An Ipoh friend working in Singapore told me that she may want to buy a condo in Ipoh for her retirement. ‘You are retiring in a few years’ time?’ I asked. She said, nolar, buy now for future, since the price will continue to go up and S$ to RM is very advantageous to me.
I believe everyone should plan for retirement and Ipoh is of course a great place to retire. However, if we are buying a condo and will only stay there after we retire, which may be another 15 years, I think it is a little too far away. My reasoning stems from the fact that typically the maintenance of condo is harder compared to landed properties. Once leakages starts, it is so troublesome to rectify, especially if the leakage was due to pipes which are in the units above our unit. Of course, if the developer is a responsible one and uses the best materials and the contractors build it up to the specification specified, then this may not happen. However, assuming that we are only buying a RM400,000 condo, I cannot imagine the best of the best materials being used because the margins are likely to be low. I don’t know, maybe this is just my perception but why not buy landed instead?
If I am earning S$, I would choose to buy a landed property in a good location because comparatively, you get nothing in any other primary cities when you compare to Ipoh. Also, conservatively, the price would double easily within the next 15 years. The range acceptable is also much wider compared to a condo, not to mention that for condo, the designs would be very outdated by the time I needed to stay. As for the landed property, I only need to get a good architect and the house can be totally renewed. It is true, I may need to spend but for condo, even if I am willing to spend, I cannot change the outlook of the condo. I can only renovate the interior of the condo.
Cons: Rental for landed property is likely to be low compared to condo. If no one stays in the landed property, you may have a haunted house lookalike house after a few years. Haha. So, I think best to rent out.
So, I told her, I prefer a landed property instead. Let’s see what’s her decision. 🙂
written on 30 Jan 2014
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0 Responses
I couldn’t agreed with you more.
My view is, if she is a cash king then go for landed. No need to serve bank interest and just spend for touch up after 15 years later. Property prices keep increasing mean renovation cost also follow. I don’t know still worth it or not if serving bank interest for 15 yrs + renovation cost. 🙂
If i were her, i will continue buy many good facade condo + good rental + appreciation. When the time come then only think about it how i want my retirement life.
i like your comment. she is richer than me but not rich enough yet. haha.
Hi Asali,
I partially agreed with, how could you ensure the good rental is sustainable in the future as i can see there are too much of competitive in rental market, the condo has sprount every where just like a mushroom. morever, maintaining high rise is more challenging than landed as living in condo require a good toleration, it is not so easy to sustain such a long period 15 years, you may also need count on the quality of the construction, how well the committee could well maintained to the building, remember, there is always an issue as everyone has their own opinion, as i had a few years experience in my apartment as a commitee, the resident is always the big headache from building management standpoint, for instance, rubbish management, long debt of maintenance fee, illegal extention, having pet, water leaking and so on.
I didn’t mean that staying in condo is disadvantage all the way, there are pro and con for anything, what i tried to interpret is, condo/apartment has too much of common area, the chance of getting into dispution is very high, there are overhead of maintenance, if you want to keep the condo/apartment for 15 years, as a owner, one has to prepare and put this risk into consideration as well.
As a recommedation from kopiandproperty, i am still concurring with the strategy, if she has enough cash, why not investing on landed for long term as it is always the good stratgey. at least, we could able to take control in some points.
Ang, agree about the maintenance of condos. Nevertheless, I think the situation has improved after the apartment committee took over from the developer previously. As for buying condo, the person would have to take all these valid points into consideration. Thank you for your comments which comes from real life experience.
Hi Chialih,
Thanks for your reply, it is my pleasure to have this comment and sharing, lastly, thanks for your article in this kopiandproperty.com website of sharing a lot of useful information. it is very informative.
Wishing you and your family Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai.
Wow! Thanks Ang! Wishing you and your family a ‘Horse Galloping to Success’ Year! You too Asali!
My thought is condo/aprts located within 15km of KLCC and walking distance to LRT or MRT or monorail will always do well, you can download the rental market from JPPH to verify. I think those are common issues on Condo or apartments which can be addressed but the hard part is long debt maintenance fees.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not discouraging for landed property investment. Indeed, it’s good and nice for investment purposes.
Hi Asali,
Thanks for your reply, no worries, it is good to have this topic discussed for sharing the knowledge to each other ^_^ and learn together.
Have a good day