Cost of an Apartment
$300,000, $600,000, $1,000,000, $4,000,000
New 4 Rm HDB Flat, Good location 5 Rm HDB Flat, Fairly good location 2+1 Condominium and Landed Property along Bukit Timah respectively. Oh and did i mention $20,000,000 for a Good Class Bungalow along Binjai Rise.
(This is Cost #4 in the The Cost of your Life! series)
For the many who caught Iron Man, it was cool cars(Audi R8), hot babes(Gwyneth Paltrow) and yes that Multi-Million dollar house perched on the hill overlooking the horizon. Wake up and smell the coffee! Now that’s a home I will surely dream about.
It was just 2 mths ago in March that sales of property in Singapore slowed to a crawl. Now the news is reporting a rebound? That, has probably a lot to do with the 100,000 new PRs and Citizens last year. 4.84 million and counting.
So that leads us today to look at the cost of an apartment or home in sunny state/garden city.
Besides the Price of an apartment there is a laundry list of costs we all should take note as below:
1) Housing Loan Interest
2) Stamp Duties
3) Mortgage Insurance
4) Conservancy Charges
5) Water and Electricity Bills
6) Property Tax
7) Renovation & Maintenance
8) Furniture and Furnishing
Example: $300,000 4 Rm HDB Flat, $260,000 after $30,000(HDB Family Grant)+$10,000(Near Parents Grant)
1) Housing Loan Interest - HDB Housing loans go at 2.5%+0.1%p.a. which is really affordable rates, some home loans go as low as <2.0% but only for a limited period so beware.
2) Stamp Duties - $4,200 in this case
3) Mortgage Insurance - $367.06 yearly
4) Conservancy Charges - $700 yearly
5) Water and Electricity Bills - $1,200 yearly
6) Property Tax - approx $750 yearly
7) Renovation, Furniture, Furnishing & Maintenance - $3,000 yearly
8) Season Parking - $1,000 yearly
(Of course there are 1 Rm, 2 Rm and 3 Rm apartments and there is also an option to rent for the budget, but i guess the majority can afford a 4 Rm and it’s in the asian blood to buy a place)
Wouldn’t have a budget, desirable and extravagant this time round due to the many variables.
Do note that usually with a purchase of a private property many of costs above increase greatly not to mention yearly government rebates and one off freebies like NSS and ERA that are usually also doled out based on what property you live in.
Below are some resources to help in your search and decision:
Nation Property - under Latest Transaction Done to check past transacted prices
Singapore Expats - Info for locals and foreigners alike
Homespace - interesting map based property listing
Advice: A fantastic resource to crunch those numbers and understand things like stamp duties visit MoneyMind website.
Advice: Buying a property requires a lot of prudence as it is a very long term commitment, so be sure to think really ahead on what is right compared to what is nice.
One Comment, Comment or Ping
Justina
hey mortgage insurance can be deducted from cpf if taking hdb loan if i recall correctly, free up some cash there.
Also, fire insurance, HDB has some tie-up some tie up with AIG right? Just received a renewal notice for a 2room flat, it’s like insanely low - <$10 for 3 years! It doesn’t cover contents though.
Jun 19th, 2009
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