How much are you earning per annum?

Man has a point, property is something everyone who bought from 80's 90's early 2000 benefited and property is one of the first major purchases a person makes for a home to stay. Unlike other investment opportunities it somewhat of a necessity when one settles down.

The opportunities you mentioned which offer themselves is something higher on the Maslow's hierarchy. Food & Shelter come first, if you can profit from either heeyy good times.

Some of the houses in my estate once selling for 500K is now easily going for 7 / 10M, even a fairly successful individual would have trouble affording that unless he didn't already a property to sell to cover some of the cost.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Every generation has its own opportunities. Often, people are too busy wallowing in self-pity to see the opportunities available to the, and thus miss them.

I am sure, 30 years later, the young people will say the same of your generation. Will you be one of those who rode the wave, or will you be one of those that missed the boat?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Good to have plans. How much are you now earning? Which industry?

56k pa. IT industry. aiming for 140k cash and ard 40 to 50k in cpf before i hit 30 years old.

So my first condo, I presume that I will buy one which cost around 600k to 640k (two bedroom). Calculated before I would only need $150k in order to buy a 630k condo. So should be affordable for me.

I am more than halfway to reach my goal, so wish me luck for my first phase of my ambitious target

Great to have the goals you set, if you intend to be a property investors open your views to other types of property commercial, Industrial, Retail etc. For Industrial lower entry point and higher yield if you can secure a good tenant. Harder to rent though then again in this market even residential is hard to rent.

For Residential look at older properties, usually they are more value for money decently located and ample facilities. The only downside is quantum which goes up with size.

Before I bought my first property I would go down and view multiple units even without intention to buy. It build experience and also lets you familiarize yourself with other developments.

I wish you all the best on your journey.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

56k pa. IT industry. aiming for 140k cash and ard 40 to 50k in cpf before i hit 30 years old.

So my first condo, I presume that I will buy one which cost around 600k to 640k (two bedroom). Calculated before I would only need $150k in order to buy a 630k condo. So should be affordable for me.

I am more than halfway to reach my goal, so wish me luck for my first phase of my ambitious target

After reading the posts, I decided that I will downgrade and apply for a BTO 3-room, instead of a BTO 5-room. Hopefully this will decrease my stress level dramatically. I want to be able to enjoy life and live free when I get older with my wife and children.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

After reading the posts, I decided that I will downgrade and apply for a BTO 3-room, instead of a BTO 5-room. Hopefully this will decrease my stress level dramatically. I want to be able to enjoy life and live free when I get older with my wife and children.

That's prudent of you. You only need to pay $100k plus for a 3 room BTO flat which you can live in until you die since you won't live beyond 100. Say you buy at $150k, and this last for 99 years lease. So each day you only pay $4.15 per day ($126 pm) for a family. If your household income is $4k pm, this represents only 3% of your income. This is the cheapest housing ever in a developed economy. You are very lucky to be a Singaporean.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

After reading the posts, I decided that I will downgrade and apply for a BTO 3-room, instead of a BTO 5-room. Hopefully this will decrease my stress level dramatically. I want to be able to enjoy life and live free when I get older with my wife and children.

Congratulations on making a wise decision. Don't overstretch your finances as you will be stressed all day and night in your "big" house. It's better to live happily and stress-free in a smaller house.

LOL.

You know, some of the lessons will need to be learnt by every new generation - by going through the process and cannot be from others experience. But when it comes to property, your decision can go either way. Let me explain.

If you buy a 5 room BTO flat, the initial cost is high in comparison to what you earn. So there is a lot initial pain which can last many years especially for a couple starting a family.
In 10 to 15 years time, when both you and wife are established in your career, assumed positions of higher responsibilities and thus higher salaries, you will find that you can afford a private condo or landed property. You will also find that your initial choice to buy a 5 rm BTO flat have paid off in the sense that you could off-load it with a handsome profit giving you a big leg-up in offsetting the purchase of your new condo. This was what happened in our case. When we got married we bit the bullet and went for an HDB executive apartment. It was a stretched and admittedly some stress along the way, especially during the Asian financial crisis and SARs period where we see people losing their jobs left and right.

When the economy recovered, we saw that the price of our executive apartment shooting up very fast allowing us to easily step up to a condo (full payment). Of course, by this time, both my wife and I, being promoted a few times also saw our salaries grew.

On the hand, a friend of ours was kiasu, kiasi, dont want stress, went to buy a 3rm HDB flat. As you can imagine, he was not much stressed by the Asian financial crisis and SARs. But when the economy recovered and property prices shot up, his 3rm HBD flat price didnt rise as much. It would be a big jump for him to get into condo, so he just upgraded to another HDB - a 5 rm HDB (resale).

Another lesson learnt from here?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

After reading the posts, I decided that I will downgrade and apply for a BTO 3-room, instead of a BTO 5-room. Hopefully this will decrease my stress level dramatically. I want to be able to enjoy life and live free when I get older with my wife and children.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

After reading the posts, I decided that I will downgrade and apply for a BTO 3-room, instead of a BTO 5-room. Hopefully this will decrease my stress level dramatically. I want to be able to enjoy life and live free when I get older with my wife and children.

Good decision. In today's uncertain global economic environment, it is best to be conservative. Don't listen to naive optimistic comments which you may regret for the rest of your lives. Be prepared for possible retrenchment. Retrenchment can come any time especially if you are in your 50s and highly paid. Better be safe than sorry. Don't be fooled.

Get a small flat, pay it off as quickly as possible. Then save up for your retirement. Top up your CPF as much as you can as it is the safest investment. Maximise your CPF SA so that you will get the highest payout from your CPF Life when you are 65. Don't bother investing in a second property as you can be bankrupt if the property market crash and you have no tenant because of the massive oversupply. Those HDB dwellers who invest in a condo thinking they can rent it out will be in deep trouble. The same for those who buy a condo and want to rent out their HDB flat, they will also not find any tenants. There are many property agents selling this idea of buying property for investment, they just want to sell their properties.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

LOL.

You know, some of the lessons will need to be learnt by every new generation - by going through the process and cannot be from others experience. But when it comes to property, your decision can go either way. Let me explain.

If you buy a 5 room BTO flat, the initial cost is high in comparison to what you earn. So there is a lot initial pain which can last many years especially for a couple starting a family.
In 10 to 15 years time, when both you and wife are established in your career, assumed positions of higher responsibilities and thus higher salaries, you will find that you can afford a private condo or landed property. You will also find that your initial choice to buy a 5 rm BTO flat have paid off in the sense that you could off-load it with a handsome profit giving you a big leg-up in offsetting the purchase of your new condo. This was what happened in our case. When we got married we bit the bullet and went for an HDB executive apartment. It was a stretched and admittedly some stress along the way, especially during the Asian financial crisis and SARs period where we see people losing their jobs left and right.

When the economy recovered, we saw that the price of our executive apartment shooting up very fast allowing us to easily step up to a condo (full payment). Of course, by this time, both my wife and I, being promoted a few times also saw our salaries grew.

On the hand, a friend of ours was kiasu, kiasi, dont want stress, went to buy a 3rm HDB flat. As you can imagine, he was not much stressed by the Asian financial crisis and SARs. But when the economy recovered and property prices shot up, his 3rm HBD flat price didnt rise as much. It would be a big jump for him to get into condo, so he just upgraded to another HDB - a 5 rm HDB (resale).

Another lesson learnt from here?

Times are different now, not so easy to earn money via flipping property.

[lazyplane]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Times are different now, not so easy to earn money via flipping property.

I dont think he is talking about flipping. he is talking about life expectations and needs.

I will tend to agree that generally, once you have kids (and even if you say no kids there is parents) , you need a bigger flat.

3rm is really only good for retirement for 2 . I know there are families that cant afford more , but that is another case. U r 30, educated etc.. surely, u dont see yourself at the bottom 20% of the income scale of singaporeans for rest of your life right ?