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If you have decided against engaging a real estate agent to buy/sell property, or are buying your first house, chances are you'll miss out on quite a few details. With the help of Marcus Chu, an ERA real estate agent with over 20 years of experience, we point out potential pitfalls DIY sellers/buyers need to be aware of as well as these useful must-know facts about selling and buying property.
1. Know what you can use your CPF for
The Public Housing Scheme (PHS) enables CPF members to use their CPF Ordinary Account savings to buy new or resale HDB flats. Buyers can use their CPF Ordinary Account (OA) savings to buy an HDB flat (new or resale) to:
- finance all or part of the purchase price;
- service monthly housing loan instalments taken to buy the HDB flat; and
- pay the stamp duty, legal fees and other related cost such as flat upgrading cost.
Nevertheless, you are not eligible if you are:
- buying an HDB flat with a remaining lease of less than 30 years; or
- buying an HDB flat with a remaining lease of less than 60 but at least 30 years and your age plus the remaining lease of the HDB flat is less than 80 years.
2. Know what grants you are eligible for
DIY buyers should check and fully utilise the various CPF Housing Grants for HDB flats catered to different categories of buyers, such as first-time applicants, second-time applicants, first-time and second-time couple applicants, non-citizen spouse and more.
3. Not everyone has to pay a resale levy
The resale levy amount is fixed based on the first subsidied property, but you only need to pay when you purchase a second subsidied property. It is applicable to buyers who:
- Dispose of their subsidised flats and then buy a second subsidised flat from HDB
- Dispose of their subsidised flats and then buy an EC from a developer where the land sale was launched on or after 9 December 2013, including those where tenders were not closed, e.g. Westwood Avenue, Canberra Drive and Anchorvale Crescent