Let me start with an anecdote. This person was 35, bought a property. His girlfriend also 35, had her own property. Both owning one property, now want to get married – what’s the best course of action?
35-year-olds form the majority of buyers of resale flats. They wouldn’t get BTOs because it’s just small and not worth it for them.
1. Don’t wait until you’re 35!
Invest into a new launch. This will be via progressive payments, so buy something that has an affordable down-payment.
2. If you MUST wait until 35…
As a single buying a HDB flat, you would use grants, HDB loans and subsidies. If you were to get married after, you wouldn’t be able to utilise this anymore and only get a half-grant. So really, there’s no difference whether you use the grants at first or later. If your wife hasn’t used the grants, then she can have her share too.
If you reach 35, immediately buy a HDB flat that’s at least 4-room. In my personal opinion, 3-room flats are not only smaller but they also tend to be older; there are not many left around. My advice is not to touch any old flats, so of course don’t touch 3-room flats. They’re going for really low right now, even a 3-room in AMK can cost only $250k. 3-room flats are 30 or 40-over years old flats that generally only fetch $240k. 4-room flats, on the other hand, only cost about $300k-400k. When you get married, it’s unlikely HDB will ask you to sell one of your flats. So just buy two, but remember not to rent it out!
That means for a couple who marries at age 37 or 38, you still need to stay that 5 years. So husband and wife would have to stay in their own house – and do you really want to do that? It might be worth it only if you get married at 40 years old. That’s when you will be able to rent out one, unless HDB chooses to audit you HAHAHA. But from my experience, I have not heard of this happening.
If you’re in a private residence, you wouldn’t have this problem. Many don’t wait ‘til 35 to buy one because they can afford it, and if they do, then their spouse can buy another one. Then when they get married, the husband can also buy another property and hence avoid ABSD and so on.
At the end of the day, it depends on your capability and whether you can accept it financially. This is one of the biggest problems facing young people. Young people simply don’t know if they can afford that HDB at such a young age. The crux here is finding a good agent or consultation who can really advise you on your specific circumstance.
Comentários