Selecting our BTO unit! + deferred income appeal 🫣

hello everybody!! today im gonna talk about us picking our hdb unit and what was the process like for us 🤪

as seen from the title, me and my bf had applied for a project under the june 2024 bto launch (this was our 3rd time applying) and we managed to get a really good queue number of 007x! which meant that we could get the unit we wanted 🤭🤭

BACKGROUND CONTEXT:

however, we knew that we were NOT eligible for the deferred income assessment (DIA) as during the point of our HFE, i was still schooling full-time in uni (but just graduated in aug) while my bf is working as he is an army regular, so, we were in this “grey area” of the eligibility conditions for the DIA.

initially, our HFE was only able to loan us a MAXIMUM of 220k++ which was a ridiculously low amount for the unit that we wanted (the purchase price is 700k++ 😭😭) but we know that it only took into account my bf’s income as i was still schooling. since our flat will take around 4-5 years later to complete, we know that by then, both of us would have a way higher income as compared to now so, we decided to appeal BEFORE our unit selection.

i asked my bf to write an email in to appeal for the DIA with a draft by using chatgpt to come up with a formal and professional email explaining our background and how i have graduated in august and am in the midst of job hunting, and how 5 years is a relatively long period for us to stabilise our income to get a higher loan (but of course, a lower or no housing grant). hdb did reply us after about a week but said due to the volume of emails they receive, it may take a while to get back to us on our case 😖. so, since we had already received our appointment date to select a unit, my bf suggested that we call hdb to get them to expedite our appeal. the 4th picture in the slide was the response we got 1 day after calling them and they said they would allow us to appeal! 🤩🤩 i have to say it was a huge sigh of relief as we were struggling about the shortfall we had to pay if we stuck to our current HFE 😟 and YES in hindsight, we did choose to take such an expensive project even though it was out of our financial capabilities but the location was just too good that we wanted to give it a try 🥸

then, the day came for us to select our unit! when it was our turn, we walked up to the hdb officer allocated to us and the moment we sat down, she did mention that since 1 of us was still schooling and the other is working, we could appeal and i believe she would have done it on the spot for us if we did not appeal earlier. but we explained that we had already done so and she had to confirm with her duty officer as the system prompted that ours was a special case since she said that most couples only choose to appeal for DIA AFTER unit selection, which we did not want to take the gamble and waste our option fee payment. because of that, our appointment only ended at 4pm even though it started at 3pm 🥹. but, she explained to us that our income will be assessed again 3 months BEFORE key collection and that if our combined income exceeds 9k, we would not get any housing grants. more importantly, we can loan up to 80% of the flat purchase (from oct 2024 launch onwards, its 75%) price, which is what we are aiming for so as to not fork up any shortfall cash during key collection.

all in all, we are so grateful and thankful to hdb for considering our appeal and exercising flexibility as i know that there are many other couples that face similar situations as us and are unsure of what to do. i would say just go for it and try to appeal because it may be successful!

if you guys still have any questions regarding this, do feel free to leave a comment or pm me and i will gladly answer to the best of my abilities 😁😁

but for now, time to save up money and start working (hr pls hire me), as well as look for some bto inspos to start planning early 🏠💭

edit: dont mind the typo in the 4th pics HAHAHAHAH

#RealTalk #hdbflat #hdb #bto #btoapplication