[caption id="attachment_3140" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Photo by «Gaurav»"][/caption] Upgrade or downgrade? I came across the following article in the 联合早报: 是享受还是受罪. It described someone nearing retirement who 'upgraded' to a condominium of 102 sqm and a new mortgage to pay off, by selling his fully paid up EA flat of 145 sqm. When enquired about his rationale, the simple answer was " no choice, for the comfort, for a better external outlook, will have to suffer a bit". Selling like hot cakes I read with both amusement and amazement of the recent craze for condominiums, with new units flying off the shelf like hot cakes. Am I missing something? Are residents here are getting really affluent in the midst of recession or is money raining in corners of Singapore I'm not aware of? While foreign investors could possibly scoop up a substantial number of private properties, residents made up a significant half of recent purchases, as I found out when I went 'sight seeing' in one the recent showflats. A natural upgrade? Two independent friends of mine are pressured by their spouses to 'upgrade' to condos as a natural passage of life improvement process. While the financial commitment is substantial (as I will show later), the rationale of their spouses distilled from their conversations summarised as "if so many can afford, why can't I?" Significant commitment I worked out a simple table showing the commitment for getting a condo of various sizes under different prices per square foot and interest rates. My assumption is 20% down payment and 80% loan for 30 years. A few things to note. Read more...