Question from the community: Million $ HDB vs Condo

Dear Seedly Members, need your advice and wisdom on the following property conundrum I find myself in. Apologies for the long post and would appreciate your thoughts and comments. Anonymously posting due to personal details.

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TLDR: Million-dollar HDB or Condo? Which is more financially prudent given that one has depreciation (Lease decay) yet space vs. one that has higher mortgages and higher cash down payment but has a higher chance of holding value?

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Life Context: Early 30s, married, and currently living in a two-bedroom rental in a condo paying SGD 3,400/month. Rent is expected to jump to SGD 4,500-4,800 for the same unit. Planning for kids within the next two years.

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Financial Context: Startup I was working for just sold, so my options got paid out, and I’m sitting on excess cash that will be invested into the markets over the next two years.

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The forecasted increase in rent + payout has finally triggered my wife and me to look for a property. We disqualified new launches as we are not a fan of the layouts (High prices, small size, lack of helpers room, wait time). We then looked at Re-sale HDBs and Re-Sale Condos.

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For the HDB (60 years remaining), we are looking at Tiong Bahru SGD 1.15m (1400 sqft). The forecasted mortgages assuming 4.2% interest come to SGD ~4’600. This unit will need a cash payment of SGD 332,600 inclusive of all fees and downpayment. A complete overhaul and reno for SGD 75-100k also need to be done. The pros are that this place gives us ample space, the location is excellent, and the mortgage is still reasonable. The down payment + reno cost (SGD 432’000) also contributes to ~30% of our net worth (Assuming everything like CPF SA, SRS, etc.). A concern with the HDB is the low degree of flexibility (MOP and ethnic quota issues) and the high reno cost.

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For the Condos, for our space requirements (Min 1200 sqft), the price is ~2m SGD. This means a two-bedder for centrally located or closer to the centre and three-bedders for further out condos (e.g., Trump's right opp. Kembangan MRT). The mortgage comes out to be ~SGD 7600, assuming an interest rate of 4.2%. Down Payment will also be high at approx SGD 567’600 inclusive of all fees, and we will end up with 50k of additional reno costs. The down payment + reno cost (SGD 617,600) contributes to ~45% of our net worth (Assuming everything like CPF SA, SRS, etc.).

I can make an equally convincing argument for both an HDB and a Condo but what I’m personally concerned about is the stress from an SGD 7’600 mortgage (35% of household income).

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Questions:

1. Which one of the two is more financially wise?
2. Should we just continue to rent, given the high-interest rate and cooling measures?
3. Given we have a large emergency fund as we have the cash from the payout (2-3 years) and a high disposable income, can we afford to pay a higher mortgage? What if one of us loses our job or wants to take a break?
4. Should I use the cash payout to leverage a higher-value property (Condo) instead of going for an HDB?