facebookWill my partner and I be able to afford a $700k condo with our situation? - Seedly

Anonymous

24 Sep 2019

Property

Will my partner and I be able to afford a $700k condo with our situation?

We are both fresh grads with $7.3k/mth joint salary (15 mth package) and $50k in CPF OA?

Discussion (13)

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Cedric Jamie Soh

24 Sep 2019

Director at Seniorcare.com.sg

Yes, this is within your affordable range.

Do include these for considerations

  1. Potential pay rise in the future
  2. potential pay drop? Especially if you guys decide to have a SAHM (stay at home mom or stay at home dad)
  3. increase in interest rate, that makes mortgage payment higher.

Do note that condo has

  1. a higher maintenance bill (MCST) compared to HDB (town council fees).
  2. You pay higher property taxes,
  3. higher parking fees (for some condos).
  4. You also don't enjoy fee rebates on town council fees during the yearly budget.

The general rule of the thumb (according to Dave Ramsey) is:

  1. Not more than 15 years of loan.

  2. Not more than 25% of your income to pay the mortgage loan.

Assuming a $525k loan with 2% interest, your monthly repayment of about $2k is about 27% of your combined income of $7.3k, so you should be fine. Just note the $175k downpayment and you will be fine.

If the downpayment (the major struggle to most people) is not an issue, surely you can afford at the initial stage. But I would Budget 30% cash plus CPF.

I just want to add one more point, that’s about the monthly loan Installment. 23% of your combined income will go to OA which will be used to pay the instalment, that’s only $1679. Hence, you need to top up the difference in cash of at least $400 to $1000 depending on the loan tenure and amount. On top of that, there is a monthly maintenance fee.
I kepo a bit to highlight this. If you forgo the chance to get the HDB flat first, it will be much harder for you both to get the housing grant offered by the government when getting HDB later (if you both are not SC or don’t intend to own any HDB later, then you can ignore this).
Good luck with your house hunting!

Colin Lim

17 Sep 2019

Financial Services Consultant at Colin Lim

700k property price,
25% downpayment
525k loan
25 years loan tenure
3% interest.
Your monthly repayment is $2489.61
First, your downpayment is a problem.

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I like Hariz's short and simple answer, but given that you are fresh grads, I'd also like to point o...

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