It has been a trend these days that the proportion of young couples that chooses private properties such as condominiums or private apartments as their first home, are increasing as opposed to HDB flats. After all, private properties come with more amenities and facilities and there is a certain prestige associated with staying in such form of housing. If the combined income of the couple is less than the HDB income ceiling that qualifies them for certain incentives and schemes, that currently stands at $8000, they may lose out monetarily if they choose to stay in private properties.1. New flats discounted from market prices
If the couple's combined income is less than the income ceiling, they will be eligible to apply for new HDB flats. These new HDB flats are at a discount as compared to the market price of similar HDB flats. The couple could save a significant amount of money if they choose new HDB flats. The drawback though is that the couple will have to go through balloting to buy new HDB flats and thus they are not guaranteed of being able purchase the new HDB flats.
2. Housing Grants
HDB will offer housing grant which is known as the CPF housing grant for couples who are buying a HDB flat for the 1st time and have not enjoyed a housing subsidy before, if they are buying a resale flat. This housing grant can be used to pay for the initial purchase of the flat or to reduce the mortgage loan of the flat. The amount can range from $15,000 to $40,000 depending on the type of grant given and this is illustrated in the diagram below.
3. HDB Concessionary Loan
Similary, a couple will be eligible to apply for the HDB Concessionary Loan if their combined income is less than the income ceiling, along with other factors. The interest rate of this loan is currently set at 0.1% above the interest rate in the CPF Ordinary Account. Currently, the interest rate of the HDB Concessionary Loan is at 2.6% and this is often significantly lower than the interest rates that the banks are offering.
As such, with all the above mentioned incentives, it would be advisable for couples who are buying their first home to choose HDB flats instead of private properties if their combined income is less than the income ceiling.
Posts
Hi,
ReplyDelete• We have just added your latest post "Choosing HDB for 1st home" to our Directory of Grant Programs . You can check the inclusion of the post here . We are delighted to invite you to submit all your future posts to the directory for getting a huge base of visitors to your website and gaining a valuable backlink to your site.
Warm Regards
Project Grant Team
http://projectgrant.info
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThanks for adding me to your directory.