I recently moved to Sengkang. It was a choice determined by proximity to my nephew (for the weekday delivery of the little monster for my mum to look after with the rotan nearby), availability of a flat within a reasonable walking distance to the MRT (I hate taking feeder buses), how broke I'd be when I sold my soul to HDB, COV, HSBC and other acroymns you read about when people talk about flats, plus other factors.
Having been here a month and a half, I made some conclusions about why Sengkang sucks, or could suck for some.
Urban planners had put on their Utopia hat on when thinking about the transportation scheme here. They imagined brainwashed heartlanders walking in file to LRT stations, pleasantly smiling and hardly distressed by small platforms and closeness with each other, all fillng up small compact metal boxes headng towards the nexus of Sengkang, the all-hallowed MRT/Bus interchange, the heart of this suburb. But all this of course, doesn't quite pan out in real life. All these peak-hour people stuff themselves into small lego-land trains and fall out at the hub to get into bigger moving boxes. Thank God that it's just the Punggolians/Punggolites/Punggolers that board the NE trains down to the city before us Sengkangers/Sengkangites/Sengkangolians enter. So yes things are a little crowded.
The LRT system itself is kinda screwy. From the hub, the trains apparently can venture off in 2 directions in 2 loops around the estate and passengers have to board this confusion at one of two platforms. So there's a 1/8 chance of picking the optimal train. I use the term "apparently" because I can't sometimes figure the signage out. I pity the tourists.
Why couldn't they split the hub role? Sengkangers/Sengkangites/Sengkangolians don't always want to end up at one place. Why put the stress of populace and sweaty bodies in one place? It would have been smarter to spread the LRT network between Buangkok (Yes, the urban planners and SBS Transit of 'white elephant' fame forgot that Buangkok has people and it's also part of Sengkang) and Sengkang. Then the madness of platforms and directions would have been solved. Residents headed to the city would end up taking LRT trains to MRT stations closer to them, splitting the human traffic and the associated craziness in two directions. (Buangkok MRT station would have opened earlier too instead of languishing in Compass Point - Sengkang hub's dust.) It would be smart to invest in this change even now, as the HDB puts up more Sengkang BTOs.
There is only one pan-Sengkang feeder bus. The rest are trunk services that connect between the interchange and some other housing estate. So everyone generally has to pay extra (I think) to get to work and school. The feeder bus also doesn't really connect all the neighbourhoods because they're thinking the LRT does that job. It does but bus stops are far more in existence than LRT stations, walks are shorter to bus stops and people are lazy or don't want to sweat.
On the bright side, there are 3 express bus services to the city in the morning. I hope they make sense for those paying $3-5 for each daily ride. I hope the CTE morning grind doesn't mess things up.
Well that's the state of Sengkang transport. I mean the nomenclature sucks already (come on, Rivervale, Compassvale, Anchorvale and Fernvale with all the usual street types at the end is more than enough to confuse drivers without GPS) so let's just improve the dynamics.
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Flat Post 2 - Cash You Need To Start With
Here's what you need to figure out financially when you're buying a HDB resale flat as a single buyer.
Cost of flat: $X (usually in the few hundreds of thousands). Let's use $470,000.
Cash over valuation: $Y (in the tens of thousands). Let's use $30,000.
So one can't really haggle over the valuation price. Apparently isn't been calculated by certified professionals who have no additional incentive to determine how prices fluctuate. Hard to believe but hey, I am a buyer, so I complain.
If you're keen, put down the option fee. That's $1,000. This amount goes along with signing the Option To Purchase form whereby a deposit of maximum of $5,000 inclusive of the option fee has to be paid in cash. Ultimately, the deposit goes to part of paying $X.
Do keep in mind that if you engage a property agent to handle matters, that's 1% of the valuation price that has to be paid for services rendered. Agent fees, sigh. (One can go at it alone, like I did, save the few thousand for the kick ass TV or kitchen makeover)
Now, you'll need to engage a lawyer to settle the legal backend work that has to happen when one buys a property. The lawyer, well the legal assistant more likely, will also arrange matters between the seller's lawyers, the bank (if any) and the CPF folks. Legal fees can come out of one's CPF so no upfront cash required there.
The next cash whammie that'll hit a resale buyer is the stamp duty. No one really understands what this is for but the tax guys love racking it in. At this point, I googled and found this:
"Stamp duty is a tax on executed documents relating to properties or interest in properties and shares or interest in shares. Stamp duty is payable only on documents described in the First Schedule to the Stamp Duties Act (Cap 312). These documents include a lease, sale and purchase, gift or mortgage of property. It is not a tax on transactions. If the agreement is verbal and no document is executed (signed) for that agreement, then no stamp duty is payable. Liability arises once the document is executed. Hence, even if the transaction has been aborted, stamp duty is still payable on the document." Taken from IRAS website.
For property purchases, the rate is based on steps of $180,000 - 1% on the first 180k, 2% on the next, and 3% on the balance thereafter. So if your property's sale price (that's $X + $Y folks) is let's say $500,000, the stamp duty is $5400 (for the first $360k) + $(500,000 - $360,000) x 3% = $9,600.
Technically, this amount can come out of your CPF but apparently you can't make that transaction till the CPF management approves things, and that can't happen till your lawyer puts in the paperwork for the stamp duty. A bit of a chicken-and-egg situation there. So one pays cash first, then it's reimbursed after the amount is deducted from the CPF.
Somewhere along the way, there's a HDB application processing fee that's based ridiculously on the size of the flat purchased rather than the admin work being done. I paid $60.
If a bank loan is the desired means of mortgage payments, there's probably a processing fee for that too. I can't remember what I dished out but I think it's 0.1% of the loan amount.
Alrighty, here's the mandatory cash component deal when it comes to actually paying for the flat. The almighty HDB dictates the 80-20 rule: 20% of $X upfront and 80% can come from a loan. Out of the 20% - 5% must be in cold hard cash. 15% can come from one's CPF. So with a flat that costs $470K, the cash portion is $23,500. This amount includes the deposit amount, so that's a balance of $18,500.
To sum up, the cash you need ready upfront before you can even think of getting a resale flat bought at $500,000 is :
- agent fees $5,000
- option to purchase fee and deposit $5,000
- stamp duty $9,600
- 5% of valuation price less deposit $18,500
- cash over valuation, let's say $30,000 - that's what's averaging now for 4rm and larger flats
- processing fees - variable, around $500 perhaps
--> TOTAL - $68,600
Yikes eh. Especially if you're going at it alone. And that doesn't include the cost of renovation, furniture and appliances.
Given that the COV is close to 50% in the example, I am sure many will understand my wrath at property agents for asking for the sky, sellers thinking their crap flats deserve monetary exaltation and the gahmen for letting this madness go on.
Go get hitched, at least the burden is shared. And you might qualify for housing grants to offset costs too. United in debt, ever after.
Cost of flat: $X (usually in the few hundreds of thousands). Let's use $470,000.
Cash over valuation: $Y (in the tens of thousands). Let's use $30,000.
So one can't really haggle over the valuation price. Apparently isn't been calculated by certified professionals who have no additional incentive to determine how prices fluctuate. Hard to believe but hey, I am a buyer, so I complain.
If you're keen, put down the option fee. That's $1,000. This amount goes along with signing the Option To Purchase form whereby a deposit of maximum of $5,000 inclusive of the option fee has to be paid in cash. Ultimately, the deposit goes to part of paying $X.
Do keep in mind that if you engage a property agent to handle matters, that's 1% of the valuation price that has to be paid for services rendered. Agent fees, sigh. (One can go at it alone, like I did, save the few thousand for the kick ass TV or kitchen makeover)
Now, you'll need to engage a lawyer to settle the legal backend work that has to happen when one buys a property. The lawyer, well the legal assistant more likely, will also arrange matters between the seller's lawyers, the bank (if any) and the CPF folks. Legal fees can come out of one's CPF so no upfront cash required there.
The next cash whammie that'll hit a resale buyer is the stamp duty. No one really understands what this is for but the tax guys love racking it in. At this point, I googled and found this:
"Stamp duty is a tax on executed documents relating to properties or interest in properties and shares or interest in shares. Stamp duty is payable only on documents described in the First Schedule to the Stamp Duties Act (Cap 312). These documents include a lease, sale and purchase, gift or mortgage of property. It is not a tax on transactions. If the agreement is verbal and no document is executed (signed) for that agreement, then no stamp duty is payable. Liability arises once the document is executed. Hence, even if the transaction has been aborted, stamp duty is still payable on the document." Taken from IRAS website.
For property purchases, the rate is based on steps of $180,000 - 1% on the first 180k, 2% on the next, and 3% on the balance thereafter. So if your property's sale price (that's $X + $Y folks) is let's say $500,000, the stamp duty is $5400 (for the first $360k) + $(500,000 - $360,000) x 3% = $9,600.
Technically, this amount can come out of your CPF but apparently you can't make that transaction till the CPF management approves things, and that can't happen till your lawyer puts in the paperwork for the stamp duty. A bit of a chicken-and-egg situation there. So one pays cash first, then it's reimbursed after the amount is deducted from the CPF.
Somewhere along the way, there's a HDB application processing fee that's based ridiculously on the size of the flat purchased rather than the admin work being done. I paid $60.
If a bank loan is the desired means of mortgage payments, there's probably a processing fee for that too. I can't remember what I dished out but I think it's 0.1% of the loan amount.
Alrighty, here's the mandatory cash component deal when it comes to actually paying for the flat. The almighty HDB dictates the 80-20 rule: 20% of $X upfront and 80% can come from a loan. Out of the 20% - 5% must be in cold hard cash. 15% can come from one's CPF. So with a flat that costs $470K, the cash portion is $23,500. This amount includes the deposit amount, so that's a balance of $18,500.
To sum up, the cash you need ready upfront before you can even think of getting a resale flat bought at $500,000 is :
- agent fees $5,000
- option to purchase fee and deposit $5,000
- stamp duty $9,600
- 5% of valuation price less deposit $18,500
- cash over valuation, let's say $30,000 - that's what's averaging now for 4rm and larger flats
- processing fees - variable, around $500 perhaps
--> TOTAL - $68,600
Yikes eh. Especially if you're going at it alone. And that doesn't include the cost of renovation, furniture and appliances.
Given that the COV is close to 50% in the example, I am sure many will understand my wrath at property agents for asking for the sky, sellers thinking their crap flats deserve monetary exaltation and the gahmen for letting this madness go on.
Go get hitched, at least the burden is shared. And you might qualify for housing grants to offset costs too. United in debt, ever after.
Thursday, 6 October 2011
RIP Steve Jobs
I first got the news of Steve Job's passing in the lift on the way up to the office. It was about 845am. From conventional media - television. There is a 10inch screen embedded above the button panel at a rather uncomfortable height and on it plays Channel News Asia all day. The red text on the fixed white bar on the bottom of the screen announced the inevitable. He was 56, younger than my mum which freaked me out a little. But many of us knew that it had to happen sooner or later, Steve was looking awfully gaunt lately. Pancreatic cancer, goodness. It was a tough battle, and Steve won and lost.
Visionary is often used to describe this man. Perhaps he was just showing us what it meant to live by one's own prinicples. Undoubtedly his standards were high, and all of Apple's successes post kaledoscopic iMacs were jaw-droppingly game-changing. Ideas that worked, devices that looked beautiful and worked even more beautifully. Iconic stuff. Exacting standards, some painful, were set in place if one was to achieve glory under his watchful eye, I guess. He created the tech divide, the PC vs Mac eternal battle. And he had his army, legions faithful to this every word, loyal to the brand. If Mac is a religion, then Steve was Jesus. Or Buddha in black turtleneck and jeans.
We're all grateful in some form or other. I am typing this post on a Macbook. I own a iPod and had an iPhone. I don't think I have as many other electronic products from the same brand. Steve Jobs did more for the design and UX frame of thinking than perhaps anyone else.
Well, life goes on. We celebrate the man and his ideas and impact, and always will. Cheers.
Visionary is often used to describe this man. Perhaps he was just showing us what it meant to live by one's own prinicples. Undoubtedly his standards were high, and all of Apple's successes post kaledoscopic iMacs were jaw-droppingly game-changing. Ideas that worked, devices that looked beautiful and worked even more beautifully. Iconic stuff. Exacting standards, some painful, were set in place if one was to achieve glory under his watchful eye, I guess. He created the tech divide, the PC vs Mac eternal battle. And he had his army, legions faithful to this every word, loyal to the brand. If Mac is a religion, then Steve was Jesus. Or Buddha in black turtleneck and jeans.
We're all grateful in some form or other. I am typing this post on a Macbook. I own a iPod and had an iPhone. I don't think I have as many other electronic products from the same brand. Steve Jobs did more for the design and UX frame of thinking than perhaps anyone else.
Well, life goes on. We celebrate the man and his ideas and impact, and always will. Cheers.
Monday, 3 October 2011
Flat Post 1 - Intro
So I finally bought a flat.
It was a long road of searching and eventually committed to a 5 room flat in Sengkang. It's not perfect, no flat really is. This one checked a lot of boxes on my list - 3 bedrooms, 6 minutes' walk to the MRT, 5 bus stops from my nephew (My mum has to be daytime nanny, so close proximity was a consideration). All said and done it's sort of a rite of passage. Growing and getting into debt, like any other working class taxpayer. Admittedly, it still feels like a house, not yet a home. Too soon I guess, just a month since I moved in. To the day in fact.
There were quite a few ups and downs, well, one remembers the downs more, naturally. I'll give the lo-down on the how to get by without an agent and how to handle the damn finances in the next post. Now I'm coming to end of another Law & Order episode and then I intend to call it a night.
It was a long road of searching and eventually committed to a 5 room flat in Sengkang. It's not perfect, no flat really is. This one checked a lot of boxes on my list - 3 bedrooms, 6 minutes' walk to the MRT, 5 bus stops from my nephew (My mum has to be daytime nanny, so close proximity was a consideration). All said and done it's sort of a rite of passage. Growing and getting into debt, like any other working class taxpayer. Admittedly, it still feels like a house, not yet a home. Too soon I guess, just a month since I moved in. To the day in fact.
There were quite a few ups and downs, well, one remembers the downs more, naturally. I'll give the lo-down on the how to get by without an agent and how to handle the damn finances in the next post. Now I'm coming to end of another Law & Order episode and then I intend to call it a night.
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