A fresh start at 72. Why a retiree swopped her condo for a 4-room flat

Right-sizing in retirement can be emotionally fraught. Here's how to plan it properly.

- Sumiko Tan

One evening, shortly after moving into her 33rd-storey flat in Toa Payoh and dealing with the stress of renovations, retiree C.C. Hsu stood by her bedroom window and looked out.

“The sky, the scenery, it was so peaceful,” she recalls. “I could see far into the distance. I thought to myself, ‘The world is beautiful. Life is beautiful: I was filled with hope. I felt that what I'd done was worth it.”

She snapped photos on her phone and sent them to friends, who asked her: Which hotel are you staying at, with such a wonderful view?

Her reply: Not a hotel. It was her new HDB flat.

In May, she rightsized to a four-room HDB resale flat in Toa Payoh after selling her 1,600 sq ft freehold condominium in Upper Thomson.

Her husband had died about six years earlier and her three daughters have homes of their own. She realised it was time to move into a more manageable space.

“The condo was too big to maintain and I was paying $500 a month to the sinking fund and for maintenance, even though I wasn't using the facilities,” says Madam Hsu, 72, a retired Chinese-language teacher and grandmother of seven.

After her husband’s passing, her daughters had offered to live with her or have her move in with them. But she preferred to live independently.

Working with property agents from ERA, she narrowed her search to Toa Payoh and Serangoon, where two of her daughters live. Toa Payoh ticked all the boxes: it was close to family, had a slower, more peaceful pace of life than Serangoon, her block was fairly new and near an MRT station, an important consideration for the day she stops driving.

It’s also near a church she’s familiar with and there are plenty of food, supermarket and clinic options. “There’s even a community centre for me to join and stay healthy,’ she adds.