chrichri

No, as my parents don't have money $ to help me for down + I DON'T WANT TO USE THEIR retirement money.

i bought my first apt with my husband in march 2009 and moved in june 2009 when the price was low. At that time we didn't know if it was a good time to buy, but we wanted to have our own place after marriage. we have been renting my mother in law's apt for 1 yr at that time.

So...We bought it with 10% down and paid about 7k cmhc insurance. We took it out altogether 30k from both rrsp and some savings. Everything was all good. I liked itand enjoyed my place, but then we saw the price of our apt went up for more than 20% in april 2010. We started thinking about having kids in the future, so we put it in the market and sold it for over 20% of what we paid for and started renting til we just bought our townhouse with over 20% downpayment because of the gain from selling the apt.

With that i always think property is a good investment if you are living in there...
Cuz when the price of your property increase, you can take a homeline of credit to borrow money for investment or other needs or emergency, so it is good if you can basically afford a 5-10% down and a regular mortgage payment.
As long as you pay it, eventually your mortgage balance reduced, you will have equity. It is better than renting. although vancouver is ranked no.3  for cost of living, i always think with more than avg min pay income, two ppl working family without kids, it is not hard to save up at least 15k per person for a downpayment for a small apt,  even both my husband and i are paying hundreds in student loan every month

Just my thoughts.. a lot of young ppl in hk have too much expectations on their first home, like a very convenient location and big new apt with amenties are just not too unrealistic....  prices of apt in richmond or vancouver are just not too high as compare to the prices in hk, especially mortgage rate is the lowest...
what i suggest for rrsp/tfsa is to do a regular contribution and set yourself up with at least a few hundred dollars a month. it is definitely a regular and auto savings.

chrichri

回復 2# Nam

it is hard to catch up with 20% down as prices also increase too.
i agree with auyatyat. Once the new mortgage rules come out, it is even harder for you to have a mortgage qualify or to have afford a mortgage payment.

they reduce mortgage amortization from 35 to 30 yrs... that is a big different with monthly payment already.

15 % will also required plus you will need to pay cmch insurance

I will suggest you can go over some mortgage calculator to determine how much you can afford..
usually cmhc insured mortgage, the total debt service ratio is 42%-44% of your salary, so you can't use over max 44% of your income for mortgage payment, property tax, 1/2 strata, monthly heating (usually $60) and your monthly credit card payment (3% of balance owing), loan payment....and etc.

Good luck.... .努力~