as the title suggest, i just want to share some of my personal experience when i was looking for a flat... i believed i have mentioned in several of my posts that i have been looking for a flat for the passed 1 year + & i am still looking for one =( i have probably viewed over 50units in the west area but so far we still have no luck in finding our "dream" home... i believed i am being picky with my choice but why shouldnt you exercise some stringency when you have the chance.... so today i want to share some of my experience with you guys about my flat hunting journey....
1. BTO
ok, i believed like most young couples, we all wanted to try BTO first cause it's much cheaper than resales flats in the market....
benefits: definitely the price.... most BTO cost about $100,000 cheaper than the resale flats in the same area, that's a good deal especially if you managed to get a unit in the matured estates..... downpayment is only 5% of the unit price, followed by another 5% during key collection compared to straight 10% deposit for a resales, so most people can pay off that amount easily with their CPF.... & i believed most people will opt for HDB loan so that they can borrow up to 90% of the unit price compared to 80% loan from the bank (meaning you have to pay straight 20% deposit)....
cons: the down side is that you have to compensate the cheap cost with long waiting time (approximately 4 years) & some risks in your flats since you only imagine how the final products will be like..... my parents gotten their BTO last year & there was lots of defects in the units.... i believed you guys would have read many posts about the units defects so i think this is something that you cant escape & probably have to accept them or rectify them engaging your own contractors.... another not so attractive things about BTO is the location... most of the time the project will be built in the "not so convenient" place, eg: quite a distance from MRT... of cause everywhere in SG has the potential to develop into a bustling place but personally i am quite particular about convenience so i am quite skeptical about choosing those locations..... another thing is luck cause you need to ballot for your unit.... i guess we have been quite unlucky since our ballot numbers were quite out of the range, so either we were left with low floors units to choose from or no units at all.... we tried for like 4 times but still no luck so i completely gave up on the whole BTO idea....
conclusion: i would say BTO is mainly about the balance between cost & location.... of cause time too, so if you are not urgent for a home then i guess is a good deal....
2. resale
since we have no luck with our BTO balloting, for the passed year, my focus has been on resale.... since both hubby & i work in the west so we preferred to stay in the west...
benefits: technically you have the whole island of flats to choose from unless you have a particular area in mind, so you will have more choices compared to a specific estate to ballot for in BTO.... since it's an open market, there is no need to ballot but more of first come first serve.... you can choose the area that you like, specific blocks, unit levels & unit facing, basically you have the power to choose.... of cause there is a much shorter waiting time, a normal resale handover completion takes about 4 months... that's a much shorter time compared to 4 years in BTO
cons: the price for resale will generally be much higher than BTO so cost is definitely a major factor.... you have to pay at least 10% deposit & not to mention COV (cash over value) price.... currently the resale market is still picking up so COV price has dropped compared to last time but i think a safe bet will be to prepare about $10,000 cash for COV if you looking for a unit in good location.....
conclusion: if you can afford, i think resale is better than BTO cause you can choose what you want... if you are lucky, the resale unit is in good condition then you can save quite abit on renovation too
3. DBSS
honestly DBSS has never been inside my choice until recently because my jiejie gotten a DBSS couple of years ago & we didnt really like the layout.... so DBSS has this atas look compared to normal HDB, is somewhat an in between HDB & condo..... the main problem we have with the layout is the excessive number of balconies in the flat.... i think is nice to have a balcony in the living room but not when you have it in every single room!!!! as a result, the rooms are much smaller & you hardly have space to put furniture.... another thing is the tiny kitchen, we could barely fit 2 person inside... this is quite a problem for us since we tend to cook quite often..... nonetheless, DBSS still has its merits
benefits: the design is definitely more appealing than normal HDB... since it's still under HDB so the price is much more reasonable compared to condo but of cause you wont have fancy amenities...
cons: the cost.... although both DBSS & BTO are under HDB projects, their prices are very different... comparing in general, for the same unit size, DBSS cost at least $200,000 more than BTO... the payment method is also different from normal flats... you have to pay 5% option fee in CASH!!! for both BTO & resale, you can pay the down payment using CPF but DBSS you must pay hard CASH!!!! the subsequent deposit will vary between 5 - 15% depending on the type of loan you getting.... if you total household income is more than $8000, you must opt for bank loan, meaning you have to fork out 20% deposit yourself since bank loan is up to 80% of the unit price.... if you imagine a $500,000 unit, 20% will be $100,000!!! of cause the remaining 15% (excluding 5% option fee in CASH), you can pay with CPF but that's still $75,000!!! we certainly dont have so much $ inside our CPF, at least for now......
let me share my recent experience about DBSS... just couple of weeks ago, i stumble upon trivelis advertisement on propertyguru... it states that there are two 4-room units available at $635,000 onwards.... the price is of cause insanely high for a 4-room flat but since we have no luck with resale so we decided to just go down & take a look..... the agent first showed us the 3room show flat & i was quite surprise by its small size.... cause a normal 3room flat size is about 70sqm but trivelis 3 room size is 60sqm including 3sqm aircon ledge!!! next, she showed us the 4-room unit... another shock, the size of the living room is even smaller than a normal 3-room flat living room, of cause same goes for the bedrooms = tiny.... the floor size is 80sqm with 6sqm balcony & 3sqm aircon ledge, that's a usable area of 70sqm compared to 90sqm in normal 4-room flat.... we were really shocked by the sizes of the units & of cause recently there were posts online about residents complaining the horrible construction of trivelis (
1,
2)..... despite all these down sides, the estate still has its merits.... the location of the project is good, pretty near clementi mrt, within 10min walk.... the area is windy cause the plot of land is on elevated ground so you can get some good breeze if you staying on high floors.... similarly if you stay on high floors, the view is not too bad since the older blocks are maximum 13floors... at first we were also considering to get the tiny 4-room then sell it off after 5years, treat it as an investment... but after all the big commotion, we will have to give trivelis a miss....
conclusion: DBSS still has its merits but price is definitely a major cost.... especially with the upcoming complains about the sloppy work from developers (not only trivelis), i guess is best to think twice
that has been quite a long & wordy post but i hope it's informative for those of you who are searching for a house at the moment.... set your priority before deciding on which kinds of flats you should go for =)
