property investment

How to Choose Your Housing and Development Board (HDB)

8/01/2019 10:03:00 AM


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Buying your HDB for example in Bukit Panjang is by no mean an easy task. First, you nees to think about financing it. Then you have to understand all the procedures on how to apply for it. Then you get your queue number and it is time to choose your unit. Here are some of the factors to consider when choosing your HDB flat unit, as well as how to decide which level you want to stay on. 

 1. Which floor should you stay on?
Staying on a low floor means that you will have to deal with more pets such as cockroaches, creepy-crawlies, ants and mosquitoes. This is especially right if your unit is close to the rubbish chute. Not only that, you will also be more exposed to noise from functions being held at your void deck as well as from any playgrounds or sports courts that are nearby. However, that does not mean that you are guaranteed with peace and quite if you choose a higher floor. Even as you get less 'immediate' noise generated from the void deck area, you might be privy to quite a bit of noise from traffic, especially if you are facing the main road or expressway. The higher up you live, The faster your place may get dusty. And of course, what puts many people off is the premium price that is attaches to units on higher floors. You can assume an approximate 0.5 percent increase in unit price per additional floor, which adds up to be quite a bit. 

 As for staying on the highest floor? If you do not mind forking out the added cost for it, you are in for some pretty sweet advantages. For one, you have no neighbours above you, so you would not have to deal with almming doors, furniture being moved around or someone else's wet clothes dripping on your laundry. Staying on the highest floor also means taht in the case of ceiling leakages, it is a clear-cut situation wherein HDB will step in and bear the costs of repair. If you are sandwiched in the middle, however, it is much more of a hassle trying to sort out if the damage is due to either party's negligence, and whether your neighbour is willing to share part of the repair cost as well. Lastly, though some potential flat owners are worried about units on the top floor getting more exposure to the heat, HDB flats are now constructed with additional levels above the top floors with access corridors to water tanks. These additional floors act as a sunscreen of sorts, meaning that you would not have direct sunlight or rainwater coming down on your unit on the top level.

 2. Orientation to the sun
Generally, you should avoid any flats that face the west as these are usually hit the worst by the midday sun, and temperatures can get pretty unbearable. Therefore, it is advisable that yoy should choose a flat that is facing north-south, so that you can get the best breeze. Want to get more in depth about this? You may pin your pontential flat's location on this Sun Calculator, and it will show you how the sun's movement and phases affects this particular location.

On the other hand, some home owners also value natural ventilation and natural light coming into their corridors. This allows you get fresh air and brightly lit corridors the entire day. If you wish to have natural light and ventilation all day, you would have to choose the units where corridors are not blocked by any tall neighbouring structures.

3. Future development
You might be viewing at a unit that look like your perfect home now, but it is always good to have a heads up about the government's plan for the surrounding areas in the next 10 to 15 years. You might view it as an asset that provide you with good rental income in the future.

4. Privacy from neighbours
It is no secret that Build-To Order (BTO) flats these days are smaller and it is not just the units that are shrinking, but the corridor space as well. You have to make sure that you check out your floor plan to see what the arrangement of the different units are like, and whether is is possible for your neighbours to look into your apartment or your utiliti yard when they are walking past.

As a conclusion, choosing a HDB flat is an exciting task, but make sure you spend enough time doing your research thoroughly and covering all your bases, s that you can get the best unit for your needs.



property investment

Are you gaining from Singapore’s property investment market?

4/04/2018 10:18:00 AM





Singapore property market is always the hot topic of the town that indicates the Singapore’s economic situation. Thanks to the economic boom after Singapore get it’s own independence, most elderly folks love investing in properties and the property prices soared, much to the delight of many property owners. It is not difficult to find any Singaporeans around with successful investment and finance that revolves around property. There are many stories around of how Singaporeans made lots of money from buying residential properties at low prices and selling it for more than what’s expected, be it HDB or condominium, today’s property prices has really shocked us all. So, is property investment in Singapore is really a good capital gain growth in today’s world? 
 
Can you lose money on your investment?

During the economic crisis or slowdown, we could see a “direct loss” where the property you owned has priced lower than your initial purchase price. Besides, the economic slowdown has indirectly affected your finances which may cause some property investors to lose their property due to their incapability to service the mortgage. Yet, in the downturn of economy, some property owners do sell it off at a lower price and still make profits but still they don’t get to enjoy the high profits like they used to when the economic was prospering. 
 
The expenses incurred

Investing in bonds and shares are straightforward, you pay for the number of shares you invested in with the processing fees. When you transacted for profit, most of your profits enter your pocket and all you need to pay is the transaction fees.

However, not for property investments, there’s expenses incurred like some form of leverage when buying a property. For instance, a $1 million dollar property, $600,000 might be loaned from bank and this loan would be incurring interest payment in the coming years.

How about renovation cost? For example, you own a HDB unit in Yishun and you would like to increase your HDB unit value, so you will need to renovate your HDB unit to make it more appealing for your potential buyer. Did you see the costs that will be incurred? Renovation and refurbishment costs where the transformation of the unit happens from shabby to wonderful. Not forgetting when you managed to sell of your property, you will need to pay your agent fee for at least 1% of the sales price. 
 
Do all properties price appreciate?

In Singapore, it has come to a point where the asset prices are soared to the top than it is to the bottom. We have reached to a point where a HDB flat used to sell it $7,000 to now whereby resale flat prices have reached a million dollars. All properties will appreciate over time should be debunked that’s if the developing country continue to open doors for foreign investments and good governance. Well, in today’s situation, we won’t be seeing many examples where property values jump into multiple folds. 
 
The ‘today’s situation’ that we are referring to is the current situation of cooling measures that was implemented back to back since year 2013. You can see the private property values stay stagnant ever since. Though, there are some minor depreciation, but the line shows stagnant ever since. However, in year 2017, Singapore government eased the property investors by reducing the Seller Stamp Duty by 4%. Yet, what’s happening around is that the supplies are higher than demands which is dampening the rental yields as the situation right now favors renters more. Here’s something for thoughts, the current market situation not only sees the abundance supply of new residential properties but what’s worrying is that Singapore’s population growth is outstrip by the abundance supply. The trend is more likely to continue over the next few years.

Do you listen to analysts? 
 
People who produce articles in newspapers and articles explaining technical analysis are called analysts. Often, their articles could be one sided with the main intentions to sell their ‘paid’ publications. Their views are often blind-sided, and it can be taken as an indication of what will happen in the future. True investors will go to the ground and make their technical analysis the sentiment on the market. It is rather contradicting to why people listen to analysts more than the property agents that are always on the ground dealing with transactions. It would be wiser for property investors to hang around with people who are far more familiar with property investments that has gone through the processes. Do think twice before you make your property investment decisions based on analyst’s thoughts. You wouldn’t want to be the one regretting with the choices you made for not making further judgements and on-the-ground analysis. 


 

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