HDB “Achievement Unlocked”: Debt For 25-Years, Stuck Working For 25 Years In SG🤡

Eh, wake up this morning, open my Singpass, and BAM. Notification pop up like mobile game accomplishment. “ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: IN DEBT FOR 25 YEARS!”

Lianhe Zaobao and Straits Times always love to publish those headline: “Young couple happily collects keys to their dream nest.” Dream nest your head la. This one is not a nest, this one is a gold-plated cage. I didn’t buy an appreciation asset; I just signed up for a 25-year prison sentence with hard labor. Now everyday must wake up, swallow my boss’s nonsense, and work non-stop just to make sure CPF Board doesn’t come and repossess my 4-room concrete box in the sky.

Seriously, look at the property market now. Million-dollar resale HDBs everywhere. Even BTO prices make you want to cry. Last time, BTO stood for Build-To-Order. Now, BTO means Buy Till Ovens because your wallet is completely incinerated. I look at my loan statement and my soul literally left my body. 25 years, guys. By the time I finally pay off this house, my hair will be white, my knees will be making crack crack sounds, and my future child will be complaining that BTO now costs 2 million dollars for a 2-room flexi flat in Tuas.

At the rate we are going, mark my words, Singapore sooner or later will become exactly like Hong Kong. Cage homes? Co-living spaces the size of a Shoebox? Coming soon to a precinct near you. Next time, nobody can afford to buy already. Everyone will just be renting forever from some ultra-rich landlord who owns 10 properties because they bought in 1980.

We used to laugh at other countries for having high rent and no homeownership. Now? We are the joke. Every month, standard routine: salary comes in, CPF takes their cut, HDB loan takes their cut, and what am I left with? Enough money to buy two pieces of plain prata and one cup of Kopi O Peng. Cannot even add egg, because egg is luxury item now.

So please, don’t congratulate me on my new home. Come over for housewarming can, but please bring your own chair and packet tissue, because after paying the downpayment, I cannot even afford IKEA furniture. Happy Sunday, back to grinding for the next quarter-century! 🙃