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our private property - rivertrees residences (25 fernvale close, #17-11 S797462)
Sunday, 23 March 2014
sometimes things just happened within some split second.
we actually bought our first private property, a 2bedrm condo at rivertree residences at fernvale close (nearest LRT is layar, and nearest mrt is sengkang) today at 23 March 2014!
just nice for our 7th monthsary of saying-yes-gift for each other!
even now, i have absolutely no idea how or who triggered it, but it just dawned on me that i should look for jasmine's hubby to be (matthew from propnex), whom is a property agent and gather some information on purchasing a place. almost immediately, we engaged his banker fren to check how much loan i (us) are able to loan. so i was told i can loan up to $620K, and if we combine, we can loan up to $1.1M.
after some advice from matthew, i realised that we shld try to own our individual property so that we can reap some returns in the future. this means that i should try to purchase a private, and by next year when darling turn 35, we will try to find a resale hdb. so at the same time, we did a check on hdb website, which somehow indicated darling is able to get $250K loan, and with her current $100K cpf, we should be able to source for a 3-room hdb flat.
so initially, my thought was to get a readily private apartment which i can shift in and save up my current rental cost. we had our first viewing at park residences @ kovan, which was a 1 bedrm of 355sqft with a price tag of $686K, #05-09. we were feeling so excited after the viewing although we reckon the fact that its too small of living space for us.
after which, we worked very hard in doing research, finding available flats for viewing, but as we do more and more research, we realised that new developments is so much cheaper and spacious than the readily ones. so the one that first caught our eyes was the glades @ tahan merah. guess the main reason was its was just a stone throw away from the train station (might be a pro or con due to the noise), which have a bigger living space of 452sqft (almost 100sqft bigger than the 1st view) and cost $670K (cheaper as well, but you will know why later).
however, i got my concern that the launch was on last year sep/oct, but the sale was not picking up even till now, and i am afraid that there might be even have balance units after it top, which will hinder the resale of the unit. most importantly, the unit number was a total turn-off #04-44.
so matthew was suggesting that we should go santorini @ tampines ave 10, and rivertrees showflat. and we decided to go and take a look since its not necessary a must to purchase.
first we headed to santorini, its a preview showflat, meaning the price had not been launch, and you are interested in getting a unit, you are required to fill in the EOI (express of interest) form and go for balloting. for santorini, it come in 4 floor plan for 1bedrm, 463sqft /527sqft, and the floor plan that we are interested in was the latter one, and since there is no launch price yet, but roughly from the developer the starting price for 1bedrm is $5xxK (should be the 463sqft), so with a budget of $650K, we believe we will get 527sqft with #05, #06 or #07 floor as the highest is #15. we filled up the EOI and issue a blank cheque for use in balloting (matthew did not submit straight-away as there is still a week to balloting)
next, we travelled to rivertrees residences. seriously this location was quite a turn-off, as we had been so used on travelling on the original mrt lines, and this project actually landed on a LRT. so with a open heart and open mind, we went into the showflat and listen on to the designated developer agent from hutton (Fendy). he introduced the facilities, the surrounding and the upcoming projects around this area and we went into the showflat room.
in fact, they only have a 2bedrm showflat, but the heart-throbbing part was the master bedroom. it contain a queen bed, and a bigger wardrobe (so far, all other viewing come with a two-door only), and some other living space in the room. we were told that for 1bedrm, the master bedroom is the same size as what we are seeing.
we asked the price for comparison.
1 bedrm, 506sqf, $641K, #19, waterbank condo water landscaping view
2 bedrm, 581sqft, $709K, #17, entrance view
we sat there for the longest time, we tried to weight all areas of pros and cons.
first, we eliminated santorini, reasons being they do not come with white goods (fridge, washer/dryer, microwave oven), the materials used for furnishing is not as good as rivertrees, both provide shuttle service to mrt station, although tampines is good for my current job location, but 4yrs down the road, i am not sure if i will ever still be in the same company. and both agents reckon that rivertrees will have a higher revenue yield in term of rent or resale due to the highly expanded workforce (aerospace and hospital) in this area.
and next, since we had decided on rivertrees, we had to decide on which unit to take up. the level of floor doesnt really matter since #17 and #19 are already quite high-floored, and to me, both view wasnt very bad and i dont think i will always stand there for a view. so what determine was the floor space and the price. $709K is a toll on our budget, but afterall, 2bedrm is really better than 1 bedrm, and i do not wanna comprise the fact that we might wanna stay in after 4 years. so if staying in, 2 bedrm will definitely be better for us. and we are also convinced by the higher reap of returns for 2 bedrm.
after many rounds of calculation, we finally made our decision!!! and ta-la! for the proud owners of rivertrees residences of 2 bedrm in 25 fernvale close, #17-11 S797462!
ps: thank you darling for the support, without the money from the joint account (approx.$52K), and without the sale of your remaining stocks and other saving contributions, we will not be able to make it for the 5% + 15% and stamp duty of 3% and lawyer fee.
Labels: condo, first-time, future, home, rivertrees
xoxo,
dear |
23:00
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