Singapore Residential Properties: Balconies, Air Con Ledges, Planter Boxes, Bay Windows Considered Livable Space??

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/property-blog/denied-banks-cut-lending-shoe-box-buyers-092714057.html

I have been warning against buying studio apartments that are more than 10 minutes by train ride to major office sites like Jurong East, Tampines, MBFC and Raffles Place. The developers just ripped off the buyers by charging up to 50% higher on a PSF basis. The payback time will come very soon. In London, buyers look at financials like gross rental yield, cashflow after paying for mortgages, net rental yield (after paying property tax, maintenance charges etc). When you buy a 700 SF home for S$990k, for S$1,400 PSF, you think you have a one or two bedder but think again, 15% of the space is used for balconies, bay windows and air con ledges. You are actually buying 608 SF of livable space and paying S$1,610 PSF not S$1,400 PSF. So you should not fancy buying a studio or a unit less than 1000 SF in areas like Punggol!!

In London, you can buy a nice apartment of around 500 SF for only GBP220k, that's S$440k!! In areas like Woolwich Arsenal, you can get an apartment by the River Thames for the type of price. Just 20 minutes by train or boat you can reach Canary Wharf, which is equivalent to our MBFC! Rental yield is around 5 - 7% for that area and it's freehold.

Nearer the Canary Wharf, you can get a Greenwich apartment over looking Thames for around GBP300 - 400k. You can even take a cable car across to work! In the US and UK, they throw in the balcony for free. There are no bay windows, no air con ledges factored into the price!

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/property-blog/buy-home-6-300-092448675.html

I am not telling you to rush out to buy properties in the UK or the US. There are a lot of con jobs out there, where the agent buys a row of houses for US$25,000 and comes here to mark them up to US$50,000. Read the hyperlink above. There are issues such as taxes (capital gains tax in the US and dividend tax in the UK), property maintenance etc. I would suggest that Singaporeans just go for apartments overseas, because there's no hassle of doing major repairs where you have to oversee the building. Still you will need trustworthy property management companies who will probably take 8 - 10% of the monthly rental as a service charge.

You also have to fly to that country at least once or twice to survey the area, whether it's near a slum, whether it's safe, the kind of tenants you will be attracting.

With the ABSD in Singapore, foreign investors will no doubt be flocking to the UK and US to buy properties. There's obviously better value for money. Singapore is near the peak of the cycle now, after enjoying a run of 3 years. The US is right at the bottom and London's property cycle is on the down trend still. If you have excess cash, other than buying more stocks, you should explore an escape route out of Singapore. Buy a house in Melbourne, London, San Francisco, New York and Hong Kong. You get to enjoy living overseas and diversify your risk of investing all into one Singapore basket.

Here are more adverts of what you can buy by River Thames, not what Singapore's developers often try to sell you, a "long kang" view or "swimming pool" view which can only be seen when you look down from your balcony.