Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered_Making Sense
Thanks for the advice. Of course anyone whom are into investments, should have emergency funds. So long as one be prudent when times are bad. Also, for whatever investment, I always tell myself, "what if" this happen, that happens, can I still sustain the mortgage? Such big investment may not be for the faint hearted. Ha ha.
However, what's left from me will go to my family eventually, so long it is not "debt".
Some people just need the "motivation" to move on, for me, properties in Singapore is always a safe investment, looking at the size of our nation, what else do we have. To leverage, you need maximize your return, ultimately we all work for a better future. A person does not buy properties to live in, but to maximize his income and thereby getting passive income (rental) out of it. It is quite straight forward for my stand point. ha ha.
New home owner should go for brand new HDB (BTO) as a start, it will form bases for your future investment portfolio. Imagine how many percent your flat will worth after 10 years  . Single should get themselves a small HDB flat or apartment, rather them renting a place. |
I don't think anyone is disputing that passive income is good, and that it is important to have one to have investments, to build up your retirement nest.
The question is : is property investment a good move now, when all fundamental indicators (with the exception of excess liquidity) pointing to an overpriced market? To me the answer is a pretty resounding no.
I disagree with the statement that property investment is always safe in land scarce Singapore. There has been too many examples of prime properties collapsing in prices at the trough of the cycle in the past.
Buying at a price of x and seeing the price go down to 0.5x then selling after 15 years at 1.2x is not the mark of a good investment. Buying at 0.5x or 0.7x and selling after 5 yrs at 1.2x is a good investment. That also means being able to analyze relative value in order to optimally time your purchase instead of taking a passive buy and hold approach, and relying on the macro concept of land scarcity and leverage to clock in your gains.
Remember the generally upward trajectory of property prices our parents and grandparents enjoyed no longer applies for us. From 1980 to today, my parents house value went up by 35 times. There is no way this happens again in the next 30 years. a doubling in value is probably optimistic. Salaries are just not keeping pace. What does this mean? Well the main implication is that a blind buy and hold approach will be a lot less effective for us than for our forefathers.
So things are fundamentally different now and we need to recognize and adapt accordingly to be successful going forward. Hence to buy today with so many red flags out there is hardly prudent.