Owning both HDB flat and condo: How much would one really need?

Most Singaporeans start out with buying a HDB as their first home, and hope to upgrade to a private condominium in the future. But what about owning both HDB flat and condo at the same time? How does that work out financially?

Factors to consider when owning both HDB flat and condo

Before you even think about buying a condominium while you currently own a HDB flat, you might want to consider these factors first:

• Fulfilling the Minimum Occupancy Period(MOP) – You cannot concurrently own a HDB and buy a private property during the first 5 years of your stay in the HDB flat you’ve bought.

For Singapore PR, there is no way to get around this. You’d need to dispose of your HDB flats within 6 months of buying the private property.

• ABSD – If you are a Singapore citizen, you’d incur a 12% Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) on your second residential purchase.

• TDSR – the Total Debt Servicing Ratio was introduced as part of the property cooling measures with the aim to prevent borrowers from being over-extended with their home loans. The current TDSR is 60 percent, which means you cannot use more than 60 percent of your gross monthly income to service your total loans. This includes car loans, home loans and even credit cards.

• Loan-to-value(LTV) ratio – for your first housing loan, you can get up to 80 percent LTV ratio with a bank loan and 90 percent for a HDB loan. But the LTV is drastically reduced when it comes to the second housing loan.

Since we are talking about getting a private property, a second housing loan with a bank will mean the maximum LTV ratio for your loan will be at 50 percent for up to 30 years tenure and till age 65 years old. Your minimum cash upfront will be 25 percent.

So if you are a Singapore Citizen looking to be owning both HDB flat and condo, your biggest challenge is likely to come from the financial side. Let us look at how much you’d exactly need:

Assuming Mr and Mrs Tan now owns a 4-room flat in Toa Payoh and have been living there for 7 years now. They bought the HDB flat for $500,000 and took on a 20-year loan tenure from the HDB.

Say the couple decides to purchase a two-bedroom condominium with a maximum budget of $1 million. How much would they need to fork out?

As you can see, the total amount needed to finance a second property while still paying off your first housing loan is quite a hefty sum. What’s more, you need to consider that you need to still set aside your CPF minimum retirement sum of at least $83,000 before you can use the excess CPF money you have in your Ordinary Account.

Therefore, unless you have plenty of spare cash on hand, buying a second property will definitely bite off a huge chunk from your savings. You may also want to clarify your objectives before buying the second property – are you looking to earn rental income from it? Will you be able to service the mortgage loan even when you can’t find a tenant?

On the other hand, the scenario will drastically change if one is able to finish servicing their first housing loan before the purchase of the second property.

Say Mr and Mrs Tan gave themselves more time or could pay off the rest of their HDB loan within 10 years. Buying the second property would then become much easier as illustrated with the table below:

Your upfront cost will be slashed by half if you are able to clear off your first housing loan first so that when you make your second purchase, it will be considered a “first” housing loan, enabling you to take up to 80 percent LTV again. If you have enough CPF to help you service the 15 percent downpayment, your upfront cost will be further reduced to just $142,500, a much more manageable sum.

Before purchasing a second property, it will be prudent to make an accurate assessment of your financial situation and how much loan you can take on. Remember to work within your budget and plan for contingencies so that you will not end up in a situation where you cannot afford your housing loans.