If I am given a lower home loan rate, I will be very happy because it will lower the monthly repayments for me. What about you? Would you be happy as well? I am sure you would. However, if the question is would I buy another property because the rates are now lower, I am not so sure. Perhaps I would increase my viewing activities so that I could eventually identify a good property to buy.
An overweight person is not healthy, of course. Better be balanced when it comes to health. So, please do not be overweight like me. I will do best to reduce it back to 76kg. However, when we speak about investments and we look at allocating our limited resources, we want to be ‘overweight’ on some sectors which has a higher potential for higher returns and be underweight for investments which has a smaller potential for higher returns.
There are always news saying that the next generation may not be able to afford their own property. Maybe one reason is also because people are getting married later, so their partner could not help in the mortgage payment until much later. I was fortunate as my wife was working when we bought our first property together.
If you are an owner of a strata high-rise unit and you have owned the same unit for the past 30 years or so, you may already be earning a pretty decent return on investment from your rental since the price you paid for 30 years ago is by far lower than the rental you will obtain today. So, do you want to sell your unit? Maybe not.
Property prices don’t necessarily go up just because the market is moving or seems to be getting better. If we bought at a high price because of a great sales pitch by an attractive sales person, someone offered us a big discount, or an area which is the rage, that doesn’t guarantee a price increase.
This might be a tricky question. Should we think higher income makes homes more affordable? Or property affordability drives property demand? In other words, this is like a chicken and egg question. Home prices should come down first so that people can buy or people should earn a higher salary first in order for them to buy?
What’s your perfect property? One which is very affordable and meets all that you want plus needs? Perhaps just a SOHO unit with security and is a Transit Oriented Development (TOD) which you can go to the ground floor and walk to the MRT station directly?
If you are a working professional and you do NOT believe in property investment, perhaps you are the reason why many people also believe the same. Sorry to add that when we put property investment towards the last thing we invest in, then we must make sure all our other non-property investments would give us a return which will be able to cover what we will miss without having a property to our name when the time our income stops arrive.
For many years, every time anyone told me that their salary is not enough or that their employer underpaid them, I will ask them to think of ways to get a second income or to get another job which could pay them better. Most of the time, the answer is that they are too busy or that they could not find another job which could pay them higher plus doing the same work as what they do today.
No matter who the person is, if the person tells you that buying this property is sure success because it’s near the MRT, please think again. The reason is because if there’s such a thing, everyone would already know and everyone would have been faster than us. In other words, when we learnt about it and we wanted to buy, the price has already moved upwards.
I had a great conversation with someone who loves hold investment and could speak easily on the topic for hours. However, he kept saying that property investment is not good because… he bought a landed property somewhere in Klang Valley and it has not appreciated much for the past 5 years and yet the rental is very bad and could not cover the monthly mortgage payment.
If you are also waiting to buy a property just like me, then here are some homework that you would have to do first. I am also doing all these steps too. Else, I cannot say that I am waiting to buy a property. If I did not do the below, then I have to say I am dreaming about buying a property. In order to wait for the right property to buy, I need to do the following. Perhaps you can also take a look and follow the steps which are relevant to you?