I am a singaporean living in perth. My husband and I own a HDB 5 room flat which we are paying via CPF. Soon we will run out of OA and have to pay by cash. Should we sell my HDB and put everything in SA?

Hi there! It really depends on your life planning with your partner on whether you will be overseas for the longest period of time or there is a possibility of relocating back home soon.

Essentially, the HDB is your shelter back home in which its intangible value is providing a shelter.

From a financial position, leaving the HDB empty and not generating income may not be the best position. Since you are running out of OA, there are a few options

a) Use cash to continue paying so you continue owning the place

b) do a rental to generate income so you can continue owning the place without further pressure on your cash outlay

c) sell the house (depends on 1st part of this ans)

I believe the key question here is how do you position this HDB flat of yours in the context of financial or intangibles.

With regards to the SA, believe the proceeds will be channeled back to their respective accounts such as OA, accurred interest and cash. Hence, the SA limit is still based on FRS.

It is like "investing" the proceeds to get 4% per annum "risk free" for SA. Again the next qn is what and how do you intend to grow the proceed from the HDB sales?​​​

Hi,

From a strictly financial perspective, if I am in your position, I would assess the potential growth rate of the property. Is it still growing at least 2.6% a year? If not, I would sell the property so that the money is growing inside CPF at a guaranteed 2.5% rate in OA.

You won't be able to transfer everything in SA to get that 4%, as there is a cap for the amount of money inside. This year it's $181,000. Possibly, not every dollar will be transfer in your CPF as well, some capital gain that you have over the years (above your CPF contribution and interest) from the property can be paid out to you in cash.

Hope this helps =)