2nd... if not the most important document I've ever endorse upon.

A man's home is his castle
- Sir Edward Coke (pronounced Cook), in The Institutes of the Laws of England, 1628.


Well the idea of a loft never really occur to me until Ms Tracy Ma pasted a photo of a massive unit that vaguely resembles the below, her question was "Do you like this house".

Immediately i fell in love with the idea of having a bedroom on top, with the massive high ceiling, well she simply said "Nope, I hate huge houses, it felt empty". #wtf

Since then I had a dream, a dream of owning my own studio apartment.

3 years on, while randomly crawling on the internet, I found this !

I registered my interest with an intent to find out how new home viewings are done and how condominiums are like these days but they were sold out, instead the agent introduce me to a location no one could resist, a freehold condo smack near Bukit Timah at Hillview

Well, nothing seems to tick anything I like except the above, a top floor penthouse with my own yard and pool for only S$1.7m. I couldn't see anything else but I ain't a kid with a silver spoon, probably not even a wooden 1, a plastic more like it so no. After few viewings with the price range upwards of S$700k to S$1m, I decided to look at something more realistic.

The Lotus Esprit Turbo @ only S$58,000. Truthfully I was going to attempt to buy this ride at Feb, 2016... until an email from the agent got my attention again

I thought, why not have another viewing just to see how lofts are these days. It's only recently that loft units are built, 3 - 5 years back, and they're usually the ones that are snapped up immediately. Text my agent and arranged for a viewing.

This time the Dad came along, our only worry is that it'd be near the red light district, my sole intention was to invest hence I've no qualms over that but to my surprise, it's on the other side of the area, far away from the "Lam Kui  Foong" of Singapore.

Immediate I fell in love with the showflat, it was spacious for a single bedroom unit, the bathroom was bigger then my parents' current, I have a kitchen, a dining area, a living room and a wardrobe area should I decide to partition it and a roomy balcony next to my living. The Master loft was adequate, nice size for sleeping and I really wanted to segregate my sleeping area from everything else. If there was anything I need to be anal about it'd be the total height of 3.8m, not the highest for lofts, 4.3m was the highest I've been.

What's most important was that Dad loved it, so did Mom, they rarely come into the same conclusion, my mom hated the limited space condominiums had, obviously due to Singapore's land-space constraint. I wanted an unobstructed view from my balcony to which they offered the tower facing the freeway but I wasn't too pleased till they assured us of the distance between the freeway to the house and the glass panels are double layered to soundproof the noise from the cars.

The carpark was 4 storeys below, 5th storey would be the 1st unit which would be susceptible to the noise from the pool and lack of privacy, hence i took floors 7 - 10 as my options. I was offered the 7th floor which I'm fairly ok, not best pleased but it's alright.

The moment of truth, I budgeted for a unit no more than S$600k, the list price for 1BR begins at S$5XX BUT the 1st quote came up to S$692k. I thought it'd be a goner, my dad went blank at the price, no doubt it's really at the "City's edge" 5 steps from the Central Business District by train, option of 3 major expressway and a bus-stop right outside the gate.

After giving much thought I gave up, not going to kill myself over an apartment, I've a freaking cozy home right now anyways, as we intended to leave, the agent told us to sit down and explain to her what's the issue, she knew that the 100k should not be an issue and she'd want to know how she could help. I decide to cut to the chase with the $$$ and told her I can only come out 135k for the downpayment and I'm short by 25k.

It's a small sum for the house 25k but I couldn't possibly cough out 25k within weeks right?? Later did I know that they could offer an extension of 4months, that changes everything, not only that, they manage to shave off a further 1% to bring the value to S$684k of which they are giving us a cash rebate of S$2,888 and the total price is S$681k

I'm a Finance person, I deal with millions and billions, but that's the bank's money, not mine, I've never dealt with this huge amount of money ever in my life, I couldn't think straight anymore and I was heavily relying on my parents now. Thankfully we had a "time-out" period where I could set things straight with my "major shareholders" and she decided to just go ahead. So BAM !!!!

I still cannot believe that I will be owning my own home fairly soon BUT I also have a 30year loan to finance, which hopefully I'd take 20years to settle, by then I'd be 2years shy of 50.

Happy? I truly am, proud? It ain't my money, 2/3 are loaned by le'mother. Couldn't have done anything without my parents, never knew I'd fumble at this stage in my life...

I'm truly blessed with the best parents I could ever have...

2020, I'll have a place call my own...