Quite a number of readers have been asking this question. The answer is simple. You only have to ask yourself one question: are you buying your home or buying for investment? HDB flats are for your own stay. HDB is a home ownership scheme meant for owner-occupation only. HDB states clearly in their website that "HDB plans and develops public housing towns that provide … [Read more...]
Prices of leasehold landed properties rarely go up?
The founder of a Singapore housing loan consulting firm has an interesting comment in the book Secrets of Singapore Property Gurus, "From my observation, the worst property investment is buying 99 year leasehold Landed Property as the value rarely goes up. In fact the value might go down if the property is over 15 years old." In April 2007, I happened to find a 99-year … [Read more...]
Freehold or leasehold? (cont’d)
3) It’s more than tenure when it comes to borrowing. For financing, besides looking at the remaining years of the property, banks also look at the borrower’s income, credit history, past property investment, ability to repay the loan, etc. Some banks also use a formula to calculate the tenure of the mortgage depending on the borrower’s age. The younger you are, the longer … [Read more...]
Freehold or leasehold?
This is one of the most common questions people ask when they buy private properties in Singapore. Singaporeans, especially the older generations, have very strong preference in freehold properties, as compared to leasehold projects. Their reasons are: 1) The value of freehold properties appreciates in the long-term while prices of leasehold properties drop once they … [Read more...]
Investing in properties the Templeton way
Recently I found an interesting read in Lauren Templeton and Scott Phillips' Investing the Templeton Way. In fact, John Templeton's principle of value investing can be perfectly applied in property investment. His many great ideas in the book made me rethink what I had done when I was building my property portfolio in the past few years --- there's simply too much room for … [Read more...]