The Little Known Way to Use 100% CPF OA Investable Amount For Investment into REITs Without Road Block of the Usual 35% Limit.

I have always wanted to use my CPF Investment account to buy into REITs. Unfortunately, I was always restricted by the 35% limit on excess investable funds over S$20K for property funds and equities. Property funds under CPF website refers to SREITs on its white list which is subject to this 35% limit. While watching Master Leong's You Tube video on "A Different Path to CPF  Investing...", I could not believe my ears when I heard that one can buy into the REIT ETF (NikkoAM-StraitsTrading Asia ex Japan REIT ETF-CFA.SI) using 100% CPF OA investable amount. Earlier this week, I invested S$20K of my CPF investable balances into the CFA ETF and the first few days was nerve wrecking on me as my trading representative and my CPF agent bank officer both insisted that this is impossible and CFA ETF is under the 35% limit grouping, hence I have to prepare to cough up S$15K in hard cash due to insufficient CPF funds for release after the T+2.

1. Stock Firm Trading Broker Says Impossible For 100% CPF Allowed Into CFA REIT ETF.

When I contacted my trading representative, she insisted that base on her years of experiences, this is not allowed as there is always a 35% limit on SGX traded securities. She gave me the number of the Stock Trading Firm front desk to double check. Funny thing is that the front desk also sings the same tune and referred me to call my CPF Agent Bank (I am using United Overseas Bank ("UOB") which is the right party to check).  

Apparently, the entire stock trading firm is not sure whether ETF funds can use 100% CPF and their thoughts are that it should be subject to the 35% stock limit. In any case, no one wants to take responsibility hence easier to just Tai Ji to the agent bank. 

2. UOB CPF Agent Response Equally Bad

Now, this gets even more interesting. The UOB CPF Agent customer service officer told me that while CFA REIT falls under the approved "List A ETF", not all ETF is 100%. He cited SPDR Gold ETF, which is subject to the 10% investable limit, as a good example of exception. for CFA ETF, the officer argued that this is a "Property Fund" since it invested into various REITs hence it is caught under the 35% investable limit. What the heck???

3. Master Leong Response To My Query On You-Tube Video.

I then decided to seek clarification from Master Leong as I am not sure whether my understanding of what he has mentioned inside his video is referring to 100% usage of investable CPF amount. Master Leong replied: 

Summary

Anyway, by mid-week, the trade which I made went through with CPF Board releasing 100% CPF funds to my UOB agent bank and from there the money went to my stock broker. So, it appears that UOB CPF account management customer service team and the stock broker firm personnel are rather out-dated with their staff knowledge and training which is really shocking.