TL;DR - I'm just waiting to collect keys next month and enjoy my new condo
I recently bought a resale 2BR condo without going through the HDB route. Intention is for own stay since this is my 1st property
A lot of the reasons on why I went straight to condo without buying HDB first are personal/highly dependent on my personal circumstances.
- Covid-19 situation made me want to have my own space.
- I need some space to WFH and siblings are WFH too
- ** period last year made it difficult to meet my gf without risking breaking laws
- Can't buy any HDB until 35 since I'm 31yo and single
- I balloted for 3 new condo launches and failed each time cuz I got lousy ballot number for all 3 launches zzzz
- New condo launches construction timeline got affected/delayed by Covid-19, even longer wait to have a ready flat.
- Renting a 2BR unit = monthly cash outlay of $2k as expense
- Buying a 2BR resale = monthly cash outlay of ~1k towards an asset
- Can't qualify for BTO or even EC cuz my income combined with gf already overshot the BTO/EC ceiling by a long shot (both our annual income are 6-digits each)
- We both have lived in HDB since young and want to live in condo - that's our dream
- Found a nice high-floor unit in a development which TOP'd less than 2 years ago for a good price (owner is a PRC who went back to motherland for good and want to quickly dispose the unit)
- Got a home loan interest rate at 1.28% which is almost free money. My stocks gain % is way higher than 1.28%
- Even though I will marry my gf next year, I registered as the single owner for this 2BR unit and I can comfortably service the DP + monthly loan on my own. Given our income trajectory, it is very likely we will upgrade to a bigger unit next time when we have kids (not anytime soon though) and we can just buy the new condo under her name to avoid the whole decoupling nonsense.
I'm aware that I'm in a very privileged/fortunate situation, so since I have the financial means to afford a condo, I'll just leave the HDB for people who need it more