Would our retirement planning using stay in property work?

I have to agree with Hariz on his answer.
Add on points (given I am paying down a 25 yr loan myself):

1) A 30-year loan is horrendous in terms of interest. Ask for the statement that shows you the total interest paid over 30 years assuming rates don't change. I am gonna put my guess that its gonna be about 30++% of the condo purchase price. When I started before ABSD was implemented, the interest was below 1% after it shot to 3%, I found myself having some difficulty. And it might stay that way through the 30 years. As a further add on, if you bring it down to 25 yrs or less, how do you look on your debt servicing ratio? If the property loan ongoing payment at the current rate of 2.2+% is above 35% of your combined income, the condo is probably too expensive for you.

2) If you don't have an annual budget, make one. If you do, then after forking out the cash portion of the loan, are you able to save 10% of the take-home pay? Do you also have some emergency funds left after the downpayment?

3) Have you asked what is the total stamp duty and other fees required for the property? Do you have money for that?

4) What's the annual condo maintenance fee? If you also still have the agent's contact, ask what is the annual property tax estimate.

5) How many bedrooms are there? If its 1+ to 2, the demand and appreciation potential might not be there. If it's 3 or more, that's probably decent for resale demand.

6) is it 99-year leasehold? After 30 years, you would have 69 years left. Have you heard of Bala's leasehold depreciation table? After 30 years, the resale value might be 80% compared to an equivalent freehold property.

All of these are property-related questions, not including the other financial aspects. Hope you have time to go through and answer them before signing the papers.

Hi Anon,

Well, if you sell something for the same price you bought it for, you would have earned nothing and lost money to inflation.

It's almost like saving in a bank with 0% interest. In fact, you lose out on the 2.5% from OA that Govt pays because instead, you pay for it yourself.

Property is a great storage of value, and a great income asset to hold, but only if you rent it out.

Also, you don't know how a 400k house will look like in the future. That may be a one-bedroom studio for all we know.

If this is your only strategy, I'd rather you stay in a smaller home, and invest the difference to earn a higher expected rate of return.

You can even choose to invest your CPF OA if you don't end up using so much of it. Or transfer to SA for an additional 1.5% return.

If you stay in a modest home, in the future you might be able to buy a smaller flat and rent out the place you've been living in.

I'm not a huge fan of investment in stay in a property for future return, because prices are generally unpredictable, and it doesn't earn an income if you're staying in it.