What I Only Learned After My First Year Of Homeownership In Singapore

Becoming a homeowner is one of those milestones that can be very different for each person. For some, it’s a moment of relief at finally being free from landlords or meeting social expectations. For others, it’s a mild panic when they see the first mortgage repayment turn up and realise this is going to be a part of their lives for the next two decades or longer.

Either way, the first year of home ownership is often an eye-opener and a major rung of the adulting ladder. We spoke to two homeowners – one is the owner of a private home, and the other who bought a HDB flat – to find out what they think aspiring buyers should be prepared to face:

Buying a resale flat close to their original home

KM and her husband have owned a resale 3-room flat in Tampines for close to a year. Previously, the couple, who also have a daughter, were living with KM’s parents in a four-room flat. But this formed a six-person household that was uncomfortable for a flat of that size.

So, after two failed attempts at balloting for a Build-to-Order (BTO) flat, the couple decided to speed things ahead by buying a resale 3-room flat. The unit they eventually purchased was the first flat they viewed and was also their first choice, since the unit is just three bus stops away from KM’s parents’ place. In her mind, KM thought this proximity meant that her family needed minimal adjustments. 

Within the first year, however, KM was surprised at the little internal changes to her and her husband’s mindset, now that they owned their own home.

Thinking in longer time horizons, and forming unexpected habits 

KM says the biggest change came about three or four months after they moved in, when the couple began to worry about long-term issues that they felt they overlooked.

‘When we were house hunting, it felt like a straightforward process as we just wanted to be in the same neighbourhood. But, a few months after we moved in we started to get concerned when we asked ourselves questions like:  “Can one of my parents stay here if they get older and it’s necessary? What if we have one more child in the future?”

These questions only hit us a few months after we stayed in our home. That’s not to say we regret our decision to buy this flat, but just that you start to think further into the future and it’s questions like these that you may not have thought about earlier when you were buying.”

These worries were accompanied by the realisation of new habits and lifestyle changes, which KM says they couldn’t have foreseen during their initial renovation and furnishing. For example, their daughter has taken to sleeping in the living room, usually falling asleep to the sound of KM working from the kitchen or drifting off while watching TV. The couple are now considering a sofa-bed in the living room, but this is something they couldn’t have foreseen at the planning stage.

Moving into the flat becomes a marker for life stages

Perhaps this is related to thinking in the longer term, but KM also notices that her family has begun to differentiate their life into “before” and “after” they moved into their own home.

Mentally, she felt that her life before moving into her own home was still a period of young adulthood, where she needed her parents. But since moving out, she feels she has matured and become her own person.

We might speculate that it should make us ponder if the common Singaporean obsession of “HDB before marriage” could be tied to this. Perhaps it’s less about the need for physical space, and more importantly the “headspace” of feeling like you’re an adult and ready to start a family.

KM says that since moving into her own home, the pace of life also seems to feel a lot faster and more fluid. She and her husband find it hard to believe they’ve already lived there for almost a year. 

Becoming much more sensitive to maintenance issues 

KM says that before she became a homeowner, she didn’t understand why other homeowners got worked up over small imperfections around the house. Yet, she’s begun to experience this first-hand now.

“Recently, I’ve been worked up because we’ve lived here for less than one year, and already the grout between the tiles in the toilet is turning yellow.”

She adds that this comes amid many other details she would have previously considered trivial like slight misalignments in the corners for the wall skirting, or how quickly brown spots form on the bathroom mirror.

She says the same change has come over her husband. He used to leave the air-conditioner or power sockets turned on even when he left the house for hours. Now, he would yell: “The air-con is running out” if someone so much as leaves the door open when the air-con is on.

Overall, KM says the most surreal part of the homeowner experience is how it changes your sense of time. She says that new homeowners can expect the first year to feel like just over a month has passed, and that the routine will “creep” up on you. 

For example, during the first two to three months after they moved into their home, their daughter would want to go back to her parent’s place on Fridays, over the weekend and even some Mondays. Now that living there has become more routine, her daughter prefers to stay home on weekends. 

Moving into a 1+Study home for the first year

GS bought a resale 1+Study condo unit in Aljunied since his circumstances make it impractical for him to wait until he turns 35 to own an HDB flat. He jumped at the chance when he saw the perfect listing for him, realising that it wasn’t just within his budget but it was also just two MRT stations away from Lavender, where he runs his own business.

Previously, GS had been renting for quite some time, and when he first moved into the unit he says the first few weeks were a surreal experience:

“Maybe it’s because I rented and I didn’t have very good experiences. But it felt very surreal to realise that this is my home, I can finally do anything I want. I can bring the projector to my bedroom and eat chicken wings on my bed while watching movies. I can get a cat any day I feel like it.”

While he hasn’t done any of these things, GS described it as finding a whole new sense of freedom.

However, it came with “mental rehearsals” of events

GS says he spent the first few months imagining hosting events during Christmas, New Year, and hosting house parties. But this was also when the first few regrets started to creep in. While envisioning dinners around his small dining table, or how many people he could fit in the living room, it dawned on him how little space he had for guests to feel comfortable.

Later, when he began inviting friends over, GS often found himself criticising the layout and his furnishing decisions, more than actually being present. He was “unusually agitated” at how narrow the space was for guests to move, or how there was no space for people to put their shoes indoors. 

This hadn’t been a concern when he was buying the unit. Back then, he felt that a single occupant didn’t need so much room. 

Mortgage bills do change lifestyle habits 

GS says that paying a mortgage doesn’t panic him, since he ensured he was financially prepared before buying. But it does nonetheless affect him in subtle ways.

“I find myself taking on business that I would have considered too troublesome to be worth it before, because now I also think about the bills and the maintenance costs of my home. I definitely go out less and spend less overall, and I try to have a bigger savings buffer.” 

In particular, GS dreads the quarterly collections for the maintenance fees of his condo unit. He finds himself consciously preparing to spend less that month, including tighter budgeting for his meals. 

Interestingly though, being a homeowner has helped him to save in another way. GS notes that ever since he stopped renting, he’s more willing to spend time at home. Previously, he would feel he was “burning” his weekend if he didn’t go out, but now he enjoys being in his own living room and playing games or watching movies on a Saturday or Sunday night. He says it’s “a whole different vibe than when you’re renting.” 

Finally, there’s a real sense of how you’ve matured after the first year

GS says the first time he realised this was when he talked to a friend about picking the right bedsheets. He could explain the differences between cotton, linen, and thread count, among other bits of information because he had to research it when furnishing his home. 

His experiences in comparing electricity plans, understanding home loan rates, for example, have also changed the way he thinks and speaks when discussing such issues – and he feels others realise it too. This has been an unexpected help in running his business as GS now has the same shared experiences as many of his older clients. 

Ultimately, what stands out to him is that the first year isn’t always just about renovation costs or mortgage payments. There is a certain “rewiring” of how new homeowners usually think and behave as a person, and that can come from both a sense of stability, as well as what it now means to retain it.