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Our New House - House Hunting

After Kimchimon turned 1, I felt that maybe it was time for us to find a home of our own. My mother-in-law's place was great, very convenient with supermarket and the train station just right at our doorstep but this tiny human needed a bigger and more toddler friendly place. This post will be about how we got our own home.

Getting a house in Singapore is never easy nor is it cheap. We had some options available:
1) Build-To-Order Flats (which is not an option as it would take about 5 years to complete during the Covid period and i wanted to move out as soon as i can) 
2) Sale of Balance Flat - these are flats which were leftover or the previous owner had a change of mind during the last launch (the ratio for Chinese is always 0!)
3) Resale flat (the only option for us since it is readily available)

Before looking for a resale flat, I went to HDB's website to calculate the approximate cost of the house that we could afford and the type of subsidies we were eligible for (you can click here to find out more). We also had to register our "Intent to buy" in the HDB portal. Do note that everything calculated is just an estimate and always find a flat that fits your budget. After finding out our budget, we started our house hunting. 

In 2023, the HDB introduced the HDB flat Eligibility Letter, which provides a holistic understanding of your housing and financing options and help you plan your flat budget before you embark on your home buying journey. If you are a second-timer, it will also provide information on the resale levy/ premium that you will have to pay if you purchase another subsidised flat from HDB (information from the HDB website). 

We wanted it to be near to either of our parents' house, therefore i started looking at the houses near Buangkok, Seng Kang, Hougang and Ang Mo Kio. However, i realized that the prices near Buangkok and Ang Mo Kio were too costly and out of budget. The houses in Seng Kang have reasonable price and quite new but might not be convenient when bringing and fetching Kimchimon to and from Nanny's place. Therefore, we could only narrow our search in the Hougang area. 

I started to look out for houses on websites and we also went to view a few of them, together with Kimchimon. But we didn't like those. Kimchimon's Nanny helped us out too, she had a friend whose friend was a property agent. We contacted her and let her know our budget and conditions. We went for more house viewing until we came across a flat just next block to Nanny's. It was nicely renovated, bright and fits our budget.
 
(These pictures were taken after the previous owners moved out)

After viewing the flat and some discussion with Dillon, we had decided to go for it. Stay tuned to my next post on the procedures to buy the flat as well as applying for extension of stay.

Don't forget to share your house hunting experience with me in the comments below too.
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