Originally Posted by Unregistered

Older generation the working adults in the 1970s and 80s had it good during the boom years.

things have changed. there was also the en bloc boom that some young bankers managed to catch in 2003 just after SARS.

My wife's best friend's husband works in finance and they bought 2 condos in the Orchard area in 2003. Went enbloc. They made over 6 million dollars. Set for life.

I recall specifically because my wife told me her friend was buying and advised that we buy too. I was a 4th year MO at the time. Surgical BST. Salary was about $4500/month We only had 30k in our total savings and net worth of <50k. How to qualify for million dollar mortgages?

Years later I asked and they told us the husband got like big bonuses from the bank. He was making in excess of 10k a month (modest) but got 15 months bonus for doing well. With the bonus plus the bank's preference for lending to employees he managed to buy those condos over 2 years.