Property Views
-
lee_yl,
You’re very well prepared for retirement with golden nest-eggs - not one hut 3. You bought yr 3 properties with 2 fully paid up eons ago. It’ll be diff for most man-in-street to profit or even try to keep their properties if they start buying only now.
Then Spore land has not been so well developed. Interest rates will be climbing fr almost zero & as u said it has room to hit 5%. Inflation not as high, supply of homes were less & easier to rent out for income.
Also do bear in mind as we keep properties for future generations, most Sporeans will not be passing on land, as best is FH owise increasingly will be 999yr or 99yr. Old properties need a lot of repairs, and not as attractive for tenants.
DH’s young colleague invest into a walk-up apt & imagine the high reqmt for maintenance & repairs. He didn’t get a tenant after more than a year. Then this foreigner (fr Austria) took advantage of the run down place & throw numerous complaints but each time contractors were arranged for rectification works for bathtub, facet or air-cond, tenant will hv all sort of excuses to avoid work being down. M’time he deviously skip paying rent (which is alr below mkt rate) exceeding 6 mths, before owner applied to court to evict the tenant. Although court rule in favour of owner, tenant always not ard to be evicted by bailiff.
Eventually, DH’s colleague didn’t evict him but the en bloc saved him fr the tenant.
So, many wld not hv anticipated complications & calculate purely on dollar value. Many things had changed & property investment today is not lucrative anymore.
Where else can Spore develop property w/o en bloc & bull-dozing landed properties to build up? These all drive costs further up, skyrocket high. Our future generations will find it hard to own properties & even if we pass on these props are alr older & need funds to maintain. If selling off, it’ll just be as costly to find replacement.
I certainly hope govt put in more measures to favour SC ownerships & more hindrances for foreign buyers.
Looking at Australia’s model in foreign land ownership, the locals still find it tough owning properties for themselves. Most go on rentals. Same with the US, when sub-prime kicked in, many cldnt hold on to their homes & gonon rentals but only in poor areas away fr expensive homes. Some frds thot they rush in to invest & got burnt coz they had to pour in lots of maintenance & managing fee but hard to find paying tenants & even found, had mths in-btwn rentals w/o rental income. They end up pouring more money till they had to cut their loses. It’s not just a Sporean phenomena. -
Wah! So it seems DH and I are the only “suckers” here who have been overly prudent. Bought our HDB based on 1 person’s income (just in case 1 of us lost our job, or in case I needed to become a SAHM for my planned child).
Started our family and used our spare cash to pay for preschool expenses. Meantime fully paid up our HDB loan with CPF.
Now to avoid the ABSD, selling off the HDB so we can upgrade to an old condo with large space. With minimal loan.
Maybe majority don’t do things this way. But the recent cooling measures really helps us this demographic. -
-deleted-
-
zac's mum:
yes, I feel the new cooling measure help to block those anyhow investors, more benefits for first time upgrader . I started fr hdb flat too , 16yrs ago but was really cheap then. The best period to buy was 2005 to 2008 - condo was cheap - i was over prudent & missed good buys that time , thus miss earning $$$ ( i had frens who earned bet $400k to $800k - no absd, no seller stamp duty too )Wah! So it seems DH and I are the only “suckers” here who have been overly prudent. Bought our HDB based on 1 person’s income (just in case 1 of us lost our job, or in case I needed to become a SAHM for my planned child).
Started our family and used our spare cash to pay for preschool expenses. Meantime fully paid up our HDB loan with CPF.
Now to avoid the ABSD, selling off the HDB so we can upgrade to an old condo with large space. With minimal loan.
Maybe majority don’t do things this way. But the recent cooling measures really helps us this demographic. -
MP
Guess am overly conservative too but it is ok as this is better than to suffer in pain.
Afterall, flipping is just to earn more money but no risk no gain.
I am contented with my current situation. Having said that, of course money is the more the merrier. -
MyPillow:
Yes. Those were the good years but thereafter a lot of hot money flowed into this part of Asia. We managed to catches properties that were pretty cheap then.
yes, I feel the new cooling measure help to block those anyhow investors, more benefits for first time upgrader . I started fr hdb flat too , 16yrs ago but was really cheap then. The best period to buy was 2005 to 2008 - condo was cheap - i was over prudent & missed good buys that time , thus miss earning $$$ ( i had frens who earned bet $400k to $800k - no absd, no seller stamp duty too )zac's mum:
Wah! So it seems DH and I are the only “suckers” here who have been overly prudent. Bought our HDB based on 1 person’s income (just in case 1 of us lost our job, or in case I needed to become a SAHM for my planned child).
Started our family and used our spare cash to pay for preschool expenses. Meantime fully paid up our HDB loan with CPF.
Now to avoid the ABSD, selling off the HDB so we can upgrade to an old condo with large space. With minimal loan.
Maybe majority don’t do things this way. But the recent cooling measures really helps us this demographic. -
I think we have been very lucky to have caught on the right time.
We never got a chance to buy HDB and this is the biggest regrets for dh. To many, that is guaranteed income.
Our 1st property’s current price is marginally higher than our purchase price 18 years ago. Pil purchased with dh (when he just started work and at one of the peaks. They thought price has fallen and went in but it went down more. It is in a quiet environment with no MRT nearby. It is freehold and we’ve been renting out for 10 years. Big unit but rental is nothing exciting due to location. At least with 10 years rental income, I wouldn’t say it is a bad investment.
10 years ago with the building of casinos and I was probably more financially stable then, we bought a freehold apartment in the central east area. My parents sold off their HDB nearby and moved there. The price has doubled. As we look back recently, it was actually a good decision to sell of their HDB as it is ageing and 99 years is a concern now. While their HDB used to command a premium, this don’t seem to be the case now.
Shortly after upgrading my parents, my pils asked us to consider looking at landed due to space crunch in our 1st property. After shopping for less than 15 houses and 1 month, we bought a 999 years landed for less than 900K. It was mostly around that range back then with brand new 3 storey going at 1.5-1.6mil. We invested in extensive renovation that was much cheaper than as well. Shortly after our purchase, the prices of property went up non-stop due to enbloc etc… till the last fall. But landed home prices remain stable during the fall. The price has more than tripled and is one of our best investments.
In Q4 last year, after we’ve finally paid off our loans (loan interest rate in the last 10 years was lower too so we aggressively re-finance and shorten our loan period), we bought a freehold unit in prime east that has MRT at its doorstep in the future. It was more like dh having that initial thoughts and I felt with all the enbloc news, maybe it’s a sign that things are moving. So with his initial thoughts and my "encouragement", we took the plunge. It’s crazy as it was like the 3rd development that we saw. I really like the house and we moved my parents to the new place and rented out their old place as dh couldn’t bear to rent out the new place. We had to pay 10% ABSD. Looking at the latest caveat before government’s move, the psf has increased and if we considered total cost we paid, it seems to suggest that we made the right decision. On hindsight, we probably won’t buy now with higher ABSD. So yes, counting our blessings in this journey. -
Most of my friends property journey is buy bto. Clear mortgage and buy a condo but keeping the hdb. I only know one that went on to buy a third property. Profile is local uni graduates and both couples working.
Compared to Hongkongers who have to save hard for the downpayment for their first property, I think we are very fortunate. -
Cloud Cloud:
Yes Cloud Cloud. That is a good reminder. Singaporeans are blessed to have affordable optiins for a roof over our heads viz HDB. Thereafter those who can afford it can move on to invest in other optionsMost of my friends property journey is buy bto. Clear mortgage and buy a condo but keeping the hdb. I only know one that went on to buy a third property. Profile is local uni graduates and both couples working.
Compared to Hongkongers who have to save hard for the downpayment for their first property, I think we are very fortunate. -
It’s about 时机 (perfect timing ) and the right age at the right time - my frens / colleagues who had luck in property market are at least 3yrs and above older than me during the cheap pricing period , with more savings n more cpf thus can plunge earlier than me.
It is going to be more difficult as time goes, even more difficult for our kids- with parents help n blessings can definitely cushion the burden - thus my preference is go for fh
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login