Seeking property advice for a unmarried couple with combined monthly income of $15k/month. My partner is self employed so income fluctuates and he has no CPF and needs cashflow for biz.

My partner and I have a combined income of around $15k monthly (though his income fluctuates as he owns his own business), and he is above 35 years old, no CPF only cash in bank. He owns a business so needs sufficient cash for float. Because of these factors, we are exploring property options for our next steps (note: we are not married yet and no kids):

1) Buy a resale 3/4BR HDB together for ownstay

2) Rent apartment for next few years to grow our investments before buying a condo for ownstay.

3) Him to buy a resale HDB under Singles scheme for ownstay, while I buy my own condo unit for investment in a few years time. (However, cash flow can be quite lean for his business which he's not very comfortable with).

Any advice or thoughts to share?

Discussion (2)

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Caleb Seah Hua Xiang

29 Jul 2021

I feel options 3 is a good choice.

Buy a resale under his name under single scheme where both of you guys will be comfortable staying together.

Then you buy under your own name.

I understand your fear of his income not being stable. Thus it's important to seat down together to plan and set aside at least 12 months worth of monthly installment aside to pay this HDB Flat that he owns.

For your situation, since you'll have CPF.

You can consider buying a condo and rent it out.

Your CPF will be able to cover part of the monthly installment.

The rest to be covered by your monthly rental.

Once your property appreciates at least 4 times your yearly rental.

You can consider selling it and recycle your downpayment into another property.

Take the excess profit (Sales Proceed - downpayment) into other investment opportunity such as ETF or index fund. ( if you want to take on leverage, don't over leverage on ETF maybe, 1.1-1.2X) (Meaning if u have 100k invested, can take 20k loan additional)

As your property appreciates again to more than 4 times your yearly rental. Restart the whole process.

If it doesn't appreciate more than 4 times the yearly rental, keep renting.

Always calculate your cashflow from your property.

Do your best to get the lowest monthly installment possible by stretching the loan tenure or getting the lowest interest rate.

Choose a property wisely. Don't go for:

1) Small Boutique Development

2) Outskirts where there isn't any biz activity - Flora drive.

all the best!

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