Saturday, June 22, 2013

What's the difference between Private Condos & Executive Condos?


What's the difference between Private Condos & Executive Condos?






Each person who wants to buy the condo, first and the foremost thing he does, is look at the list of cheap condos in Singapore or the ones that gives you interesting view like Sky Miltonia, which is one of those condos that offers a breathtaking panoramic view of the Orchid country club golf course and lower Seletar reservoir. But if you plan and focus only on the private and the executive ones, there are certain points you have to keep in mind.







If we talk about the executives and the private condominiums, there are 3 differences between them, which are based upon;

If we talk about the executives and the private condominiums, there are 3 differences between them, which are based upon;
  • The restrictions on ownership
  • Housing grant for directive apartments
  • Price level 
The main and the most important dissimilarity is the ownership restriction. Like in HDB (Housing and Development Board) one has to fulfill for the first 5 years of Minimum Occupation Period (MOP), and in ECs (Executive Condominium) owners are not allowed to sell their ECs until the same procedure is followed. After 5 years, ECs are allowed to sell to the Singapore citizens or to the Singapore permanent residents. Then after 10 years of the ownership, condominium will receive a ‘privatized' status and further can be sold to the foreigners.
The logic behind the restriction is that ECs are indulged with home buyers, which belong to the ‘sandwich' group. Sandwich group is for those who are not qualified for new HDB flats and are not able to bear with the high prices of the personal property. Due to this restriction, ECs are unfavorable as compared to the personal properties and cannot be sold in accord with the market conditions. 







If the Departmental Condos are eligible then they get high on CPF housing grant and this is not in favor of separate condo buyers. CPF is a housing subsidy, which is provided by the Government to benefit the buyers who are qualified, in buying the executive co-op whose prices are completely dependent on the gross monthly household income of the buyer's family. Thehousing grant address to the ones who are young professional couples or first time buyers who have more CPF then the cash. Directorial housing has the option of Cash over valuation (COV) to resale HDB sellers.
Ownership limitation and ambitious customers,Directive co-ops are priced 20-25% lower than thenon-public co-ops. There are built-in price controls which make the non-public housing bit expensive than the administrative housing. Executive housing also has more facilities as compared to the non-public ones but is restricted to 99-year leasehold rather than a freehold. Maintenance fee includes the car park space with no additional parking fees for administrative co-ops which is entitled to one car park space and there is no custom or tax for the second timers.
Administrative housing benefits also depend on your personal property investment portfolio and risk appetite, this is possible only if you buy for the personal stay and start your property investment in few years when your income is on higher scale. By this, you will not be affected by the MOC regardless of the market conditions.