Buying first house, resale HDB or resale Private? What are the pros and cons?

For buying any properties, do go through this thought process.

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Firstly, since you are intending to buy for your own stay, your considerations will lean towards more on factors such as nearer to MRT, amenities, etc. Other considerations such as staying near to your parents, to your workplace, or even to your kids' (if any) schools which I believe both of you have considered all these factors before buying.

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Secondly, the next consideration will be your finances and cash flow. Apart from the cash outlay which I believe both of you have done up your sums, another key thing to take note of is that your income less your daily expenses must be able to fork out higher mortgage repayments, higher maintenance fees, etc. You do not want to have a situation whereby any reduction or loss of income will overstretch your cash flow which brings more stress and financial problems in the future.

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Thirdly in today's context, gone are the days like our parents’ generation where we can definitely make money from selling any HDB or private condos. Personally, I am not a fan of paying $800k to $1million for a resale HDB, as technically (although controversial), you're "renting" to have a place to stay.

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In addition, buying private resale does not guarantee that you have a better chance of earning a profit. You can look at the project's historical transactions, I have seen many condos selling at lower than launch price, making a loss as they bought at a high price when the market is doing very well, etc. I would look at comparable, both within the condo and among surrounding condos to see whether I am buying at a good value.

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Lastly, the Singapore property market is at an expansionary phase and the real estate cycle is cyclical in nature as the market can go up but will come down eventually. The question is how long this bull market will last. Do check out a recent short post I have written on my Facebook Page at https://bit.ly/FBpageQH

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Hope this helps and all the best in your home search!

The thinking that u can buy a hdb first, sell for a profit and upgrade to a condo is gone and hard to execute now. Just far too many costs in between like Reno, stamp duty agent fees.

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The more important point is affordable hdb flats are undesirable properties now. If they are cheap now, they will continue to be cheap in the future. Whereas good properties are expensive and will continue to climb or maintain as they are desirable assets. Ultimately depends what a home means to you though.

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You don't care about the prestige, but others do and others will pay. The market is large and entrenched. Just because we think in one way doesn't mean the market will follow. At the end good things are good for a reason and they are likely to maintain that status