She paid $690,000 to live nearer the city

Source : Straits Times - 25 Oct 2008

IT MIGHT sound like a silly reason, but the daily crowded MRT journey to work was what made Mrs Dorcas Wong downgrade from a condo home to an HDB flat.

The flat did not come cheap, however. The 50-year-old administration executive forked out $690,000 for a five-room flat in Stirling Road in Queenstown earlier this year.

She is one of a growing number of people willing to pay top dollar for public housing - a trend that began when buyers, flush with cash from successful collective sales, started setting record prices for HDB flats in good locations last year.

In nearby Mei Ling Street, one executive flat was the most expensive HDB flat ever sold; it went for $890,000.

When she made her decision, Mrs Wong recalled friends asking her: ‘Why do you want to pay so much for an HDB flat? Are you crazy?’

They could not understand why she wanted to downgrade from her three-bedroom condo in Choa Chu Kang - which she has not sold - to an HDB flat when she did not have any financial problems.

But Mrs Wong, who has two teenage children with her administrative executive husband, says commuting from her condo to her office in Raffles Place took more than an hour.

‘The trains are so crowded every morning, sometimes four would pass by without my being able to get on,’ she recalls.

‘I don’t want to have this stress when I travel, and buying a car to drive to work won’t solve the problem.’

Since she believes time is money, she decided to move nearer to the city. She opted for an HDB flat since a condominium in town would set her back $1.4 million, which she could not afford.

She now takes just less than half an hour to commute to work.

The central location also enables her children to get to and back from school more easily.

She concedes that the price is a bit on the high side for a typical HDB flat, but adds: ‘This is the going rate now.’

She was on the lookout for an executive HDB flat in the same location, but sellers were asking for $820,000 at the beginning of this year.

Mrs Wong is hopeful her flat will fetch a higher price if and when she sells it, because of its location and convenience.

After all, there are also plans to rejuvenate the area, which she hopes will boost the value of her property.

And the silver lining in her move?

‘I don’t have to carry an umbrella any more . The walkway is sheltered from my home all the way to the MRT.’