few doubts.

1. how you going to rent?

2. After buying this unit at 250K, you will start to 'service' your loan?

3. Must marry before 2011?

4. So what is the real prie you pay for clementic? (340K)?

Thanks.

[lcy 0]

Dear icy,

Upon reading our sorry. I have a few doubts.

1. how you going to rent?

2. After buying this unit at 250K, you will start to 'service' your loan?

3. Must marry before 2011?

4. So what is the real prie you pay for clementic? (340K)?

Thanks.

Hi Big Orange,

Good questions u have and i will try my best to answer =)

1) Technically i understand we cannot rent out the whole flat as owners we must stay at least 3 or 5yrs (cant remember) before you can apply to HDB for that. So no choice, we will rent out a room and hopefully fetch around 500 at least ( our location is less than 5 min to clementi mrt).

2) Actually the valuation is 195k so we are paying down from this figure since the rest was in cash. Yup we will start to service this loan after our 2nd Appt. For SERS flats there is this compensation price which can be used to offset for replacement flat which in my case was around 191k. Its quite complicated to explain but anyway we wont 'lugi' when Govt take back our flat.

3) By right must produce our ROM cert upon collection of keys for this resale 3-rm but we will write in to appeal to delay till early next yr. So its a bit diff from BTO which i know you can delay till the flat is ready for posession.

4)hmm.. it will really depend on which replacement flat i get at what price? The range of replacement 5room flats (110sqm) is btw 258k-347k (after 30k discount from Govt). So let us take the example we get the most expensive which i will assume is the highest floor (40th storey), the 'real' price we are paying could be 347k + 57K (cash paid for my current 3rm) and other costs like our agent comm fees, stamp fees, etc. So lets just take it as 70k in all. So in order to break even if we want to sell off in say 5-10 yrs time, we should sell at least 347K+70K = 417k. Looking at current market condition in Clementi, we can analyse the current HDB pricing as well as resale pricing. For HDB direct purchase, there are still 5 5-rm flats which is yet unsold but only for Malays, and pricing for these low floor units(1st to 3rd) are around 480k. As for resale flats, lets zoom in to those newest ones which was built in 2002. Those can easily fetch from 500k onwards for low floors to as high as 600plus k for highest floor at 25th storey. So my gut feel (hopefully its right =p) is that valuation pricing will still go up in the long term and assuming i need to at least break even by selling at least above 417k or more (if taking in inflation costs), it should not be too difficult... agree?

Hope my explanation sounds logical and rational haha.. please feel free to comment otherwsie ya

[Assassin 0]

Congrats! So where is your new place gonna be? Any blogs to keep us updated on your reno progress??

Its at Sengkang, 1 min to Buangkok MRT Still undecided whether to have a blog on my reno progress

[Sam Lee Poh Huat 0]

Hi Big Orange,

Good questions u have and i will try my best to answer =)

1) Technically i understand we cannot rent out the whole flat as owners we must stay at least 3 or 5yrs (cant remember) before you can apply to HDB for that. So no choice, we will rent out a room and hopefully fetch around 500 at least ( our location is less than 5 min to clementi mrt).

2) Actually the valuation is 195k so we are paying down from this figure since the rest was in cash. Yup we will start to service this loan after our 2nd Appt. For SERS flats there is this compensation price which can be used to offset for replacement flat which in my case was around 191k. Its quite complicated to explain but anyway we wont 'lugi' when Govt take back our flat.

3) By right must produce our ROM cert upon collection of keys for this resale 3-rm but we will write in to appeal to delay till early next yr. So its a bit diff from BTO which i know you can delay till the flat is ready for posession.

4)hmm.. it will really depend on which replacement flat i get at what price? The range of replacement 5room flats (110sqm) is btw 258k-347k (after 30k discount from Govt). So let us take the example we get the most expensive which i will assume is the highest floor (40th storey), the 'real' price we are paying could be 347k + 57K (cash paid for my current 3rm) and other costs like our agent comm fees, stamp fees, etc. So lets just take it as 70k in all. So in order to break even if we want to sell off in say 5-10 yrs time, we should sell at least 347K+70K = 417k. Looking at current market condition in Clementi, we can analyse the current HDB pricing as well as resale pricing. For HDB direct purchase, there are still 5 5-rm flats which is yet unsold but only for Malays, and pricing for these low floor units(1st to 3rd) are around 480k. As for resale flats, lets zoom in to those newest ones which was built in 2002. Those can easily fetch from 500k onwards for low floors to as high as 600plus k for highest floor at 25th storey. So my gut feel (hopefully its right =p) is that valuation pricing will still go up in the long term and assuming i need to at least break even by selling at least above 417k or more (if taking in inflation costs), it should not be too difficult... agree?

Hope my explanation sounds logical and rational haha.. please feel free to comment otherwsie ya

Well, sorry to chop in n add on...

Fm what i understand, what u expected to b recredit back in ur cpf n cash on hand after selling ur replacement unit in "8-10" years time will largely depend how much u sell it off. For whats being recredit back to ur cpf will b how much u hv service off the loan (e.g 100k paid out of 417k loaned, ).

Whereas cash on hand will b on the valuation then n how high/low u sell it off (e.g selling 500k of purchase 417k).. margin profit of only approx 60k-70k after paying ur interest for ur cpf.. so do consider carefully the thoughts of selling one b4 u own it..

[lcy 0]

Well, sorry to chop in n add on...

Fm what i understand, what u expected to b recredit back in ur cpf n cash on hand after selling ur replacement unit in "8-10" years time will largely depend how much u sell it off. For whats being recredit back to ur cpf will b how much u hv service off the loan (e.g 100k paid out of 417k loaned, ).

Whereas cash on hand will b on the valuation then n how high/low u sell it off (e.g selling 500k of purchase 417k).. margin profit of only approx 60k-70k after paying ur interest for ur cpf.. so do consider carefully the thoughts of selling one b4 u own it..

Hey no worries, actually i also know about this requirement about putting back money into CPF if you had used it to purchase your flat and plus the accured interest it would have earned had it not been used.. Frankly that whole calculations over there is something i still cant figure out but i guess for now i will leave it alone coz you never know in the future how the rules may change for housing purchases, etc

Thanks though for this reminder which i will definitley take heed if i intend to sell =)

[big orange 0]

icy,

Thanks. Anyway i got those remaining units for SERS bedok..

OMG...

I cant imagine that i paying $100K more than those kena Enbloced....