♥

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