If you have been actively following the real estate market in Singapore for the past 2 years, you would have remembered the hype that excites many Singapore private owners and real estate investors; the Enbloc Fever. Almost every month you would have heard of a private property development transacted a new record price from the Enbloc sales where real estate investor was looking out for properties that have enbloc potential. The hype carried on for about 2 years before it died down due to the new cooling measures that the government had implemented in July 2018. Mainly due to the incremental of additional buying stamp duty (ABSD), a higher Development Charge (DC) and restrictions on the maximum number of new units which adds to the cost of land acquisition and thus, slowing down the enbloc fever. Why did the government implement such ruling? It was noticeable that the enbloc fever has caused the prices of new launch properties to increase, due to the fact of higher and higher la
A minority of the homeowners have been putting up their aged Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats for sale for months (some, for years) and not getting it successfully sold, due to the general sentiment towards the old age of public housing flats. But with the recent changes in rules regarding the use of Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings and HDB loan restrictions when purchasing a flat, these sellers are now more hopeful of finding a buyer. OLD RULES REGARDING CPF USAGE AND HDB LOANS In the past, how much CPF you can use to pay for your residential property and HDB loan amount depends on the length of lease remaining on your property. OLD SCENARIO 1: If your property has a remaining lease of at least 60 years: CPF Usage: You can use your CPF up to the Valuation Limit (VL). HDB Loan: You can loan up to 90 per cent of the Loan-To-Value (LTV) Limit. OLD SCENARIO 2: If your property has a remaining lease of less than 60 years: CPF Usage: You can