Contact Our Agent

Dear Friends,

We have engaged this nice approachable agent Mr Ken to market our unit for us. Kindly contact him if you or your friends are interested in our unit.

Here's the floor plan for you to consider. 

UPDATE: Unable to sell due to these reasons

- Racial quota (only can sell to Chinese coz other races quota is full)

- No lift level so families with small kids/ elderly parents not interested

- Very noisy & dusty because next to the expressway

- Noise pollution from 24/7 coffeeshop just opposite block

- Far from bus stops and other amenities

So no buyers. 

In the end, the exclusive deal to sell also expired and friendly Mr Ken is no longer our agent. We decided to try selling back to HDB. (That will be our next post.)

- 

Shin Min Daily News

Dear friends, 
Our story has been published in the Chinese New Paper on 19th August 2015. We are real people and not a scam. We really hope you can share our story through your network. 

We hope maybe someone in your network might want to buy a big EA. Or donation can come in to help us when we have no money after selling this unit back to HDB next month. 

Kindly pray for me as I am preparing myself for an eye operation soon. Had not been able to work for 2 months since my eye vessel burst and obscured my vision. Being the sole breadwinner, it is disheartening knowing I am not able to work to bring back income to take care of my mentally ill husband or keep the shelter over our heads any longer.

Hope helps can come in... Thank you everyone.

What happened when you are poor in Singapore?

Really, to stay married in this 'everything very expensive' city is not easy. We went through the hard days when my health failed and we were not able to pay our bills.

Do you know when you cannot pay the PUB bills, they will come and turn off the electricity... later a few days... they will come and turn the water level to a trickle. Still cannot pay, then they cut the water. 

If you owed the property tax, they will send a letter to your current employer to ask them to deduct from your salary? You get shamed publicly and might lose the job in the end. And as long as you work in any job with CPF contribution, they will track you down. If you choose not to work in such job anymore, next step is they will check if you have any bank accounts and authorized the banks to deduct your money without your permission. 

Now the scariest part, if you owed town council, they can issue a warrant of arrest and send armed officers to your house. Then arrest you to force you to go to court. They did that to my mentally ill husband as he was the first owner of our current flat. I have to watch him in cuffs on his hands and legs in court... Hello, did my husband kills someone or steal or rob? We were just not able to pay our town council bills. 

Then the judge looked at me, saying my husband did jumped bails a few times and I am his bailor. They checked my identify card then pulled me up to the stand and made me stand trial. I was so stressed by the sudden turn of event, I took out my medication and wanted to swallow all in the court. I remembered the male police officer jeering at me, saying very hurtful words to me. I was lucky that there was a kind female officer who shut him up and talk to me nicely to get the medication away from me. In the end, the judge fined me $100 instead of the bond money of few thousands. 

$100 is a lot of money when both couple are not working due to health issues. And my husband was locked up in Changi Prison for 2 days. 

All these made me wonders... we were having financial difficulties... but we did not do bad things. Why are we being treated like criminals?

So being poor is a crime in Singapore?

Please Help save My Home....

Watching Kit Chan singing HOME on TV last night, tears welled up in my eyes.... I wonder if I still have a home in a few months time?

Life growing up in Singapore is not easy. Let me share my story.

My mum died of heart attack when I was 8. I started working after school hours to support my ailing Dad who suffered from heart failure. He passed away by the time I was 16. 

Have you seen the latest NTUC video? 

But unlike the ending in the video, there was no Orange Aid back then in my time. 

While peers went onto Poly or JC, I had to give up my study to support myself. Even my rented 1 room flat at Ang Mo Kio Ave 4 Blk 257 #12-65 was taken away, coz the HDB came after Dad's funeral and said I was a minor and there was no legal guardian to rent the flat. 

In a way, I was tossed out to the street to survive on my own. 

I found a childcare teacher job in the day. But it pays little so I also took up odd jobs as cashier, tutor, waitress, pump attendant, to make ends meet while renting a bed space with church friends. 

I met my husband soon after. He was shunned by others due to he has schizophrenia, a severe mental condition. But he is a kind and gentle person by nature. I took him in after his family abandoned him and we begin a life together. He cannot work but he helped out with simple household chores. With an additional mouth to feed, I took on another full time job as security officer in the night to provide for both of us and to buy a flat eventually.

Working 2 full time jobs with only 2-3 hours of sleep, I relied on energy drinks to keep going. By age 17, my first teaching job health checkup discovered I am diabetic Type 1. My parents didn't realised it when I was younger, but I always have unhealed wounds all over my body. The doctors started me on insulin for life. I should rest more too, but I keep pushing myself over the limits, going for upgrading courses night after night after work in order to stay employable. Time getting tougher as more foreigners are coming into my preschool field. No Chinese teachers, they get PRC. No English teachers, they get Filipino. And all of them have degrees. It is not easy to compete with younger job seekers either as I am getting older. 

The lack of rest finally catch up with me. I suffered from a fever viral attack on my heart 3 years ago after a workplace food prep incident which involved the poison from stingray. I was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure, was bedridden and started using a manual wheelchair for 2 years plus. I could not work and need to depend on Hubby a lot. We managed to survive on rental for our daily needs but I could not pay the high mortgage and I wrote in to HDB to let us downsized. They told me I can be debt free.

I went ahead to select a 2 rooms flat (1 room 1 hall). I tried selling my EA flat but the property has slumped due to the recent years of cooling measures. Cannot sell to certain races (racial quota), big units less buyers, new PR now cannot buy, buyers' loans got rejected by banks... HOW TO SELL??? 

HDB said can buy back from me. The valuation was $495K but they offered $423K. An EA for this amount? And I still have an outstanding amount of almost $270K due to the HDB interest. I will have nothing left in cash after selling. The rest will be returned to CPF. Not only I loses $70K+ by selling back, I will incur another loan of $50K+for my next flat. How to be DEBT FREE??? 

I wrote to our Prime Minister M Mr Lee and some other MPs for help, asking to buy a studio apartment, which is same size as 2 rooms but only half the price due to 30 years lease. At least that is affordable to me and we still have a bit left in CPF for old age. We got rejected, saying we are not 55 yet. Well, Hubby is now 45. If plus 30 years, he might be 75 if still alive. As for me, my Dad suffered 10 years of heart failure, I think maybe I only left only 6 years+ to go. We do not need a 99 years lease flat.

I tried to get back to work but my body keep failing. I fainted at work a few times. I was in and out of hospitals 8 times for past 2 years due to community related diseases I got from working with young children. (Simple flu became pneumonia for me due to my low immunity system) 

Recently, my health got worse and the blood vessel burst in one eye, blocking my sight due to my diabetes. I am now a partially blind person and need to go for operation end of this month to remove the blood clot. Which mean further loss of income for months to come as I need time to recover. I will not qualify for any loan if I am not working when the 2 rooms flat is due next month. 

I will end up losing my current flat and not able to buy my next flat. And we have nothing left after selling back to HDB, not a single cent in cash as the rest returned back to CPF and locked there till old age... (if I can live that long to see my money) 

I have always try to be strong but now my body is weak. Will you help a fellow Singaporean couple? I really wish to save my home from being taken away. Will you consider a donation to our account at Malayan Bank/Maybank Saving:14070671738? 

I am grateful if you can share my story too. 

 We are given till 25th Sept as final notice by HDB. 

We really wish to save our flat. Please help.

The HDB officers had tried their best to help.  I am just very disappointed with the circumstances and my failing health... and the possibility of losing our home. 

I only wish to be able to take care of my mentally ill husband , as I have been doing for the past almost 20 years... and I hope to continue to have a shelter over our heads.

Will you kindly help us?

Please spread the words through your network, 

even a dollar donation is much appreciated. 

We did not put our photo here due to social stigma of letting people identifying my mentally sick husband. But if you like to contact us to help us, you can write to us at cocoanna1368@gmail.com