The Unexpected Realities Of Home Ownership: How Health Issues Caused A Homeowner To Move

When we think about staircases, the height of lightswitches, when to sell our home, etc. most of us plan for retirement – there’s an assumption that such concerns may be less relevant to younger people. However, we shouldn’t forget that life isn’t always predictable; and medical conditions can end up causing us to need such changes earlier than expected. This was the case with KL, who was diagnosed with cancer in his late forties. Here’s a look at how it affected his home ownership:

When landed living becomes more liability than luxury

KL prefers not to share too much about himself, as it’s likely he can already be identified from some elements in this story. But suffice it to say he went through life with few physical problems other than asthma, and doesn’t smoke or drink. He had expected to remain relatively fit and mobile at least up to his seventies. 

So when he inherited the family home – which had been passed down from his maternal grandparents to his parents – he saw no issues with the stairs and the three-storey structure. KL says this home was:

“Somewhere in the Eunos area, quite far from the MRT. We had three floors: the ground floor was the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Second floor had a TV room and two bedrooms, and the master bedroom and family room was on the third floor. We also had roof access, it was a flat roof so we could do rooftop gardening.”

But a few years ago, KL was afflicted with a form of cancer that made it increasingly difficult for him to walk. Even moving a short distance – from the living room to the kitchen – was painful and took a long time. He often had to pause to use grab bars, and plan his route forward. Going up the actual stairs to his bedroom was almost impossible. 

Initial attempts to renovate to cope

KL says he was unwilling to sell the house at first, and consulted with several help organisations and contractors:

“The basic safety things, okay, easy enough. Grab bars, anti-slip mats for the toilets, and whatnot. For the master bedroom, I changed it to my office, lucky my company allows me to work from home due to my condition. It’s harder for me to get up, so we had to lower the light switches, move some power sockets around, and do some rewiring.”

KL says that shortly after that though, the decision was made to do the same with light switches all around the house. This was partly because it ended up being helpful to KL’s mother as well, who found she could more easily reach the switches.

The bigger costs, however, came when they considered stairlifts:

“An elevator was definitely out of the budget, and we didn’t want all the hammering and drilling; got to remember at this point my house was my office. We were looking at stairlifts, but even with these my wife wasn’t too convinced we should stay on.”

The concern was that KL’s wife didn’t work from home, while KL’s ageing mother is hard of hearing. Even if there’s a stairlift, safety features, etc., the fact remains that KL would be at home with no one but their domestic helper. 

In addition, KL’s boss – who also has a family member with cancer – pointed out something he couldn’t change: the location of the house.

“When my boss visited one new year, he remarked that the house is quite deep in. And he asked if the neighbours interacted a lot, to which I had to say I didn’t even know their last names. We mostly kept to ourselves.” 

While the domestic helper did live with them, she was sometimes away at the market, or on her off day; and due to these periods, KL would be at home with no one but his mother. 

The reality check, or “reality cheque” so to speak

Despite spending quite a sum on renovations, KL realised there were too many factors which made it impractical to keep holding on. Around three years after the various renovations, KL said “dollars and cents started to speak.” 

KL has a child, but she is married and lives in Australia; she’s unlikely to have any need for the house. KL’s mother also finds the large house impractical, and the accumulated maintenance fees – coupled with the property taxes – all amount to unnecessary costs. 

Perhaps the final push came when KL went over his finances and realised selling the house and downgrading was simply the smart move, given unforeseeable future medical costs. 

“At that point the light went on and I finally overcame the inertia,” KL says, “It’s tough to let go of a legacy thing, a family heirloom, but don’t hold on at the cost of the family itself.”

From landed to condo living

KL says the sale of his home affirms his belief in the value of freehold landed housing in Singapore. His property agent received calls within two days of putting up the listing, and they had multiple offers within the week. While he prefers not to disclose the amount, KL says it was within the expected range, as a unit across the street had set the price when it was sold four months earlier.

The buyers even gave them an additional month to move out, and KL’s agent also found a condo unit for them to rent. This was near the Eunos MRT station, and even though it was much smaller (around 900 sq.ft.), it was sufficient for the four of them. 

Rather than feeling it was restrictive, KL says: “I really like it. You appreciate big spaces if you’re healthy and can move around easily. When you’re in my position, you appreciate things you need being at hand, being within line of sight in case you have any problems.”

KL is currently looking for replacement properties, which he says will be a resale condo, as they don’t want to rent for too long. In addition, rental units don’t have the grab bars, lowered light switches, etc. that he can install in his own home. 

“I’ll probably want something with a good balcony view, because I’m indoors so much I feel a bit caged up. Also it’s a blast-from-the-past thing, if I can do some gardening there like the old rooftop garden we used to have, But I want it to be one with a more active community, especially since I go out less often now, it would be nice to have people to mingle with when I go downstairs.”

KL says one of the biggest perks he’s found, ever since moving to his rental condo, is going downstairs in the evenings; there he can mingle with the crowd who bring their pets down for a walk or their children for playdates. 

A word of advice when picking your home 

KL says his experiences have taught him to be less presumptuous, and not to be overly “settled” to one property:

“Anything can happen in life, so don’t be so attached and always tell yourself you’ll never move. Even if it’s not your health, there are things like SERS, en-bloc sales, so always be prepared in the back of your mind that it can heppen. And if it’s for financial or health reasons, don’t suffer more just because of inertia.”