Every journey has to end. And sometimes, as poet T.S. Eliot wrote, it’s not with a bang, but with a whimper. And I certainly felt like whimpering when I made the decision to buy my flat. I’ve read countless articles on property-buying advice, but not one of them actually tells you what it’s like when you have to decide whether to pull the trigger. After almost a year of property hunting, it looked like I had found the one. But – I wasn’t sure. It was a resale HDB flat in Bukit Panjang. The flat was well within my budget and also ticked most of my boxes, and more:

• The flat was a freshly MOP-ed unit, meaning it was five years old.
• Bukit Panjang was close enough to my parents to qualify for the Proximity Housing Grant.
• At 1,000 square feet and with three bedrooms, it was more space than I’d hoped for.

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