Is anyone else getting majorly disillusioned looking at the SG property market lately?
On paper, a lot of us did everything “right.” We studied hard, got decent corporate jobs, and grinded our way up the career ladder. We budget strictly, look at standard investment strategies, and try to maximize every dollar. By all conventional metrics, hard work is supposed to pay off.
But lately, it feels impossible to ignore a depressing reality: The most financially successful people in Singapore aren’t necessarily the smartest, the hardest working, or the most strategic. They just have wealthy parents.
Look at any social circle. A lot of people who were notoriously average in school—the ones who barely scraped through exams—are currently moving into beautiful private condos or landed properties in prime districts. Meanwhile, the actual top-scorers and corporate grinders are still sweating over HDB BTO lottery luck, dealing with build delays, or squeezing into aging resale flats after getting priced out of the private market by skyrocketing prices and strict loan limits.
When you dig into how these “successful” stories actually happen, the script is always the same: The Bank of Mum and Dad.
They didn’t build their asset base through grinding 60-hour workweeks. They got a massive cash injection for their first downpayment, had parents decouple property deeds to buy a second unit under their name tax-free, or simply inherited an undervalued estate. While the rest of us are stressing over Total Debt Servicing Ratios (TDSR), Loan-to-Value limits, and whether upgrading will completely wipe out our CPF savings, they are already collecting rental yield and watching their capital appreciate effortlessly.
It feels like no matter how much you optimize your life, save on daily expenses, or try to invest responsibly, you simply cannot out-earn generational wealth. The baseline starting point is just too mismatched. It makes you feel incredibly weary, losing sleep as you watch property prices push higher and higher out of reach while normal wages fail to keep pace.
Just wanted to vent this out because it’s been incredibly draining to watch. Anyone else feeling the same burnout trying to chase the Singapore property dream entirely on your own steam?