Frodo, thank you for throwing the ball to me. :p
I cannot advise what is good for you and what is bad as everyone has his own way of investing and how he see things. I can only give you my way of investing in properties.
Investing in properties is like investing in shares. There are true blue chips yet there are penny stocks. I prefer to invest in true blue chips like London or KL. Then of course, I also dabble a little bit in penny stocks like Iskandar. Then again, I also spread my risks around in putting my money in foreign currencies as RM is very unstable but these are not for making money but protecting its value. I see S$ as a stable currency, therefore I buy Singapore bank bonds and low risk unit trusts. In a nut shell, that is how I see things.
Interestingly I'm not bothered in the ROI of foreign currency trading but rather to minimise forex risks.
On properties, it is all about accumulation over years. You do not make money over night on properties. My rules are simple. Just buy where there is limited developing land eg Penang island, of course Singapore or prime waterfront land like Puteri Harbour
Then go micro selection ie the actual site, the neighbours, the facings, etc. Don't just say location. Very important is the particular unit within the same well located development. Just don't go buying super expensive ones. Asking prices is one thing, actual transacted is another. So don't be fooled by salesmen especially in the secondary market.
Start small. My first unit is a low cost house RM 43,500 in 1984. I rented it out for RM550/ mth to a same tenant for the last 20 years. No increase ever since and no problem in collecting rental as well. Market value is now at RM 250k. 2nd unit is a terrace house, bought in 1992 at RM 139k. Market value now is 800k. 3rd unit light industrial factory in 2003 at RM 480k. Value today is RM 2.0m...and so forth.
London properties is good too. I had one property which made GBP 200k paper gain per official valuation as required by UK tax department and piling just started. And my total portfolio todate is just short of magic 10.
Money is just a figure in the bank. There's no value unless it is converted into something. So for me, this is my way of converting the figures into something more anti inflationary. There's really no right or wrong answers to this. So it depends how you see it. For this very reason, you don't see me criticising others for any form of investments. Good luck....Happy MERDEKA!!
