Buying a condominium

Powder, what I do is try to get to the office early like 8am to 8.30am (9am is the worse time to be in Ubi, what more with Comfort Driving Centre's learner cars pouring into Ubi during that time) and leave the office after 6.30pm. Not too bad.

SM, KPE/PIE exit is shorter by 3-4km but the traffic along Paya Lebar is much worse, the wait into Ubi is even longer unless I want to behave bad by cutting queues.

Maybe I'll write to the forum page and urge the driving centre not to use Ubi as their training ground haha
 


ya, exactly why i will not work there... it's an absolute nitemare... cos with the heavy vehicles n the learner drivers... the green arrow for turning only let's a few cars go before it's red again. i have zero patience for such places...

actually Ubi is not a good place for the centre, but hard to find a replacement.
 
I don't know.. I realized the paya lebar has been widened.. my impression is that the road conditions has improved..

If for me, I would definitely cut in last minute - it will save valuable time.. but that is me.. don't learn.
 
i do it more gentlemanly... if i decide to cut, then there MUST be a safe opening then will cut... means i take advantage of other pple's lapse. if no opening then i won't do it and head to the next road... get punished for trying. hehe
 
Cutting still okie lah. I hate long distance hard brakers. This morning nearly kenna one... big gap in front of him about 4 - 5 cars distance he slammed his brake hard knn... I was filtering out behind him and there was a bus close on my left... close shave. Hate such drivers.
 
actually i would like to venture abit further into HDBs & Traffic... but what i say may be politically-incorrect and it might be offending to some... yet it's something that has been true in my observation.
 
Normally I am very aggressive when I am alone.. with passengers, I normally give in more..

But I guess it boils down to our planning.. normally I give myself enough time so I don't necessary need to cut queue too much except when in emergency.

But sometimes it is quite stupid because the turning lane can take 2 cars but there is only a lane for turning..
 
Guess with the circle line up, it will really help in the traffic issue....

So did anyone go queue up for Optima @ Tanah Merah??
 
Yeah... actually traffic plays a role also in choosing a place. Try staying along braddell road. The jam during peak period arnd the CTE express way area starts for you before you even exited from the carpark.
 
and that was probably the reason why the government shifted the turf club to Kranji.. ha ha.. many ministers, including the then Prime Minister was staying in Bukit timah..

they must be cursing whenever it was sat/sun and especially on racing weekends.
 
sm - Or U pay someone to Q for U... Hehehe...

Was looking at News last weekend.. it's really crazy to see people queueing and balloting for Condo.. when interviewed, those aunties replied that juz an investment so as to collect Rental when they grow old.....

It's "Tou Ji" rather than "Tou Zi"....
 
ai yo, I was about to ask if anyone knows there will be a launch near Braddell MRT, looks like not a good place liao.

Any good launch worth visiting recently?
 
iris,

the rental market is not good to begin with... so when pple tell u investment, what investment will it be If your rental yield is 3%, and u're paying 2.45% to the bank? it's a horrible investment...

my D9 property just renewed at 3.5% (with interest rate 1.5%), it's my D3 HDB tat's giving me 10.5% (fully paid up)... most pple who got very good rental yields will be renewing in the next 6-10mths at much lower yields...

1 thing pple fail to realise is that when the rental market went up, pple shifted to suburban... which gave a lift to the suburban rental market. But with so many pple sent back, the rental market in D9/10 has come off quite abit... and the pple in suburban are SHIFTING BACK to central areas... that means your suburban will head back down.

u know how much is suburban rental before that market tightened? it's in the 2k region... so when it goes back down, what happens to the HDB rentals? sometimes just link things logically... at 2.8k, u can get to stay at The Sail studio apartment overlooking shenton way... 3.5k gets u the Spore FLyer spectacular view... what would suburban get u?

waht investment is there?? i seldom see aunties getting rich with savvy investments... only tai tais... but i do see aunties getting conned with magic stones and useless wafer chips.
 
Powder - That will go back to what U have mentioned earlier... People are juz following blindly....

Those uncles & aunties...... Aiyoyo... chum ahhh...

That's why I said "It's "Tou Ji" rather than "Tou Zi"....",,,,,, *deep sigh*.............
 
Aiyo, people don't even know how to calculate.. talk about rental for investments? a bit siao..

Don't listen to all the hype lah..
 
I was at ascentia.. the agent was telling me 2 bed room damn good rental yield.. I ask him how much it can fetch.. he says nearby metropolitan is 4.5K.. Assuming he is right.

I said.. I invest 1.2M and I got 4.5K a month.. what can I cover?

I have a 700K apartment (and fully paid liao) in the west fetching 3.5K a month. It would be crazy for me to sell the apartment for 700K, take 500k loan and then increase my rental by 1K a month?

Then he shut-up lor..
 
hey when u went down? i have alot of comments on that place... was quoted 2.5mil-4.5mil for the units i would have interest in... i dun know how to react to be honest. i dun know how the agent can tell me how good the place would be... becos i can buy a pretty good unit in orchard + FH, or buy sentosa to be next to the sea, instead of a view of the sea.

this rental yield is based on the highest in their Loose knowledge, not the average... and pple dun normally verify. honestly, if someone can pay 4.5k for metropolitan (unless 4rm), then he isn't really in the market.
 
Rental returns from private housing is really poor. The investment gain is really from the valuation appreciation.

Look at the HDB rental, its around 2k. You are probably gaining 1-2% monthly from the rental. In 5 - 8 yrs, you get back the full capital of the property. Comparing it with condos, not many will pay more than 4-5k. But u probably paid over a million for it. That's less than 0.5%! Not to mention, maintenance costs are more for private.
 
iris,

better for me to say that the soft spot is easy to hit. i definitely can be wrong as well and maybe i'm the one to lose out.

my very very Personal view (unverified/unsupported) is that the banks knows that the masses have excess liquidity in the banks and the developers somehow got wind of the same info... so the current launches are a 'concerted effort' to lock-in the money of the masses for banks to get a fixed amount of returns, and yet provide the developers with injection of funds. there's other reasons tat sorta leads me to this thought of cos, but some things better left unsaid when a generic advice should suffice.
 
I siao siao, a I was driving around.. sometimes I see got condo being launched, I will just drop by..

I have a little feeling for ascentia because the place used to be HDB and my in-laws stayed there for many years - I stayed overnight some times.. and my eldest daughter grew up there..

But crazy.. on the same piece of land.. the 3 room HDB (2 bed room) when it was acquired by govt it was only compensated 200k and now it is 1.2M for the same size ..
 
hehe too bad our family area is now known as Forfar Heights over at strathmore... no condo but the 5rm HDBs are 700k+

Ascentia is nice for the concept and would definitely sell for much higher if it was at a less populated area, perhaps better off where tanglin regency is sitting, mrt too close also ght not be a good thing.

to me profile is very impt, the way i see it, the mass will buy the 2rms to rent out, but come back and use the facilities with frens/family in tow... and tat place will be like a mini-entertainment centre. for a private person who dun like crowds... i dun see the value in the 10 theme parks... and i think given the sporean behaviour, it might be a management nitemare... but that's my personal take.
 
I was wondering, there are quite a bit of 2 rooms units.. got so many people wanting to rent 2 rooms?

The 3 rooms layout is better - especially the master bedroom is the biggest - even bigger than the 4 bedroom master bedroom.

I also don't like MRT at the door-step.. too near means too noisy and too many people

Actually I grew up in Prince Charles Square on the piece of land that is next Crescent Girls school. the area has a lot of childhood memories for me and I always want to get a property near there when I am retiring.. The whole area was actually a rubber plantation / forested arefs in those days.. Then they built a market, erected some HDBs - these were torn down many years ago. The post office is still there though..
 
I'm not familiar with Seng Kang. I reckied and my hubby says its nearer too. But question is where should I look for since I would be taking public transport and my hubby driving. The flats all look the same to me and I always get lost when I'm in Seng Kang....

How is the route like if we stay in Seng Kang, my hubby drive (if we have kids in future) bb to drop off at my mum's place then go to work in Woodlands? I probably can get tap on my company transport but was wondering if I wanna go to my parents' hse myself using public transport....
 
sm,

the 2room n smaller units more for the single expatriates, but the supply definitely quite ample from wat i am seeing...

wah rubber plantation... didn't know tat man! i only remember it being some low level buildings when i learnt my driving there nong nong ago...
 
powder,

Seriously if I buy for rental, I would take 3 room.. more flexible.. but at that price if 1.7M there are much better choices ..

Well, not actually rubber plantation but there are rubber trees there.. yes.. low rise - up to 3 storeys .. I was borned there and stayed there till my primary school.

I remember catching spiders and also getting the rubber (sticky stuff) to put on stick to catch lizards.. the lizards would stick to the rubber.
 
hi sm,

depends on your target tenants... one thing i must say, sporeans are willing to splurge without homework... u see it for cars, now u see it for houses. some of the info are so backdated that u just need to be logical to know it's not gonna work... in the past the smaller units does give u decent percentage rental yield, but now it's not even viable. the number of small units is ridiculous and i'm pretty sure supply will exceed demand...

by the time i was in tat area, i believe the trees are gone...
 
Hi guys.....any views if the flat is near a Chinese temple? Not the temples that housed urns but normal temple lor.

Level 4 and looking across the roof at the back of the temple. Kitchen and 3 BRs windows all face this direction.

Well, heard a lot of hearsays lah... like the "unexplained"... :p But also mentioned that the price will be affected by this factor oso if we wanna sell later.
 
Okie. Fengshui view as what I heard. Applicable to ppl who are pang tang. Units near places of worship generally might be a consideration to the prices because it's believed that wandering souls goes to these places to listen to prayers or chanting sessions.

After the session, they no place to go and might just come to your place to jalan jalan. Ideally when you get a unit, avoid one that come with direct view from places of worship. Also avoid cross junctions unless you are doing business.

Well on the other note, some ppl might like to stay near to places of worship. Subjective to what kind of buyers you encounter lor. Generally above was the reason I heard of to avoid units near to temple, church and mosques etc.
 
Actually gonna make appt to ask our Master cuz tat time when we asked, she just asked us to get the main door facing rite. So long the main door facing rite is ok liao.

But now heard this hor, I like dunno how. And the main door facing is a little shifted but tink we can "correct" this by building the door a little slant.

Anyway, haiz..... so there is this hearsay lah... We have a dog....so if my dog howls away at nite then hmmm..... :p
 
My 6 year old nephew followed me to the 2nd viewing yesterday leh. He ok leh... I asked him afterwards what his tots are if we buy this flat and he said ok...haha.....

Maybr I shd bring my dog there.....but its Malay family leh so not convenient oso....haiyo.... really headache leh looking for flat....
 
honestly if u're buying a house, particularly a HDB which offers u several available units... Why should u even consider This one, and end up having to do this do that ask this ask that?

Stick to the criteria... especially since what u're looking for is not Rare... there's plenty, u should not have a hard time narrowing.

end of the day, the thing that's making u look at places Outside your criteria - are normally due to price... but if u look at it, wat's the extra 20-50k? over 30yrs u're talking very marginal... i dun think it's more than $50 per month.
 
just remember that watever house u like... or dun like... a fresh coat of paint Does wonders! and tat cost u like 1k...

when looking at houses, u need imagination... u also want Minimal built-in furniture... what's most crucial is Unit and locations. everything else Inside can be changed... just abit of money here n there...
 
Hi guys....we just settled on the flat.... right now I'm feeling sooooooo daze.... haha.... this is the 1st time buying a resale so I'm feeling kinda blur right now.

I bought the unit in Kathib. Not too far if I wanna go into town and its bout 10 mins walk to MRT.

Powder....what you said is exactly like my hubby. He also mentioned that if we really like the flat, and the location ok, its ok we pay a little higher. Divide over 30 years, its like dunno how many peanuts per month.

He said to look at the whole picture and not agonize over the small digits.... (well....he said I cannot do biz....haha).

I'm still a little daze now....our agent is now on his way to our hse to settle the payment.
 
tat was pretty fast! khatib mrt sounds pretty good, being lazy i much prefer those at blk 828 area... it's where i used to hang out in my fren's place... lotsa nitetime food and pretty convenient, kinda a far cry from the initial areas u looking but it's not really tat far off.
 
We have been hse-hunting since May I think and I think we have looked over 100 hses liao....

Yup, we didn't really choose Kathib initially but looking at the prices in AMK, Bishan and TPY, Kathib looks ok liao. And we won't be stuck in Yishun traffic to get to Sembawang.

Actually....I'm still in a daze now.... hehe....
 
Yep khatib mrt station there quite a few 24 hours kopitiam... That's where I buy my supper too returning home late haha We might just bump into each other at the ntuc there :P
 
Hehe... probably... I prefer Chong Pang there though for food....there got Chong Pang Nasi Lemak.....yum yum....and the char kway tiao in the hawker centre there.

I'm so beaten up now, just got back from event. Plus sick some more....I probably will drag myself home later.....
 
good... good... as long as it's a good Purchasing choice to you and hubby...
can understand the momentary daze

i miss Chong Pang Nasi... haven't been there for ages.
 
Actually I prefer the bee hoon with their veggie curry. Better than the rice haha.

Khatib is quite acessible. if driving abt 15 - 20 mins only to Bishan. Either straight down from lentor all the way via amk ave or up the CTE and exit amk ave 1.

Only thing is to hope that no ka you drivers kenna accident on lentor during peak hours. Cos that road only 3 lanes. 1 bus lane and 2 normal lanes.

Last week we experienced 4 cars chain collided directly in front of us across both normal lanes. Then whole place jammed up like mad. We were lucky to be just behind the incident and got pass it.

Another alternative route to head down from khatib apart from lentor will be sembawang road. Though abit more detouring required but traffic on that route is generally smooth.
 
i'm getting kinda irritated looking at the Housing Ads... i think really got alot of dumb pple around who buy property and try to sell higher to make money... the dumb thing is - the developer selling cheaper than them, and better units!

do pple even understand the whole concept of flipping?

do agents realise advertising overpriced property makes them look stupid?

it's like a whole bunch of pple selling the McDonald's Value meal at $8 while standing outside MacDonald's...

we seriously need smarter pple. no wonder property so hot, Dumb pple buying to sell at higher prices when the property not even sold-out yet... Walau!

ok ok, i think it'll be sad to see pple lose money on properties, but on days like this, i dun know how to be sympathetic...
 


brought the dog for grooming on Fri evening, jus beside that Chong Pang stall...
at the same time, see see look look at their spread... didn't buy, cos doesn't look as delicious liao... haha.
blardy hell, the small lane cramped with cars as usual.
 
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