Summary
Never mix your investment and ownstay criteria when making a property purchase decision.
If you are buying for ownstay, you only need to look at your own personal criteria like convenience, comfort and family.
If you are buying for investment purposes, you should look at monetary factors like market entry points, location and supply-demand conditions.
Article
First off, it is impossible to purchase a property holding the purpose of investing and ownstay at the same time. This is because emotions should not be a factor in investments.
As long as you are going to stay in the property, there will be emotions involved. You will have needs and requirements to fill such as convenience, comfort and family. These factors are independent of investment factors.
Investment is more detached and rational. Investors look at property in terms of market entry points, location, future plans and supply-demand conditions. Investment is about buying at the right price and selling at the right price. More often than not, investment and personal factors will conflict. For example, property that is near to your parents’ place or child’s school may not necessarily be an ideal investment choice. In fact, some of my past clients ask me about the investment prospects of their property choices after they have already specified their preferred location and unit size requirements. However, once they specified these factors, the property usually does not fall under the category of good investments. In the end, they can only bet on en bloc potential and future plans for MRT for a good investment return for these categories of property.
Hence, it is better to focus solely on your personal criteria if you are purchasing for ownstay factors. It is almost impossible to strike a good balance between personal and investment criteria.
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