TS, to add on another example:
My sister (29) and my brother-in-law (32) recently got an EC in Yishun, 3 Bedder near 800k+.
Their income are combined 11k, my sis works as a teacher and my brother-in-law works in the construction industry as manager.
Both of them working around 5 years+ with stable jobs, so CPF got around 120k combined.
20% of 800k is 160k, 15% CPF, 5% Cash. So it is 120k CPF, 40k Cash. No grants whatsoever. For EC, if i'm not wrong they took a bank loan of 20 years for a principal of 650k+. Not sure how it works out every month, but definitely more than 2k+ from OA. CPF wipe out at the point of signing btw, and loan repayment start now, although EC still building.
My brother in-law told me this - He wanted to get a flat that NO NEED TO COME OUT CASH. (i.e. fully payable by CPF monies from him and my sister's CPF contribution). Keep in mind that CPF rates goes down as you age and BOTH of them MUST continue working for the next 20 years.
Recently my sister wants to quit her job, as she says teaching is too stressful, long hours. She wants to go do master or start her own business. But she can't. Why? A single income of 6k is not enough to pay off the EC via CPF alone. My bro-in-law would have to wipe out his salary monthly if my sis quits. So how? no choice lan lan suck thumb and continue to work for ah gong.
Is this the kind of scenario you want to be tied down in? I believe many younger EC buyers also haphazardly buy an EC like this without thinking about what the future might bring. Don't be fooled by sales promises of a 10 years privatization, returns on capital are all only good on paper. You sell your EC, then you stay where? under expressway?
I also had uni peers who, like you are trying to 'game' the system, apply 4-room BTO in non-mature to maximise grants for AHG and SHG while we were still schooling. They think that 'wow, free money from govt'. In fact, like many people said, the grants are not 'free'. There are interest payables on it, and the grants primary purpose is to help LOWER INCOME couple to pay off the down-payment. To be frank and curt, it really isn't meant to help you, since you income is >7k and going up. As they say, free things not good, good things not free.
Don't be fooled by the government la. They left hand give a grant, right hand use another form of punitive tax to take back. You think our government is kum gong? They run on air? End of the day the money has to come from somewhere, and it definitely isn't from their own pockets.
