(Part of “The Almost Complete Goondu’s Guide to Buying a HDB Flat in Singapore” series.)
Did you know that there are different HDB flat types? And within each flat type, there are varying models:
2 bedroom flat
Consists of 1 bedroom, kitchen, living room:
2 ‘I’ (Improved) 45 sqm/484sqft
2 ‘S’ (Standard) 41 sqm/441sqft (floor plans: 1)
3 bedroom flat
Consists of 2 bedrooms, kitchen, living room:
3 ‘A’ (Modified) 90sqm/969sqft
3 ‘NG’ (Modified) 83sqm/896sqft
3 ‘A’ 75sqm/807sqft
3 ‘NG’ (New Generation) 69sqm/743sqft (floor plans: 1)
(2 toilets, master bedroom with attached bathroom)
3 ‘I’ (Modified) 70sqm/750sqft
3 ‘S’ (Simplified) 65sqm/700sqft
3 ‘I’ (Improved) 60sqm/646sqft
(No attached bath, toilet and bath separated, no storeroom)
3 ‘STD’ (Standard) 54sqm/581sqft
(No attached bathroom/storeroom. Upgraded units have extra utility room or toilet)
4 bedroom flat
Consists of 3 bedrooms, kitchen, living room.
4 ‘A’ 105sqm/1130sqft
(2 bathrooms, master bedroom with attached toilet, storeroom) (floor plans: 1)
4 ‘NG’ (New Generation) 92sqm/990sqft (floor plans: 1)
4 ‘S’ (Simplified) 85sqm/914sqft (floor plans: 1)
(2 bathrooms, master bedroom with attached toilet, storeroom)
4 ‘I’ (Improved) 83sqm/893sqft
(toilet and bath separated, no storeroom)
4 ‘STD’ (Standard) 73sqm/786sqft
5 bedroom flat
Consists of 3 bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room, storeroom.
Master bedroom comes with attached bathroom.
5 ‘A’ 135sqm/1453sqft
5 ‘I’ 123sqm/1313 sqft (floor plans: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
5 ‘S’ 121sqm/1300sqft (floor plans: 1)
Executive flat
EA (Exec Apartment) 141sqm/1518sqft (single storey) (floor plans: 1)
EM (Exec Maisonette) 145sqm/1560sqft (double storey) (floor plans: 1)
(double story, 3 bedroom/bath upstairs, balcony+additional room)
MG (Multi-Generation) 165sqm/1776sqft
Miscellaneous
Miscell Flats (varies) – These are flats created by purchasing and joining 2 adjacent units. Such units are considered as one and have one address, utility meter and so on.
eg. a 3+3 is created by combining (2) 3-rm units and building a passageway through.
—–
Not all flat types exist in each estate, and a 4 ‘A’ layout in one estate might differ from another.
Also, floor area are estimates as newer flats are generally smaller, while upgrading of older flats would have added additional rooms/balcony/toilet.
Do you have a floorplan that you would like to contribute? Email us!
Interested in purchasing your floorplan for renovation purposes? You can buy it online from HDB for $5.
First posted on June 29th, 2008 on juzproperties.sg
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Tags: floor plan, goondu's guide, hdb, Housing
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I am single and above 36 yrs old, gross monthly salary is $2900 (take home pay around $2250) and monthly expenses average $2000.
My queries are :
01. Can I buy new flat if I decided to stay by myself ?
02. If I buy resale flat,
a. Is there any HDB grant that I can apply ?
b. If yes, is there any diff in grant if the resale flat to be purchased is near or not near to my parent ?
03. What is the estimated HDB loan if I buy a reslae flat ?
04. I have the interest to buy a resale flat near Ang Mo Kio HUB. Frankly speaking, is now really a good time to buy while the property is high ?
05. How would I know if a flat is going to on-block ?
06. Where can I buy HDB 3NG that cost less than $200k ?
Hi Al,
1) No you can’t buy a new flat. Resale only.
2)
a) Yes you can apply for the singles grant ($11k). If your parents do not own a flat, you can get the higher-tier singles grant ($20k) if you intend for your parents to live with you. Read this site for more details.
b) No. Living near parents provide no extra grants. Unless they don’t own a flat now, and you intend to stay with them, as mentioned above.
3) Apply for a HLE. It’s free. HDB will let you know exactly how much loan you are eligible for. Since your gross salary is $2900, u shld qualify for a HDB loan. All you need is 10% downpayment payable thru CPF, and cash for the Cash-over-valuation (COV) asked by the owner of the resale flat.
I’m guessing with your current pay, about $380 gets credited to your CPF Ordinary Account each month. You can use all of this money to service your loan. Based on that, the maximum loan you should take up is $90,000, 29 year loan. Any loan larger than that means you have to fork out cash for your flat. I understand you have $250 cash every month after deducting your monthly expenses.
If you intend to use that for your mortgage, then you can take up to $150k in loan. I don’t advise it though. Stick to using your CPF OA contributions to servicing your mortgage.
Either way, unless you have a lot of money in your CPF Ordinary Account, you might not be able to afford a 3 room flat. If that’s the case, you might want to consider a 2 room instead.
4) AMK 3NGs are all over $200k. As to whether it’s the right time to buy, it’s always the right time if you need a roof over your head. Nobody knows how prices will go in the future. HDB flat prices hasn’t dropped at all during this recession, when private housing prices have. But yet at the same time, it’s possible that with more new HDB flats being build now, and entering the market 8 years down the road, prices might ease. But can you wait 8 years for these new flats to enter the resale market?
5) You don’t. En blocs are not publicly announced, till it happens. However, some neighbourhoods like commonwealth already have 2 enblocs, so you can kinda guessed that sooner or later, all the flats there will be enbloc. But which flats are next? Your guess is as good as mine.
6) Currently, 3NG less than $200k, try woodlands, jurong west. Check out online property sites (try Nation Property to get a better idea of asking prices.
Hi Justina,
Not sure if this is the right place to post but I would like to ask you some questions. I am currently 22 years of age, my parents are both 60 and 54. we sold our 2 room flat about 3-4 years ago. they have loaned from HDB for twice already but recently i called and ask they said they only can see one of the loans in their system? I wonder if this could be a glitch in their system.
But anyway I have sent in the HLE and still waiting for the response i will probably call them tomorrow and check on the status.
The question i have is right now we are still waiting for our rental flat from HDB (Currently staying with sis), I have been thinking about buying a property perhaps 2 or 3 room. But repaying the loan seems tedious (Even more if its from bank), so i would really sincere if you could give me some advice as I am quite stucked on in this situation.
A note if u need: I have signed a letter of appointment with a company and will join them this end of the year drawing about 1.5 – 1.8k
Really appreciate some advice from u. thanks in advance
I am curious how they can have taken 2 loans, when the last flat was just a 2 room flat. Was their first flat a one room flat? Anyway, If the system says 1, then that’s all that matters. With their age, and having sold their flat more than 30 months ago, they might actually be eligible to purchase a studio apartment straight from HDB. Perhaps you could consider this? It’s essentially a “2-room flat”, but with a 30 year lease, meant for retirees. Because of the shorter lease, such flats are usually a lot cheaper. Alternatively, if you qualify for a rental flat, take it! It’s the cheapest form of housing you can ever get in Singapore.
I’m assuming you intend to buy the property with your parents? As long as you buy a 3 room or bigger, should be able to get another HDB loan. Although, it might not be wise, as if you intend to get married in future and get your own flat, removing your name from the lease would be complicated, and you might not be eligible for grants. Also, your parents would then have to pay you back whatever you paid for the flat, especially if CPF money is involved.
If you have to buy a resale flat now, the financial commitment would be tremendous. You would need a lot of cash as asking ‘cash over valuations’ now are high, not to mention, flat prices are very high too. 2-room flats which were asking for $180k just a year ago are now asking for $220k. I’m not sure if you’ll get a loan approval till you actually start work. Unless your parents have lots of CPF monies to spare, and unless you are NOT the only person paying the mortgage, I really wouldn’t get into this kind of commitment right now.
What does it mean by ‘Budget Flat’. I saw in the valuation report , 4 room Budget Flat.
Hi nang,
I honestly have no clue. It should be like 4A, 4std or something like that, not budget.
hi justina,
apologies if im at the wrong place asking the below questions.
any idea how many BTOs can i apply for at any one time? i.e. im thinking of applying for the dawson one this month.. and am also thinking of the hougang bto next month.
is this possible?
thanks.
Hi fel,
Believe HDB will only allow 1 BTO application at any one time. This is to give a fair chance to everybody looking to own a new flat. You can submit multiple BTO applications but the latest application will be counted.
Thanks
Actually that’s not true.
Recently we applied for 2 BTO and received 2 queue numbers. Later we recieved letters to select our flat for both, one on 1 June and the other on 24 June.
We went on 1 June for BTO-A, and were told that if we prefer BTO-B, we can choose to not select BTO-A now and wait to see if we still have a good selection for BTO-B on 24 June. Our application for A will not be cancelled unless we select a flat in BTO-B. And BTO-B will not be cancelled unless we select BTO-A. Which means we can actually choose between the both BTOs, just that we will have to take the risk that BTO-A flats are being taken up between 1 June to 24 June.
So it’s not quite as fair as it seems..
May i know if the 2 BTOs are of the same launch (month), of the same flat type?
thks
Hi,
What is the maximum age for the flat to declare as en bloc?
Thx
Only HDB would know! En bloc doesn’t necessary happen to all old HDB blocks.
We are PR in Sing fr Hong Kong, wish to buy a HDB flat(3NG, 2 bed rms & 1 sitting room, right?). Looking for flats nearby AMK hospital(AMK ave 9). What is the current market price? Please tell the amount of other charges that we need to pay. Thx. Raymond
Hi Cheung,
You can look at this HDB page to find out recent transaction prices. Last HDB sale at Ave 9 was $280k in Dec09.
You would need to pay stamp duty (1% of 1st $180k, 2% of next $180k, 3% for remainder), agent fees if you engage an agent (1%), Cash over Valuation (varies), 5%-20% down payment for bank loan (depending on whether your CPF can pay for 15%), and lawyer fees associated with your bank loan (if bank subsidized, can be up to $2k).
hello justina…
i’m planning to rent direct from hdb with my fiance but seems like the only option available is a one-room flat. i’m a bit worried about the size and layout. would it include a kitchen and bathroom in such a unit?
if i’m not wrong i’m currently listed as an occupier in my dad’s 5-room flat. would it affect my application?
thanks and have a good day!
Yes you can buy a resale flat (no new flat) under the Non-Citizen Spouse Scheme under certain conditions pertaining to your spouses’s social visa validity.