{"id":6041,"date":"2016-05-29T07:11:12","date_gmt":"2016-05-28T23:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.99.co\/blog\/singapore\/?p=6041"},"modified":"2022-07-01T04:02:27","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T20:02:27","slug":"best-time-buy-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.99.co\/singapore\/insider\/best-time-buy-property\/","title":{"rendered":"Why NOW may be the best time to buy property"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Property prices have fallen across the board, but home owners still aren’t biting. In some cases, this is an effect of a weak economy, and rising interest rates. In other cases however, some may have taken the route of property investors – they want to wait for prices to drop, and time the market. But rather than being prudent, this could be a mistake.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Investment
Investment is all about timing – Several trends in the market now indicate that it is currently the best time to buy property<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How far has the property market fallen?<\/b><\/h3>\n

Property prices have fallen over nine percent since their last peak, in Q3 2013. Developers have started to feel the pinch, with Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) records showing sales volumes that have fallen by almost a third since April 2015.<\/p>\n

There are expectations of further discounts still, as the Additional Buyers Stamp Duty (ABSD) for developers and the Qualifying Certificate (QC) charges close in. It’s expected that developers will drop prices or use more appealing payment methods, to clear out the remaining units before the deadline – an example is OUE Twin Peaks, which has seen both price declines, and a Deferred Payment Scheme (DPS). DPS allows for 80 percent of the payment to be deferred for up to three years.<\/p>\n

Barring condos in the Core Central Region (CCR), most private, non-landed homes seem to be in free fall. Prospective buyers think it’s a race to the bottom, as the government refuses to lift cooling measures that drive down property values – many are content to sit on the sidelines, and wait for an even better discount.<\/p>\n

However, home-owners should consider taking a different mindset from investors. For this group of buyers, the current market represents an unprecedented opportunity. Property prices, which were overheated in 2013, are now approaching levels of affordability. This is especially true for those who have been eyeing – and saving – for higher end properties in District 9, 10, or other CCR areas.<\/p>\n

Why home-owners need to think differently from investors<\/b><\/h3>\n

The primary interest of a home-owner should not be profit. Rather, the emphasis should be on affordability and lifestyle. For example, consider the much talked about million dollar HDB flats<\/a><\/span>. From an investor’s perspective, the amounts forked over by the buyers are not rational – transaction prices of surrounding properties are much lower, and there is little room for capital gain when the selling price is already so high.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, it makes sense from the perspective of a home-owner.<\/p>\n

Consider that a home-owner (or owner-occupier if you like) is concerned with having an ideal living space, not with eventual resale gains. Unlike an investor, they will have to stay in the property and raise their families there. There is no rental income to be gained (with the exception of the few who rent out rooms in their homes), and they intend to live there for 20 or 30 years; perhaps for the entirety of their lives.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, as non-investors, they cannot stake their retirement on their house. They cannot sell the property, as they would have nowhere to live.<\/p>\n

These factors mean home-owners need to adopt a different mindset. Attempting to time the property market, and buy at the lowest price, may backfire in various ways:<\/p>\n