Went for my appointment with the HDB officer for signing of lease agreement on Thursday! It was just signing lots of documents, and making payments via CPF. Oh! Getting back our option fee of $2k too!
The next appointment will be for key collection, tentatively 3 years later, but most likely to be earlier than that, according to the officer. Excited!
I can forsee me being busy. Work, study, house and maybe marriage? I hope I can juggle all these together, or rather, I have to. Whatever it is, I am still excited!
Labels: bto, hdb, myownhome
Please note that this will be a long post, and will be posted till the stage I am currently at. I hope this post can help those who are applying for a flat and sharing my experience (positive and negative), so that you can avoid those mistake(s) that we made.
Ready to own a house with your partner? These are the process to be expected.
1) Go to the
HDB website to check what are the sales launch (or sales of balance flat) that you like.
- Every sales launch is approximately 3 months apart.
- Sales launch are new BTO projects, while sales of balance flat, like it's name, it is the left over,
which nobody wants, failed the first appointment stage, fail to turn up, decided to drop the chance
and so on. Note that it is not necessary that the balance of flat is not a good flat; not always the
case. Now, this is the deciding factor between new sales launch or balance flat. The price of the
balance flat will be MORE THAN new BTO price.
- Take note that there are two types of flat, standard and premium.
Standard means an empty flat and it is mostly cemented flat, only main door, main gate, toilet
flooring and kitchen and toilet wall tiles are provided. Given that it is empty, you can renovate
your house according to your preference. Location to nearest amenities and transport might be
slightly further than Premium flats.
Premium means everything are given, nice or not, you have to accept it, otherwise you can spend
money to hack them away, and do up according to your preference. But since everything is given,
the price is definitely more than Standard flats.
2) After you and your partner had eyed on the project, you have to wait for the official launch.
Usually it will be end of the month, and the application will accepted till the first of the next month
(they will state). When it is launched, select 'book a flat', and follow the instructions accordingly.
Upon submission of application, you will have to pay $10 by nets (if you apply at HDB itself) or
credit/ debit card (if online), and it is NON-REFUNDABLE. And be sure that at least either you or
your partner worked at least one year continuously in order to be eligible for AHG and/ or SHG.
Read
this and
this.
3) Before the launch of the next sale, you will receive the outcome of your ballot, usually mid of the
month. Application successful? You will receive a thick booklet or notification if you had chose
to be environmental friendly. Make sure you apply for HLE (for housing loan) before you go for
your first appointment. There is bank loan available, but I am sorry that I have no idea what is the
procedure. Thus will not advise.
LESSON #1:
Being environmental friendly is good, but not here. You will need the layout and plans of the project with you all the time. I chose to be environmental friendly, and end up, boyfriend had to print out the details, so we are not even environmental friendly. Worst, we wasted even more paper. So, DON'T be environmentally friendly! (for this case only)
Continuing, if your application fail, you can try the upcoming launch, or wait till you saw another
one you like. But, if your queue number exceed the number of flats, here is a valuable lesson I had
learnt.
LESSON #2:
Be patience, and WAIT. There is still a chance for you to get your flat, even though there might not be many to choose from when it is your turn. Unless the new launch caught your eye, then go ahead. If I had known, I would not had wasted $30 on trying my luck, and would probably own a house one year earlier. ):
4) It is your first appointment! Nervous? Excited? When you are at this stage,
CONGRATULATIONS! You are a step closer to having your own home!
Here is to what to expect:
- Don't be late! You will have to wait another (approx.) 30mins to see the officer if that happens.
- Get ready the required documents. Read
here.
- When you meet the officer, he/ she will brief you and confirm your documents, making sure that
you both are clear that you are in together and have both of you to sign a few documents.
- You will have to get ready your nets or cash for Option Fee. This amount will be refunded during
the 2nd appointment.
+ 2 room: $500
+ 3 room: $1000
+ 4 room and 5 room: $2000
5) Approximately 4 weeks later you will receive the outcome of AHG and SHG if you applied.
6) Approximately 3 weeks after the grant approval, you will be asked to go down to HDB for 2nd
appointment.
7) The 2nd appointment. You will be paying a lot of money, for downpayment, stamp fee, blah blah
blah. But don't worry, all are payable via CPF. Usually no cash will be involve, provided you have
enough CPF monies at this stage.
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Now, a brief story about the process of getting the flat.
Just like any couples in Singapore, maybe not all, but majority, boyfriend and I decided try our luck in the HDB BTO flats, before entering the marriage stage. We didn't have any luck when my ideal BTO was at Punggol. Our number always exceed the number of flats, which we could had got it if I know that I can wait.
On our 4th try, we finally succeed in getting a better queue number, half of the total number of flat. My ideal location was Punggol, but oh well, it will be a super long story on why we end up getting one at Admiralty, so I am going to skip that part.
Our first appointment falls on the romantic Valentine's Day, 14th February. We checked the HDB website to see which units are still available for selection before and on the day itself (click
here if you need the link). We were disappointed that our ideal units were taken up by the time we were to select, but we managed to got one that we are satisfied with. We did not opt in for the Optional scheme which are the tiles and doors.
Being a kiasu self, and excited about getting my own house, I am constantly checking my portal to see if the grant is approved and when I have to go for my 2nd appointment, the signing lease of agreement session. As the stated time frame above, my appointment is on end April! Looking forward. I thought I should share how long was the waiting time between the appointments, because I can't find any in the internet world. Anyway, after this appointment, it will be the waiting time for the collection of key. Oh my, I don't know if I can sit still waiting for that day to come.
This is all I have for today. May the part 2 be posted soon.. haha. Maybe it will be the post on the progress of the flat, or collection of key.
Till then.
Labels: bto, hdb, myownhome
I can't wait for Jan to be over! I can't believe that the Valentine's day of this year's will be such a meaningful one! As of to what it is, I shall reveal it when everything are confirmed! I am so happy to receive the news! May 2014 be always so pleasantly surprising, happy and great one!
Till then...
"OH MY GAWDDDD!!!!", is my first reaction upon seeing the email boyfriend sent me. I almost screamed in the train, but luckily I did not embarrassed myself, only mouthing it out.
I am so excited of the upcoming things to do now! That is motivation! I now hope that January will fly!
Till then...
Year 2013 is finally coming to an end! 30 more days to 2014! And yes! I am completing my one year bond too!
Coming to a year in my current workplace, I appreciate how the school managed the workload. After experiencing the torment for 2 years, I know I will not leave this current workplace at least yet.
2013 is a year filled with all elements, I am thankful that I am still so much alive.
Now with 2013 ending, even though I always said that I will never study again, I suddenly had the urge to study.
I don't know if it is the age, or the work, or the thirst for more knowledge, or the desire to put on the motar board, or the desire to make my parents feeling proud of me that I am a degree holder, I just had the urge and felt a sense of urgency to get that piece of paper.
But, I guess I will wait till the time when I am settled down, before fulfilling my wishes. Hopefully by 2016 I can say that I am a degree holder?
I know it is not the end of the year, but I am already writing as though it is. That is becos, I don't even know if I will blog again on the last day of December! ><
Oh! Before I end this post, NYPCO had the Kattack III preformance on 24th Nov! It was the last Kattack, and I am glad that I am able to perform in the last one, because I was not able to perform on stage with my friends for the first two performances. For this show, the theatre was seated full of audience once again! The gallery seats were even opened for sale! Up till now I am so excited. I can't wait for the videos to be out!! (: I love the feel on stage esp with the ones whom had practised and prepared so much for just that 1.5hrs of show.
Till then...
I haven't been blogging, and yes, I almost forgot the v existence of my blog. Well, work had been hectic recently, because the concert season is here. Dance steps, costume, hair-do were finalised at last, the full dress rehearsal was done too!
I went for a trip with boyfriend last month, but haven't got the mood to blog, but I think I will leave that for another post.
I have two wedding dinners this month. One of it is my cousin's, and the other is boyfriend's sis. Congrats to both of them! I love weddings, it is such a joyous event!
Wedding is one of the event when we all dress up. Especially the putting on make up part.
Here comes the bride and groom, all the best to them in their marriage!
I did not realize that I have quite a big family. I overhead my cousin commenting that the last time we had a family portrait was 25 years ago, when she was 14 years old! Now in this picture there are 3 generations of the Ho's family.
The second wedding I went to was boyfriend's sister's.
Her wedding is pretty interactive, and I liked it. I like how the venue was decorated too.
May the bride and groom be blissful and loving in their marriage!
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NYPCO held their first ever Dinner and Dance event. Of course, as an alumnus, I had to give my support. The theme for the event is Retro. I am so lucky to managed to get a dress that can pass of as retro while traveling in Ho Chi Minh. The event was a great catch up session with those alumnus whom I seldom see them.
The event is well organized. Love how the emcees keep the event upbeat.
Last but not least, I shall end the post with a photo of me and boyfriend taken at the photo booth at his sister's wedding.
Till then..
