What is the difference between ec and condo

Unless you wish to sell your condo within a decade of buying it, the executive variant poises as a strong contestant, especially weighing up its attractive price and subsequent large potential for long-term capital gains. Still, there remains one last caveat: while private condominiums tend to be freehold, executive condominiums generally come with a 99 year lease.

Still, if you have long, long, long-term plans for your property than an EC may lose some of its appeal. Otherwise, and with a bit of patience, executive condominiums tend to be a relatively great bargain, both in terms of living and capital gains.

This story first appeared on Editor's note: This article has been updated by We know it's a hassle to switch browsers but we want your experience with CNA to be fast, secure and the best it can possibly be. To continue, upgrade to a supported browser or, for the finest experience, download the mobile app. CNA Lifestyle A guide to choosing between an executive condominium and a private condominium Here's how to navigate through the pros and cons between the two.

Choosing between and executive condo and a private condo. Illustration: Jasper Loh. Bookmark Bookmark Share. The common facilities within the condominium — like the garden, lobby and gym — are shared by all the unit owners. Compared to ECs, private condominiums are usually built using better quality materials.

He later gets married and applies to buy an EC with his wife. Given the housing grants available, it may make sense for first-time homebuyers to opt for an EC before they make their way into the private housing market. This makes them a lucrative investment. However, you can still rent out specific bedrooms within your EC.

Private condos have no such restriction: you can rent out the entire place anytime. You do have to wait 10 years before this happens though — so be sure your finances can handle the wait. Check out this table on the returns after the 5-year MOP and year privatisation stages:. With the public-to-private transition after 10 years, executive condominiums see more capital appreciation than private condos. Both ECs and private condos expect good capital appreciation. ECs come with a long wait before that happens, but make up for it with lower initial prices and government grants.

On the other hand, ECs have a max lease of 99 years. For those looking to pass on their properties to their future generations, this is a big drawback. This can be problematic. For Singapore citizens, the ABSD would be 12 per cent of your condo price or value whichever is higher , so you need quite a lot in cash or CPF to pay for this initially. Later, there is a risk that something can go wrong in selling your flat, and cause you to miss the deadline for ABSD remission. Do also note that you will have to pay a resale levy if you are selling a subsidised flat even resale flats bought with a CPF housing grant and then buy a new EC.

This caps your monthly repayments to 60 per cent of your monthly income, inclusive of all other loans car loans, personal loans, etc. This caps your monthly loan repayments to 30 per cent of your monthly income, excluding other loans. For ECs, you need to meet both requirements. The same would apply to ECs that are not yet fully privatised after 10 years, anything goes; sell it to a foreigner or even a company if you like.

As a general rule of thumb, a leasehold private condo will cost about 20 per cent more than an EC of similar size and location. Recently, the potential supply of ECs is not able to meet the demand of buyers, because there were only four new EC projects in the pipeline.

In , there were 3 EC. As you can see from the charts, new ECs are quite limited in supply. While New housing measures, such as Enhance CPF housing grants are expected to make public housing more affordable and accessible for Singaporeans. The affluent buyers with significant cash savings will buy a private condominium as the market has stabilised and it does not have MOP restrictions. While all upcoming EC developments are expected to be priced higher, they are still excellent value, because of their location and potential for growth.

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From a pure investment angle, the private condo proved to be the better buy, because the EC regulations forbid the renting out of entire unit in the first 5 years MOP, and hence you cannot offset monthly mortgage payments with rental income. But if rental restrictions change, then EC may outperform private condo.

Although the gap is narrowing, there is still a significant price gap between EC and private condo. And EC still provides an affordable option for HDB upgraders who want a higher standard of lifestyle. As EC is for own occupation, achieving a good resale capital appreciation after privatization is good for investment. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

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