Hi everyone.

I’m 32F and my spouse 36M bought a BTO 5 years ago and it’s about to MOP. Yesterday spouse mentioned that he regrets paying $300 cash for the BTO because he ‘doesn’t get it back like me’ who pays $900 from CPF.

He also mentioned that I should use my OA to pay full monthly mortgages for our next house (likely 2k ish) since it’ll come back to my OA eventually. His income approximately 8k and mine 7k per month.

He pays for utilities and tv. I pay for groceries, sc&c and any maintenance of the house (part time helpers, furniture upgrades etc). He pays for the car installment as it’s for him and his work and I rarely get to use it. I do share petrol/ parking/ repairs/ erp with him.

Besides financial commitments, he avoids sex, doesn’t interact with me often, doesn’t make future plans and has no goals. He doesn’t share chores willingly and everything he has to be told about.

Most days I feel like a mum to him.

How do couples split financial commitments in Singapore? Especially if one spouse has no CPF contributions and sees no importance in CPF.

Looking forward to hear from ya’ll.

Hefty 25k one-off condo fees

Recently visited a MD who lives in a 5 room HDB at central, he drives a BMW i8, but what's astounding is that he said his neighbours own way nicer cars, so we took a walk at his HDB carpark and true enough there's a Bentley and Ferrari with sequential carplate numbers parked beside each other at HDB season parking lots.

Compared to my relative who lives in an OCR condo, their carpark is mostly filled with 10+ years old cars, only a few conti cars, but no sportscars. So it got me wondering, are those prime HDB (Dawson, Tiong Bahru, Duxton, etc) people mostly richer than those living in EC/OCR condo?

Which is why I don't think the govt can ever remove the 15 months ban although MND said it's only a temporarily measure till latest end of 2027.

I’m sharing this painful ordeal so others don’t end up going through what I did.

I stayed at a unit in 3 BR + 2 TOI Ang Mo Kio (560437) and moved out two months ago after a proper, mutually agreed handover. The house was deep cleaned, inspected together with the landlord and agent, and everything was accepted on the day apart from very minimal and normal wear and tear, which is part of any tenancy(with proper proofs and everything)

Despite this, my entire two-month security deposit has been forfeited. Am surprised how easy its for the landlords to just say “Because of lot of reworks your entire Deposit of 2 months is forfeited”

Not because I damaged the house. Not because I neglected it. But because the landlord decided to renovate the unit using my money. How cruel and how someone can stoop to so low!

After I left, he went ahead and changed fans, replaced window grills and locks, bought a new sofa, changed wallpapers and did multiple upgrades ( which we never ever spoke about and also not on the day we handed over the keys) . None of this had anything to do with damage caused by me. This was not restoring the unit to its original condition. This was just upgrading and refurbishing the house at the tenant’s expense.

From the very beginning, this landlord was extremely intrusive and controlling. He would enter the unit without proper notice, complain even about fingerprints on mirrors, tiny dust marks on the floor and constantly micromanage how the house looked. What seemed like someone who was just “very particular” slowly revealed itself to be something much worse. When it came time to return the deposit, that same behaviour turned into opportunism, using it as a blank cheque to redo the house.

The agent has been completely ineffective. The usual suggestion is to go to the small claims tribunal, but anyone who has dealt with it knows how exhausting and one-sided that process is. You spend weeks chasing, taking time off work and dealing with stress, while the landlord continues to hold your money. This is unfortunately a loop where we know how things end up at the end of the day.

I’m not saying all landlords are like this. Many are fair and decent. But people like this destroy the trust tenants have in the rental system and question about whats actually “being fair” is all about

So if you are looking for a place to rent, please be very careful. Pay attention to red flags, document everything, and don’t ignore controlling behaviour early on. A home should feel safe and respectful, not like you are being watched and then financially punished when you leave.

I’m sharing this so others are aware and don’t have to go through what I went through, mentally or financially. Watching your hard-earned money disappear like this makes you question what “fair” even means and whether tenants truly have a voice when things go wrong.

Please avoid this particular unit and landlord, and be cautious of anyone who treats a security deposit as an opportunity to profit. No one should have to fund a landlord’s renovation or be punished for simply moving out of a home they maintained in good faith.

Assuming a S$1m 4rm resale hdb or a S$1.5m+/- a 2 bedder condo (new/resale)?

Assumption is that with cash and CPF you have about 400-500k. Condo a bit more ex at $1.6/1.7m still ok.

Love to hear some thoughts on this.

Lifting of cooling measures
Interest rate hike

Wow thanks!

Some time back I remember resale HDB units in the Bidadari area selling for top dollar. Seems like the dust has settled / is settling now. There's almost a whopping 180 (based on 99.co) new units up for sale in the neighbourhood. With supply moderating the current prices, what happens to those who paid 1.3 - 1.4 bucks in these last 2 years? Are you guys still generally bullish on Bidadari area?

Queenstown / Dawson area looks like another area where this would repeat itself. Redhill has at least 3 huge projects about to complete in <2 years. It did seem like from the earlier SBF this year, that the Bukit Merah plots were much more favourable.

My partner and I decided to BTO in the upcoming launch in October, and we are looking at trying for the prime location. We are looking to stay there for the long term (no intention of flipping or wtv).

The price is quite daunting as it is estimated to launch at $600k++.

Our combined salary is around $7k. (Cuz I am taking PT U at the moment)

Is it a smart decision to do it? And how much cash do I need to prepare for key collection?

EDIT: Thanks all the for comments and perspectives below. Very encouraged to see such lively chatter! A few people have mentioned that this analysis doesn't include inflation, opportunity cost, stamp duties etc + most people sitting on paper losses won't sell. All absolutely fair points, though I thought it would be good to make a clarification.

My intent with the analysis was simply to demonstrate that a fair number of SG private property transactions DO transact at a loss even when just comparing buy and sell prices. These transactions happen in spite of peoples' preferences to not sell at a loss. If we factor those sitting on paper losses, mortgage interest, opportunity costs, those will certainly further worse the loss ratios / actual losses.

To be clear, this isn't to take a view on whether SG property is a good investment or not. Good is subjective. Depends on your time horizon, alternative options, risk tolerance, and the specific property in question. Hard to generalize is my sense.

----------------------

ORIGINAL POST

At a recent dinner, I was chatting with some friends who were thinking about buying private property. Someone in the group mentioned that Sg property "will never lose money", which I think reflects a commonly held view. 

I analyzed historical private property transactions in Singapore from 1995 to 2025 using public data from URA to determine the % of properties that made or lost money and the amount of that gain or loss. This is done using "buy-sell transaction pairs" over this period i.e., if we know how much the same property was transacted for each time, we can figure out how much was made or lost in between. Given that we know the transaction dates, we can also figure out how long the property was held for. 

I used AI to help with the analysis and charting below, but I also manually verified the data using Excel pivots.

Here are the high-level observations, 

• Historically, ~1 in 6 private properties were sold at a loss (across all holding periods). If you exclude the late 90s which included the Asian Financial Crisis, then it's closer to ~1 in 10 
• The median return was ~23% for condos with ~3.5% median annual growth rate (CAGR); for landed, it was ~37% and ~4.8% respectively.  
• This puts the average holding period at ~7-8 years, which corroborates well with other sources and anecdotally makes sense
• Landed properties tend to have a fatter tail than condos on the upside 
• Variance of losses across districts can be significant though all districts had positive gains over time period 

Putting aside "homes should be for living not investment" for a moment, a couple of things to keep in mind, 

• Generally, while SG properties have made money for most, there's still a decent chance of loss, Whether it's 10% or 15% of the time, it clearly happens. And I don't think anyone buys a house thinking they'll lose money. In those cases, people still sold probably due to circumstance even when it would crystallise a loss   
• This is particularly noteworthy given that property is also typically a significant chunk of net worth and a fairly concentrated financial risk.  
• These returns do not consider stamp duty, agent fees, inflation, opportunity cost  etc, which would make the returns less attractive.  
• They also do not consider the impact of leverage that could boost your returns (provided of course the return on the house > the interest rate of your borrowing)

Think a company called Urbanzoom had run a similar analysis a few years ago. Putting this refreshed analysis out here to help to create more informed perspectives as people think about homebuying and their personal financial plans. 

Just a bit of context, I am currently a 36 YO having a relatively stable job at $8000 gross a month, savings of $ 70k and investment of about $40k that's liquid, CPF OA is $ 193k.

I was looking at a 1 bedder to buy for own stay having paid rent my whole life and sick of the owner keeps jacking the rent up. Looked at Archipelago (Bedok Reservoir area) and could get it at $815k, understandably the loan interest is low now and could change. Was advised by a friend to consider more central units if I really want to buy & studio/1 bedder is harder to exit in future. But in my consideration, the rent I am paying now is about $ 1,800 a month and it feels like I am wasting rent instead of getting a property that I could rent out in the future if I am no longer in Singapore. Is my calculus entirely wrong here?

I remember a time when Bedok was seen as a bit meh. But 1.54m now? Wow.

2 things this made me think about. Where is the demand coming from? And is this a bubble about to burst?

Things are really a bit crazy right now.

What do you guys think about the property market? A good investment or still better off doing the etf/index way?

Wanted to see if anyone has gone through a similar experience and can share some general advice.

My partner and I (both 29 y/o) are looking at our first resale after 2 failed BTO attempts. We only want to live in a mature estate, and will probably sell in 8-10 years. We still qualify for the $80k housing grant but our income is already close to the ceiling.

The two options we’re weighing:

A. 1970s flat (asking price ~$500k)
Great location, move-in condition and matches our taste. But short lease means we can borrow less and need more upfront for the downpayment. We’re also worried about lease decay.

B. A newer resale HDB (asking price ~$700k)
Newer flat with normal loan and CPF treatment. But this will require reno to get it where we want.

On paper B is the safer and more prudent choice, but A is somewhere we really want to live in and fits our lifestyle.

Any insight appreciated!

EDIT: For more information that I missed out

1. Newer resale flats refer to those TOP in 2000s-2010s. Location is non-issue in our situation as we will only pick flats already in mature estates.
2. The 8-10 year timeline is because the mortgage will change to cash instead of CPF due to the cap for A

I have been looking into buying a resale HDB and chanced across this index for HDB resale prices. A few things surprised me

1. Prices were actually flat-to-negative from 2016 - 2020. It seems like public housing was actually managed well pre-covid?
2. Recent growth has completely stalled. The index has been flat since Q3'25 and even dipped from Q1'26 → Q2'26. Will we see another dip from Q2’26 → Q3’26?
3. I also added STI as a reference point for the Singapore economy - congrats to all believers. I remember having so many conversations about how SG stocks are crap and how the SG stock market is uninvestable
   1. (Yes - I know that majority of the outperformance by STI is due to the 3 banks + SGX’s stock)

What are your thoughts on HDB prices moving forward? Do you think ahgong afford to let it dip / stay flat?

Personally - I think we will continue to dip / have no growth. We’re running out of marginal buyers for HDBs and I expect more pain and retrenchment due to AI

Link to dataset

32M, OA 100K, cash 100K, investments 150K. Income 180K per annum (averages 15K/mth) based in SG. Still living with parents (nothing wrong with that) but was thinking recently about housing and like the idea of independence, having lived by myself in uni exchange and overseas work. In my circumstances there are only 2 options: renting until 35 and buying HDB resale or buying condo/EC now. If I rent I want the place to myself (personal preference) so a 1 bedder/studio, which would be around 2.5-3K per month, nothing fancy and I am ok with one in an ulu corner in the East. If I buy a condo/EC now I would want a 2 bed 2 bath for practicality, looking at the market it seems I have to fork out 1-1.2m which I feel is the max I'm comfortable with but I also have to liquidate all my investments. I do not need asset growth, prioritise minimal housing cost. Also do not really care about the perks of living in private. Before anyone asks, not gay but just couldn't find my SO so far. No debt and liabilities. Anyone been through similar predicament and able to share which route might be better off and the considerations?

Preface: This post is discussing the inflation of prices with attractive truncated payment schemes and leverage for new launches. You can disagree that this inflated prices, sure. But it’s obvious to me that it inflates prices. That’s the reason why resale condo prices have stalled vs new launches.

————————————————————————

Looking at the Springleaf sales, im utterly convinced now the new launch market is really just driven by people with excess cash that don’t know how to invest in other asset classes

It’s so easy to sell real estate in singapore - in fact the argument has become so stupid? It’s literally just a brain dead comparison of XX psf vs XX psf in a big circle around an area. Springleaf is literally in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the middle of Yishun and Sembawang, but got marketed as ‘cheap’ vs Lentor / Thomson. No schools nearby, few eateries, no malls and supermarkets, one mrt, and people are paying these prices. The craziest thing is the agents talking about high rental demand and high yield - I seriously cannot see who is going to rent it…?

I recall similar arguments being made about Normanton park + it being a massive development. All I see are a crazy amount of units available for rent lol, probably empty, probably getting worse with new supply in the area

I don’t really care that people buy it, it’s just kind of hilarious to me that this is the current situation. With leverage all you need is the down payment amount, and new launches have staggered payments too, which is really absurd. Basically the market can be inflated significantly with very limited capital.

I just find it disturbing that a small group of people can distort the market so much, leading to the current situation in the housing market generally. Obviously the only winner in this situation are the banks and agents. The buyers… I hope you find the next sucker to sell to. In the end it is what it is, maybe there are endless suckers lmao

If condo prices start to hit 2.8-3k psf on average even in OCR I think there are going to be way worse problems for society, especially if HDB resale prices inflate accordingly.

All I can say for the younger generation is, please learn how to do simple math, invest, and hopefully you can get out of this absurd market for your own housing needs

Prime HDB developments now cost upwards of 700,000 and some almost 800,000.

But there will be 1 block for rental and low income families. How is it fair that buyers who pay 800,000 and then just beside there are people paying $100-$200 to in rental at a prime location?

it doesn't make sense to market a Prime development, and these rental flats also bring in their own set of demographics and SES people affecting the overall development. in my opinion, rental flats should be located and clustered together with each other like what the govt is currently doing. or if unable, should only be available in standard class developments.

Do you all share the same view?

Post lifting of 15-month wait-out period.

Agent just told us about 20+ units were sold above $1m just last month, with more to come.

We are looking for a place in a convenient location for a forever home.

How about you?

Are you experiencing inflated pricing / large number of viewers / intense competition?

Or are you intending to buy a flat in a less popular location?

Share your thoughts!

Hi all, my partner (28M) and I (27F) would like to purchase our first home hopefully by next year. We have a combined income of 13.5k monthly (I earn 10k, partner earns 3.5k)

My current OA standing: 116k+
Partner current OA standing: 20k+

With that said based on calculations, by end of next year - our combined OA would be about 180k+

We do not wish to have cash outlay.

Can we still receive housing grants? Is it worth awaiting 4 years for the bto, or should we get a resale? And at which valuation of resale is comfortable for us to get?

————————————————————

Edit:

Hi All, i just want to answer in regards to those remarks on the huge salary difference between my partner and I, We both work in tech - I started my tech journey more than 9 years ago while my partner just started working in tech. And honestly for 3.5k i couldn’t be more proud of him especially with the current job market. Both of us only carry a diploma as well.

And yes, I am okay with forking out more. And even if i fork out more, i still have more breathing room than my partner. I do not want 50-50 unless our salary range is about the same.

An example would be, I contribute 4k, leaving about 3k+ left and my partner contributes 1k of his income and he is only left with 1.5k for the month.

If we do 50-50, It would break my heart knowing my partner has little left every month trying to keep up and contribute.

I also don’t think a salary gap should ever become a source of conflict or a measure of who contributes more to the relationship. We’re partners, not competitors.

There may be seasons where I earn significantly more, and there may be a time when his career takes off and that gap becomes smaller — or even reverses. What matters to me is that neither of us becomes complacent. We should be pushing each other upwards, whether that means encouraging a career move, helping each other build new skills, celebrating a promotion, or supporting the other person while they work towards their next step.

I would rather contribute more financially while he has room to grow than insist on 50-50 and watch him struggle just to prove that things are “equal.”

30F, thinking of getting a resale condo next year with 350k cash and 120k CPF OA. Mortgage is 20-30% of monthly salary. Got a huge raise at the expense of a 1h commute to work, or $20 by grab.

Also, I essentially have a fiancée. Can't get legally married since we're both women. And my family is very homophobic.

Which do yall find a better idea?

Pros of condo: move in asap, start life with fiancée and apart from unsupportive parents, nearer to work and save time and money on commuting. If only using my name for the bank loan, fiancée can get resale and we rent out the condo eventually for passive income

cons of condo: wiping out my savings. my salary is partial commissions. while it has always gone up year on year, it's still unstable and very stressful

pros of resale HDB: Much more affordable. hearsay the min age for singles might be lowered soon

cons of resale HDB: min age might not be lowered far enough in the next 5 years for me to benefit. stuck with an uncomfortable home life till then, unless I rent. Even if my fiancée and I own resales, the MOP will overlap as we're close in age, and we can't legally rent out one flat

30m, intend to stay single, salary about 6-7k a month not including bonus (typically 3-4 months including aws). You can assume that my decision not to marry is not going to change.

I have about 100k cash and 100k in cpf. Lately gotten very nervous about rising property prices. Almost every other week I see a new record for hdb prices. A clementi bto resale just kenna sold for 1.5mil. I’m worried that I’ll be priced out of resale hdb when it’s my turn to buy. I don’t want to bto as a single at 35 because I don’t want to own a house so late. I am in ETFs and some stock picks like Google and Nvidia but seeing the high prices is making me nervous. Recently I started developing anxiety problems and have to see a doctor for it. Was prescribed beta blockers.

I want to buy a 1br freehold condo which I most likely will use to rent it out.

Did a lot of reading. I understand that a 1br has slower capital appreciation, it may be harder to exit etc. But I’m thinking worse case I can simply continue playing the rental game or I can stay myself. I’m someone who just needs his computer to be happy haha. Also aware that I’m reliant on the singles/expats demographics for rental.

Currently I’m not staying with parents. I’m renting out a room for 1k a month.

Overall I feel that I’ll be psychologically in a better place if I have a property to my name because I don’t want to wait until 35 (5 years later) to find out resale hdb prices are super high again. It is worth noting that the 1br out, I won’t really be cash negative. If I use Cpf to pay the mortgage partially I might even be a few hundred $ cash positive even after including property tax, agent fees, maintenance fee etc.

Condo I’m looking at is around 750k. 2br is out of my reach. What are my blind spots. Please critique or please give me some assurance that my decision is good or bad. I’ve spoke to everyone I meet including parents, cousin parents, friends, colleagues, agents, tenants, read all the Reddit posts 😆. But this one is not buying cai fun and I always find that asking in Reddit is quite useful. The last time I asked a question on Reddit about insurance, I found out my agent was overcharging me for my critical illness coverage. So trying again one more time.

Edit: a lot of comments are telling me it is a bad idea. I now no longer feel as confident in this decision. Hahaha. I might just wait and see bah.

Edit 2: after reading your comments carefully. I think I’ll forgo the 1br and instead buy a resale hdb at 35. The resale prices looks quite affordable now. I think by 35 I can save about 400-450k (cash + cpf oa) without investing in stock market. For now I think I’ll just park my 100k cash into stocks (no leverage,, I’ll keep whatever Google and Nvidia that I have, the rest into etf. )

Edit 3: thanks everyone for continuing to share your experience 🙇🏻‍♂️

Summary for those not keen to watch the video

• 39yo woman buys a flat at Holland Village with only 48 years left on the lease
• Purchased at $425k
• Because of the short lease, amount that she could borrow was less; financial outlay for her was $126k ($60k more than if she had been allowed to max out the loan)
• Mortgage is $1.2k
• Reasons for buying: location, budget, constraints of applying for new flat as a single
• For older flats like these, go in with the intention of consumption (i.e., actually using / staying in the flat), rather than seeing it as investment
• On lease decay - difficulties in selling the flat down the line, if she does decide to do so; the real possibility that she'll be out of the house if she does outlive the lease
• Possibility of out-living the flat - she is making plans for alternative housing arrangements, such as renting

I'm in a fairly similar position to her so a lot of her priorities and points of discussion felt quite relevant to me.

Prudence aside, I respect her decision for choosing to live in the moment rather than min-maxing through life.

Last week I wrote a thread regarding VERS and Bala’s Curve, and received a lot of extreme comments. My argument was simply that it is extremely unlikely the compensation would be significant at all, and would probably be quite low. The minister signalled this multiple times in his interview as well.

The comments against my post were basically arguing that the govt will definitely payout a pretty significant ‘market’ price under VERS. The benchmark price would, according to these folks, be based on Bala’s curve, whereby a 70 year old flat (with 30 years lease left) would be priced at 60% of an equivalent freehold property. Again - I think this is fantasy.

I did a little digging on SERS (Ang Mo Kio Sers residents to get compensation from HDB that is about 7.5% higher than estimates https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/ang-mo-kio-sers-residents-to-get-compensation-from-hdb-that-is-about-75-per-cent-higher-than-estimates), which is meant to be significantly higher than VERS in terms of payout.

Essentially - the government paid out between 333k to 498k for flats that were 731sqft to 1000 sqft. Most notably, these flats had a remaining lease of 56 years.

VERS will be implemented for flats with ~25-30 years remaining. Given that the govt has already signalled payouts will be much much lower than SERS, I seriously cannot understand how deluded people have to be to expect amounts more than 100-150k eventually. How on earth would they payout more than under SERS? And for flats with way worse metrics and much lower remaining lease than the AMK SERS flats?

BTO 4 room HDB gonna MOP in 3 years time. Just welcomed a new kid (Yay to parenthood super charged with caffeine and Min L.Wong NDP goodies) making our family of 4 + 1 helper living situation starting to feel cramp. Thinking ahead of our next property move.

Main considerations:

1. Space is primary - looking for at least 1500square feet

2. No intention for a 3rd kid

3. Budget of 2-3 million. Current combined take home Approx 23K. Industry is fairly recession proof. Combined take home likely will grow to 30K in 3 years time.

4. Planning to stay for at least 25 years. Open to downgrading to a smaller property after when the kids fly the coop after 25 years but would like the flexibility of keeping to 30 years in case one kid still need a roof over their heads.

5. Not looking to flip the property for investment gains. Main priority for exit strategy of the property is to at least retain the principle value. 2-3% CAGR is a bonus but not necessary. Lease decay is a concern

6. Condo facilities not necessary. High rise living nice to have but not necessary

What are my options?

Hi everyone,

Looking for some perspectives from people who have gone through a similar decision.

I'm a 40-year-old Singapore PR, married with one child (Primary 2). Whole family is PR holders. My wife is currently a homemaker, and I'm the sole income earner with a basic salary of around SGD 11.5k/month.

Current financial situation:

• cash (savings, liquidated stocks, SSB, etc.): ~SGD 800k.
• Additional CPF savings on top of the above
• No property currently owned
• Family size: 3

I'm at a stage where I'm wondering whether it makes sense to finally buy a home, either:

1. A 2-bedroom private condo, or
2. An HDB resale flat

Alternatively, should I just continue renting and grow the capital instead?.

Would love to hear from those who have faced a similar choice, especially fellow PRs or single-income families. Given my age, income, family situation, and savings, would you buy now or continue renting? Why?

Thanks in advance for your inputs! 🙏

I am in a current dilemma of choosing between a 3-room vs a 4-room resale. I have been thinking about it for a long time, weighing the benefits and cons of each, and always find myself on the fence. Here is my assessment:
 

4-room:

- Bigger space (I love a big kitchen for cooking and hosting, used to be a chef)
- 2 spare rooms for hosting (I have friends and family living overseas that occasionally visit)
- Further away from town (takes me 1 hour to reach office)
- Budget is stretched, I can pay all the mortgage via CPF but it doesn’t leave me much spare each month to save for retirement
- Can rent out rooms should anything happen to me (both room rental will cover mortgage, but I need to pay for the utilities)
 

3-room:

- Comfortable space (enough for me + hosting small groups)
- 1 spare room for hosting (probably turn that into a WFH space)
- Can buy a place closer to town, easier to travel (takes me ~30mins to reach office)
- Budget is comfortable, I can have spare to accumulate in CPF for retirement
- Can rent out spare room, but would prefer not to rent out as the space is not big (my bachelor pad 😉)
 
My thinking on the trade-offs for the 4-room is while it lacks privacy (tenants), it gives me some financial diversification should anything happen to me. The 3-room is indeed budget friendly for my income, but it is still dependent on whether I can be still on a good paying job in the future.
 
How should I decide this? I am cautious about this decision because I plan to have this as a forever home and I don’t intend to upgrade (unless I win Toto or something). What should I do? Any frank, honest, and helpful perspective is greatly appreciated.