What's a safe space worth?

Meet Lisa, the single who bought a resale HDB flat at age 24 to provide a safe home for her family.

- JOYCE YANG

CPF nomination is rarely discussed in the context of buying a home, but its importance is a lesson homeowner Lisa had to learn the hard way.

When Lisa was 12 years old, her family of four began staying in her aunt's three-room flat, entwined in a joint tenancy with her father. But little did they know that this arrangement would shape their destiny when tragedy struck 12 years later.

In 2019, Lisa's father passed away, leaving them grappling not just with grief but also with the grim reality of having no property in their name. To add insult to injury, her family's relationship with their aunt had also gone south, putting them at risk of being ousted altogether. Lisa knew what she had to do-secure a safe space for her family, and fast.

"I only did that because I had no other choice that was acceptable to me. I refused to let my family continue to stay with my aunt," confesses Lisa in one of her YouTube videos. Her family's touching story resonated with over 175,000 viewers, who follow her journey and pick up nuggets of wisdom from her channel, Lisa's Adulting in Singapore.

However, the odds were stacked heavily against her. Lisa discovered that her father had not made a CPF nomination, resulting in funds being tied up and effectively barring them from financial resources.

She was left with little choice and, as a mere undergrad student, bit the bullet and took on a daunting mortgage of nearly $200,000 to purchase a two-room resale flat under the Non-Citizen Family (NCF) scheme.