Perhaps some of u readers out there may need to sign the statutory declaration of unemployment just like ourselves.
We were initially very worried about it as we had thought it would involved going to the lawyer’s and paying fees etc just to get this document signed. However, you can actually do it on the spot when u are choosing your flat! And it is free of charge too.
Our Journey to a HDB 
March 1, 2011 at 4:50 am |
thanks for sharing your hdb experience 🙂 Me and my gf are also unemployed. got some tips from ur blog, and am still looking ard online for more info. so end up did u get a loan from bank?
March 1, 2011 at 5:34 am |
Hi Ken,
Sorry that we have not been updating our blog! Promise to do so ASAP!
Eventually, we did get our loan from the bank (DBS) but only with a guarantor who does not have a significant existing loan (my partner’s father in this case, and his name can be removed later, with an admin fee).
Feel free to ask us if you need!
March 3, 2011 at 8:40 am |
Hi, thanks for the quick reply 🙂
we have just submitted application for the current BTO so we’ve our fingers crossed for a good queue!
we are hoping to get a HLE, that will help us a lot in paying of the downpayment. was wondering if you can share why u are not eligible for HLE. both of us are currently temporarily unemployed so I’m not sure whether it will be taken into account or not.
3 years down with stable income, the loan amt should not be a problem. but currently getting a valid HLE so that we can pay the downpayment with our CPF is a worry.
Any ideas/advice is appreciated 🙂
March 3, 2011 at 12:14 pm |
Hi Ken,
Both of us don’t qualify for HLE because we are currently students and thus, unemployed. Are you and your wife-to-be both students too?
Being temporarily unemployed does not allow us to be considered for HLE, even though we can both guarantee that in 3-4 years time we would both be employed and earning good income. We tried to negotiate with the HDB officers but they did not accept this. Even though we only start paying the installments when we receive our keys, they are more concerned with whether we are currently employed, to guarantee that we can pay.
Of course, they did say that before the collection of keys, there would be a review of all the HLE cases to confirm eligibility and perhaps at that time you could try to apply for HLE again.
I hope that you would succeed with your application, but we were refused as neither of us have been working for three months.
Hope this helped!
March 5, 2011 at 3:23 am |
thanks again for replying 🙂 well we both have been working for more than 2 years previously. hence our cpf is enough for the downpayment right now.
but my gf only just stopped her work recently to start her 1 year further studies. I’ve also stopped my work since a few mths ago to undergo upgrading courses.
oh well, I’ve submitted a hle application online (can only do online right?) and will see how it goes. If we want to talk to a hdb loan officer regarding this, u do how to go about doing so? During selection of flat will be able to do so is it?
thanks 🙂 it is quite exciting now that we are waiting for bto Q result. can understand ur excitement in ur previous blog entries now ^_^
March 8, 2011 at 5:18 am |
Hmm… As for talkin to a HDB Loan Officer, we didnt really like schedule any appointments whatsoever, we just went down to HDB to take a queue number. Otherwise during flat selection you can speak to the person more about this also. But I am not veru sure if the flat selection staff would know enough regarding loans.
If your gf only recently stopped work then I think there could be a chance that they would approve. But the fact that both of you do not have income might be a problem as they may feel its ‘unsafe’ for you two to take a loan.
Quite interesting to see if you could get HLE! Do let me know if you hear good news!
August 17, 2011 at 9:50 am |
Hi there, i was reading your blog and it really helped me and my fiance so much.
I think we are both in the same situation. I was working for the past 1.5 years and recently just changed my career to be a property agent. Right now i’m still going through my course so there’s no income yet. As for her she was working full time then switch job then work part time and now studying …
We are going to submit our declaration etc. hoping that they will give us the HDB loan lah … if not we may consider to do bank loan too. But how does the bank loan work? do we have to start paying the loan once we exercise the option? or it’s just a guarantee to HDB that we can pay for our house?
And 3 years later when the flat is ready can we then change and apply for a HDB loan? Hope you all can advise on what happened for you guys. 🙂
August 17, 2011 at 2:16 pm |
Hi Mr V,
Indeed, I started the blog because I wasn’t able to find the information I needed although I am sure we are not the first couple to be in this situation!
When you take the bank loan, you are subjected to fluctuating interest rates, whereas for HDB loan it is fixed. This could mean also that you are paying a better interest rate than if u took the loan with HDB. Similar to a HDB loan, you do not start paying until you collect the keys, and it is just like a guarantee that you will pay them (otherwise your guarantor will pay of cos). If both of you are not working, you would need a guarantor to take a bank loan.
As for changing and applying for a HDB loan after the flat is ready, we asked about that and was told that it wasn’t possible. But we would try asking again when the time comes. Perhaps you could try asking again and if they say it’s okay, let me know!
Currently, we are still under the bank loan.
Let me know if you have more questions!
August 18, 2011 at 12:43 am |
Hey, thanks for your reply. 🙂 you mentioned that you guys did a bank loan with dbs? How’s their interest like?
I do understand that they have fluctuating interest, but they are lower than HDB loan interest rates. Of course depending on the economy it will be adjusted. How many years did you lock in your loan?
Because I don’t really understand how does the bank interest works, let’s say for e.g. it’s 1%, does it mean that it’s charging 1% interest every month or is it 1 % every year? as for hdb loan, does it mean it’s charging 2.6 % every month?
Btw when will your HDB be ready? 🙂 we are quite stressed … no.1 don’t want to forfeit our 2k option money … no.2 don’t want to get into a bank loan before really understand what is it. 🙂
August 18, 2011 at 2:41 pm |
Hello yminisa!
I dont know if you can answer my questions,
i just today i appiled for the hle loan, my boyfriend and i just started our new job with a basic which is not very high because we have comm too, i could only sumit the amount of pay which we both get from my boyfriend’s dad for july, june and may 2011, we were working and helping out at his dad’s stall with no CPF contributions. Im cracking my head on how to produce a letter with company’s stamp… i really hope i could get a hle loan. And another thing is that i have cpf contributions for (May 2010 to June 2010, Aug 2010 to Sep 2010, Nov 2010 to April 2011) total of 10th month contribution, my boyfriend’s cpf contribution wise is more unstable as he does odd jobs and part time all the time, with no payslip but a stable income. Do you thing my 10 month cpf contribution helps at all?
I dont want to go down and pay the 2K and get withdrawn from the system because i cant get any hle loan :<
I dont know how to prove HDB that i'll have stable income down the road.. Getting more and more depressed each day..
I've emailed HDB though. hope everything goes will, worst comes to worst a bank loan right… ? But it's so expensive to loan from a bank…. sigh
August 20, 2011 at 9:51 am |
Hi Mr V
Our interest is about 0.75% (SIBOR) per annum. Our loan is for 18 years.
I would suggest that you make drop by a bank (especially those at HDB Hub) to talk to them about it, they would be able to clear your queries better and at the same time, you can do comparisons between banks.
My HDB’s estimated completion date is Q4 2013. However, I have been hearing pple say that HDB usually hand over about a year earlier.
August 20, 2011 at 9:56 am |
Hi Dorothy,
From my understanding when I applied for the HDB, is that for HLE, your CPF amount does not matter. How much you have in your CPF can only be used to pay off your deposit/downpayment, and is not taken into account when determining if you should get HLE. For HLE, you just have to show that one party has to have been working consistently for the past three months. (there are probably a few more rules but I dun remember). However, please double check as this is from my memory, and I applied for my house more than a year ago.
They did not approve of our argument that ‘we would have stable income in future’ so I dun think it would be easy to convince them. But since you both have worked before it might be easier.
Sorry I cant be of more help!
March 27, 2012 at 12:09 pm |
How do i execute the statutory declarations? Do i need to get down the any HDB branch and show them my IC and they will do it for me? Anyone mind helping me?
March 27, 2012 at 12:49 pm |
Hi Zm,
As for the stat dec, we did it on the day which we selected our unit. The officer at HDB will take your IC etc and do it for you, together with the process of choosing and confirming your unit. I dont recall if there are any specific documents that you need, you may need to check that.
March 27, 2012 at 1:09 pm |
Ohkay,thanks alot. Anw,how do i get my past 15months CPF contribution history from employment? A copy of bank statement ( showing the transaction history and month-end balances for the past 12 months ) AND Credit Bureau Report. Lastly latest Notice Of Assessment from IRAS. Im not sure how to get them.
March 28, 2012 at 1:37 pm |
Hi Zm,
Apologies but I am not sure where you can get all that. I did not require that during my application or flat selection.
March 29, 2012 at 11:25 am |
Okay. thx
April 21, 2012 at 2:53 pm |
Hi there,
I am in the exact situation as you are in both me and my Gf are still studying and thus we would not qualify for a hle.
However both of us have already secured jobs do you think that would make us eligible for a hle or would we still have to take a bank loan like you did?
Thanks !
May 15, 2012 at 8:48 am |
Hi,
If my fiancé is working & I am unemployed with outstanding bank loans, will it affect our application for HLE? Will it be rejected?
May 15, 2012 at 8:49 am |
Hi,
If my fiancé is working & I am unemployed with outstanding bank loans, will
May 15, 2012 at 8:51 am |
Hi,
If my fiancé is working & I am unemployed with outstanding bank loans, will it affect our HLE application? Will our application be rejected for my outstanding loans despite me being unemployed?
Thank you.
May 19, 2012 at 3:22 am |
Hi Exothika,
I am really sorry that I cant help you much with assessing whether your application will be affected. Apologies, would be best if you ask someone who is more familiar.
May 23, 2012 at 2:26 am |
I AM BUYING A RESALE HDB FLAT . I AM UNEMPLOYED AND PAYING CASH FOR THE FLAT.
DO I HAVE TO DECLARE THE BUYERS STATUTORY DECLARATION, IF YES WHERE TO GET THE STATUTORY DECLARATION.
RAMA
January 3, 2013 at 2:22 pm |
Hi Rama,
I am not very sure what would be necessary in your situation. However, in my situation, the statutory declaration could be done at the HDB office itself, I did not need to go to a lawyer.
December 21, 2012 at 7:10 am |
hi,
when did they tell you that you need to take the oath? im pretty fed up with hdb right now…coz on the 1st appointment we already told them my fiancée was unemployed from dec 2011 til feb 2012 and they kept requesting us to submit pay slips and we keep telling them that he was unemployed then they reply to us they will get back to us soon. 3 months later then they tell us need to take the oath…
January 3, 2013 at 2:23 pm |
Hi Khadijah,
Do you mean the marriage vows? We have not told HDB when we will be getting married as we would probably have to appeal for extension. Heard that you have to submit your ROM cert three months after key collection but we would need longer than that.
January 10, 2013 at 12:07 pm |
hi…there..nice blog full of info.
regarding statutory declaration form.
can i go to any branch office to get the staff to sign on the commissioner for oaths and any payment i need to pay them for signing the form…do i have to bring cpf statement and my wife together to branch office…can i just go alone and get it done.
i just want to prepare early so im not rushing,
my appointment till far on 27/02…
i hear from a friend that branch office would charge $20/$30 for signing the commissioner for oaths…thank for the time replying…
January 10, 2013 at 3:43 pm |
Hi Bobs,
I am really not certain whether the staff at a branch office is authorised to do so. What happened for us was that we signed the statutory declaration at the HDB office when we were doing the paper work for our house. There was no need for fees. I am not certain if you need CPF statement, as we were both students at that time so did not require that.
January 11, 2013 at 7:05 pm |
hi…thank for the reply,
Maybe i call them and find out.
Once again thank you…
March 31, 2013 at 6:28 am |
Hi, there are full of interesting comments. Anyway I would like to share with you my story too. Recently, I apply for a flat with my fiancée and it is successful. The only thing that worries me is that I’m afraid whether am I eligible for a HDB loan as I was unemployed from Jan 2013 till March 2013. Do I need to declare to HDB that I’m unemployed? And what happens if I decide to take a HDB loan if I’m unemployed? Many thanks.
April 6, 2013 at 4:21 pm |
Hi Ole,
I apologise that I am unable to help with such technical questions as I am also not very sure if the HDB regulations have changed after the cooling measures. Would be good if you could approach HDB to check. Sorry cant be of much help.
June 18, 2013 at 5:00 am |
Hi,
I saw in your blog that you mentioned that you did get your loan from the bank (DBS) but only with a guarantor who does not have a significant existing loan (your partner’s father in this case, and his name can be removed later, with an admin fee).
Does your partner’s father own any property (be it hdb or private)? Is his name listed as occupanier when added?
Thank you
June 18, 2013 at 7:18 am |
Hey Agnes,
My partner’s father did own property (HDB) and we did not put his name down as an occupier. He was just guarantor for the loan.
However, I’m not sure if this actually works anymore as the borrowing rules may have changed in light of the cooling measures. Do check.