Considerations of buying an old HDB.

You might want to explore the alternate options out there and understand why you are keen in older house. Is it because of the location? Neighbourhood? Near workplace?

That aside, I feel that older houses may have maintenance issues over time.

$800k can get a 1 bed condo. I will assume your financial are ok. So you must understand below:

• Be mentally prepared, to lose money if one day you regret and want to sell. Old HDB not much value.

• 5 more years will be 2026. 51 years lease left. Buying a hdb with less than 60years lease will have special CPF requirement. Not sure if you know:

1) No CPF allow for lease less than 30years

2) your age + the lease must at least 80 years inorder to use cpf. 35 + 51 = 86 years so you can still use your CPF

3) The maximum of CPF you can use are capped. Formula : (remaining lease till you turn 55 / current available lease) multiply by property value. Eg. (20/51) * $800k= $31372. You will need lot of cash.

You need to understand this 2 points, (1) you will guaranteed lose money if you sell (2) you will have difficulty findings buyers even you want to sell because of the CPF restriction. Basically, you have checkmated yourself If u buy an very old hdb.

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