I totally agree with you. That why we does not intend to sell of this flat. We have a balance CPF loan of approx $150k left (based on a 15 years loan left) and our current CPF balance has grown back to a healthy amt in ordinary and special account since we last brought the flat. Looking at it, we should be accumulating enough in 3 years time to theoretically clear all our current housing loan if we decide to empty the cpf.

Hence any extra CPF contribution in the next 15 years can go to contribute to the next house (if we intent to get another property) using CPF and cash.

We figure out the whole idea is try to get into a +ve cash flow situation ASAP by taking min HDB loan so that we still have 1 small little roof under the hoot if anything happens

The trick is to get the first house cheap so that you have extra liquidity to go for the second one. Many couples nowadays spend close to 350-400k (if you count in the loan)on 1st, which means they will be stuck in a -ve liquidity for a long time (min 10 yrs). The more loan you take, the higher the interest will pile and kill.

That is the same philosophy I use to get a car. Never borrow more than 30k so that the max loan over 7 years is 4-5k only. That is a close to 5k interst saving compare to another one borrowing 50k for 10 years.

Once you have a 1st flat, the 2nd one is easier as you have the rental option to cover the principal installment. So what is left is good timing and lots of cash to down the 1st 20-30% so that the remaining loan is serviceable.

And of course a stable job (for both husband and wife) helps a lot

surely it makes you feel rich, but personally, i will only count the appreciated values of my 2nd and 3rd properties when i sell them and realize the profits. prices can go up and prices can also come down.

i’m also trying to figure when is the best time to sell off all my blue chip stocks. their value has already more than doubled and i’ve been selling on the way up (as opposed to some other strategy of buying on the way up). i’m not greedy. i just want to play safe and make money. in comparison with many other people, i’m already doing quite well using my own strategy, which i think is a rather safe strategy.

We breach the gap now and our equivalent flat at 3-4 floors up or down last EV price is about $420k to $450k.

So that put us in a good shape to save and perhaps start planning for investment esp now interest is so low.

Since then we have park some of our saving in blue chips and saving up cash to prepare for some investment in the next down turn

So I guess buying properties also means a bit of marriage planning and luck.

Coming to 2009, I wouldn’t be surprise to see the median income going down again for a few years before revisiting the 2008 peak again.

if you earn 200K per annum, then instead of buying a 1.5M upper-middle class condo, go for a 800-900K median one. With the additional savings, use it to invest in another condo of relative price (of course, taking into account that this is a sound investment of course (have to be cautious during this second property boom)

still surprised that 970K is median price of singapore condos though….

Thanks for the compliments.

It seems the ST article took the numbers from a Singapore Department of Statistics’ paper, which also specifically stated “average household income from work increased in both nominal and real terms for all income groups in 2008.”

The paper also attempted to explain the leap in incomes: “Strong labour market conditions throughout most of 2008 contributed to the growth in real household income from work in 2008 by attracting more people into the workforce, especially from households living in smaller housing types.”

I personally believe SingStat is a credible source.