"Affordable HDB Housing", Myth or Fact? - Part 2

A continuation of yesterday's post on the affordability of HDB flats...

Found the following table in today's TODAY and I took a picture of it immediately. The previous post looks at how "affordable" a resale flat is. Today, we will look at a BRAND NEW flat instead.

Let's do the maths again....

HDB launched 4 BTOs on Monday ion areas Seng Kang, Ponggol, Hougang and Sembawang. To have a fair comparison to yesterday, we shall consider only Seng Kang. The prices of the BTO units from SK are :

Let's take the average price of a 4rm flat to be 328K (median price) and the household income/CPF contribution to be as follows :

Assuming the couple gets 40K Additional CPF Housing Grant and that they also had 60K in their CPF before buying the flat, the finalised loan amount will come up to 228K. Below shows their monthly instalment....

913 of their 920 (OA Contribution) monthly goes to HDB, leaving 7 miserable dollars in their OA. Multiply this by 30yrs and we get 2,520 (7x12x30). Even if we throw in compound interest and CPF Top-ups by the gahmen, how much would the couple have at age 55? 20K? 50K?

Do note that this 20K or 50K is among the 2 of them, which means each one probably has 25K at max. Please tell me several things...

1. With the Minimum Sum hitting 120K by 2013, how will this couple ever be able to draw out money earned over the last 30yrs to enjoy their twilight years?

2. Of what use is it to us to have slogged 30yrs for a house, only to have "saved" 50K in our retirement fund?

3. The motto of HDB is "Providing Affordable, Quality Homes". I've no doubt about the Quality part. But I seriously doubt the Affordable part!! Is taking the life-long hard-earned money of the citizens away your definition of "Affordable"?

I'm not against home ownership, in fact, SO and I promised each other that we will definitely become home-owners together, somehow.... But I shudders each time I look at the market. Why? This is why...

1. With such prices, I no longer dreamed of being able to sell my house 10yrs later for a profit. In fact, I would be thankful if I can even break-even.

2. My kids, nieces and nephews, by the time they are settling down and looking to buy a house, how much would that be? 1million for a 4rm flat? With Mr Horse in place, I wouldn't bet against it.

I used to not really understand the housing issues come election time. But now that I'm looking to get a place of my own, I became fully aware of the existing issues and why so many peoples are making so much noise!

With my earnest hope and prayers, residents of Tampines GRC, please DO THE RIGHT THING and spare our future generations the shit that we are currently facing.

Thank you.

PS : according to the table from TODAY, the couple will need to fork out cash! That's an even worse scenario than the one I've based my maths on....

"Affordable HDB Housing", Myth or Fact? - Part 1

Fact? Yes, 10yrs ago, maybe.... Today, it's definitely a myth... A BIG FAT MYTH!!

Let's do the maths....

Using the above picture as a reference, the median Household Income of a 4-Room Flat applicant (25yrs old) is (SGD)4K.

Using yet another picture above, this is the prices of resale flats sold in Seng Kang, the existing new town that the gahmen is developing. Let's take the average price of a resale 4-Room Flat to be 400K.

Based on a salary of 4K, this household would have a total CPF contribution as shown below....

Assuming the household being eligible for the 40K Additional CPF Housing Grant and that they also had 60K in their CPF before buying the flat, the finalised loan amount will come up to 300K.

Refer to the following picture for the monthly repayment amount if the loan is stretched to the maximum tenure on HDB's fix-rate 2.6% interest :

The monthly repayment is 1,201 while the monthly contribution is only 920. Looking at the state of things, the couple will have their monthly CPF + 300 cash going to HDB. Leaving ZERO DOLLARS from their CPF Contributions to accumulate inside their OA. Extrapolate this 30yrs ahead, how much would they have inside their OA when they reach 55?

Answer : BIG FAT ZERO!!!

With retirement staring in their faces 10yrs down the road, they not only have nothing to withdraw, they also had to meet the CPF Minimum Sum shit!!

The questions now for the gahmen :

1. Where on earth is the couple going to find money to meet the Minimum Sum so that they can enjoy their "Savings"?

2. Is making someone pay 30yrs for their home and ending up having nothing for their retirement your definition of affordable public housing?

3. With new BTO flats costing up to 390K (in SK), the applicant might as well buy from the resale market since it's only about 20K-40K more?

4. Going along this line, how can new flats STILL be considered affordable?

5. You always tell us a house is an asset. At such sky-high prices, my main worry would be : "Will I break even on the house?" I've already given up trying to make money.... Is this what you call affordable?

Mr Horse, where did you pluck your facts and figures from?

Feel free to rebutt me if my above is incorrect....

Pics from my Childhood Days

One of those game consoles which I used to have....

Used to visit the nearby provision store and buy takeaway soft drinks. They'd fill a small plastic bag with ice and then pour the drink from the glass bottle into it.

Bus tickets from yester-era. In those days, buses were operated by 2 persons; the driver and the fellow selling the tickets. Once aboard the bus, the seller will come around and ask you where you are going before whipping out the correctly priced ticket and punched a small hole indicating the fare-stage where you've started the journey. Classic!!

One of those olden days non-air bus with the gigantic gear box right at the entrance, beside the stairs where you climbed aboard.

My school bookshop used to sell these by the loads!! And I'm often there to support them. hahahaha

Anyone remember the cheat code to get 99 "Lives"? Anyone can confirm if its "up up down down left left right right A B START"?

Whoever haven't seen this before, hands up?
"Sunny Day.... Sweepin' the... clouds away...."

One of my favourite cartoon when young, but the movies recently doesn't interest me one bit, weird...

Another one of those hits during my time...

The school textbooks back then were uniform across all schools, even amongst the different levels, the exterior of the books were uniform, albeit with differing contents and colours.

The first TV I ever remember seeing when I was a kid looks something like that. It was a Hitachi and served us well until I was 10 or so.

Another one of those yester-era buses, this time a double-decker.

One of the many snacks to bluff kids' money in those days...

Another one of those snacks, this one is fish crackers I think, but not crispy one, it had those soggy feeling and smells damn fishy!!

One of my favourite games on the Sega console. I can spend endless hours trying to complete it using diferent characters. I particularly loved using Blade, that lady in red, for she is fast and nimble, but abit light on her kicks and punches.

Yet another of those cartoons during my time...

The Courtesy campaign poster.

I've never enjoyed my mandarin lessons, yet I was forced to buy this stupid papers for 20cents weeks after weeks!!

Uncle Scrooge!!

Western Bar!! My favourite handheld back then! Saw this game on the Apple App Store going for US$4.99. I bought it without hesitation!! :)

Travel Plans 2011 - Updated Apr 2011

Feb 2011 - Batam (completed)

Mar 2011 - Kanchanaburi (completed)

Apr/May 2011 - Chiang Mai
May 2011 - Kuala Lumpur, LM Workshop

Jun 2011 - Taiwan

Jul 2011 - Bangkok

Nov/Dec - Hokkaido/Europe/USA (TBC)

??? 2011 - Dublin (Work-related)

From the way things are going, this list can only get shorter. Any longer and my neck will be given a good squeeze by SO!!