Our First Flat Application



In my previous post, I mentioned that by August 2014, I would have worked continuously for 12 months and would therefore be eligible for grants in our application for a flat. Therefore, as soon as there was a launch, my boyfriend, Sunshine and I tried to apply for a flat. At that point, the BTO launches were all estimated to be completed in four to five years that is, in 2019 and 2020! My life plan was to get married by 26 years old or 27 years old and have my first child when I am 28 years old. Sunshine wanted to marry early as well and a flat completed in 2019 is too late for him too.

Hence, instead of applying for a BTO this time round, we discussed and eventually tried for a Sale of Balance Flat (SOBF). A SOBF launch comprises of all the unsold or returned flats from previous BTOs or repossessed flats by HDB. As compared to BTOs, flats offered in SOBFs are generally not as desirable (as the more desirable units would have been chosen during the BTO launches), more expensive but most importantly for us, usually completed or going to be completed.

We had wanted a flat in Sengkang when we first thought of applying for a flat together and were looking at a 4 room flat: A 3 room flat would be too small yet a 5 room flat would mean that we do not qualify for grants already! Therefore, for our first flat application, we applied for a 4 room flat in Sengkang after discussion. There were 112 flats available and we hoped to get a flat in either Fernvale Riverwalk or Compassvale Cape.

Long story short, we got a ballot number of 192 out of 112 available flats when the results were released in February 2015 and we were invited to select a unit on 27th May 2015. Ever since then, I went into frantic, obsessive mode. I would login to HDB webpage every single day and even every single available moment just to check the queue progress and whether my choice units were taken up even though I knew our chances of getting a unit were very slim. Indeed, on the day of our flat selection, there were less than three (if I remember correctly) units available. By the time it was our turn, we were left with one unit in Compassvale Cape on the third storey, facing the multi-storey carpark. We did not take it but a few seconds later, we overheard that a couple just after us, in another cubicle, took that unit. I hope they felt happy and lucky to be able to take that last unit. 🙂


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Rainbow

A novice baker =)

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