HDB Purchase Chronicles - Actual expenditure of flat purchase upfront

This article is part of a series that shares my journey to becoming a homeowner for the first time. Eventually there will be more article(s) that not only covers the actual cost on purchase upfront as in this article, but also the process of purchasing resale flat using the HDB Resale Portal, the recurring cost and renovation cost.

In a few days' time, I will finally become a homeowner! This month sees the usage of most of my CPF-OA balance as well as the cash for down-payment. Whelp, it looks like I will not be adding much (if any) position to investments for quite some time as expenses and saving a larger sum for emergency funds takes precedence - for now.



In this post, I'll share my actual expenditure of purchasing my home and compare it to my expected numbers as depicted in my older post here.

The verdict?

• For the flat purchase price itself, I expected to use a bit less CPF and a bit more Cash. I'm pleased that I did not have to put down $500 more cash upfront in this aspect.
• For the additional cost, I also spent less than expected overall. While Legal fees costed less than expected (I think this has something to do with mixing up some legal fees regarding mortgage?), Stamp Fee, Title Search Fee costed more than expected unlike as advised with the calculation using HDB's resources. I did not expect payment for the property tax to cover from the day I take ownership until the end of the year (but it makes sense).

Other interesting things to note:

• When HDB and other resources mentioned CPF-OA will be zero-ed out for flat purchase, I had expected this to be taken literally, but it looks like there will be some small change (up to a few hundred?) aside from the sum meant for Loan Repayment that will start in the month of July. Note that you can set aside more of your CPF-OA by CPF Investment Scheme as well.

Interested in the other articles for the HDB Chronicles series? You can find it here!