As a business owner, you should always find ways to make money works for you. Investing in financial markets is great, but real estate remains one of the most reliable form of investment, especially in growing region like Singapore. With influx of entrepreneurs and expats who want to live and work in the city-state, demand on real estate – especially affordable ones – remains high.
Now, buying a property requires plenty of considerations. One consideration you may have to think about for a while is whether you will go for an old unit versus a brand new one. While both have their pros and cons, in this article, we will be discussing why you would prefer to choose a new piece of property over one that has been around for several years.
When considering your next property purchase, explore the compelling benefits of a new launch condo instead of an old property. To buy your perfect home with modern amenities and design, explore the new launch condo options available at PropNex and make an informed decision for your future.
Here are some good questions to ask yourself, wherein saying no might actually mean you are missing out on a really good investment deal.
Do you want to be able to skip on having to repair things?
For a lot of old condos, wear and tear is an inevitable fact of life. Buildings will have to endure the changing seasons, the changing weather, and even natural disasters that are hard to avoid. They might even have had to endure some accidents that nobody could have accounted for.
Whether the damage was done to the external parts of the building or sustained inside of the units, the fact of the matter is that older places will most likely need a lot of repairs in order to be functional again. You might need to seal some cracks in the walls, replace termite-infested wood, and even need to fix leaky plumbing, not to mention potentially outdated electrical wiring.
There are tons of mistakes that could completely render any home uninhabitable. For example, How Stuff Works notes that damage to the water systems could cause liquid to seep through your concrete, and also encourage the development of mold.
While a single crack on the wall may not amount to much, if you were to add up every single repair that needed to be done, you might find yourself having to shell out a large amount of money just to get your unit up to par with current offerings on the market. Not a good investment proposition, don’t you think?
Do you want to be able to enjoy brand new amenities?
This is one of the more obvious reasons why you may want to spring for a new launch condo instead of investing in an old home. Especially in a region that’s rapidly growing like Singapore, new condos are very much appealing, indeed. If you look at any local property websites, such as PropertyGuru Singapore, you’ll see a nice list of recently-launched new condos – plenty to choose from!
Not a lot of old condominiums are outfitted with a complete set of amenities, such as a gym, a swimming pool, and even a nice, fancy lobby. They might not even have a working elevator, much less two of them. This is fine if there are only three floors to your building, but what if you lived on the topmost floor, in a 20-storey building? Imagine how many steps you would have to trek just to get home, if there was no elevator to take.
New buildings are also more likely to have stronger security, with a lot of security cameras installed along the premises, and with enough staff to keep an eye on everything. Another thing to take into consideration is the fact that older condo buildings may need higher maintenance fees, depending on just how long they have been around, according to an article by Dan Barnabic on MarketWatch.
Would you like to find a condo that is located in a bustling part of the city?
Sometimes, you might be lucky enough to find an old unit in a rather developed part of town. Azalea Park Condo, located on Fernvale Road in Changi; Kings Apartments, located on Lorong K Telok Kurau; both are a couple of good examples of established, affordable freehold apartments and condos.
Given a large community, tons of facilities might have already sprung up to meet the demand required by such a population. However, you might also be able to find a better deal by looking for a condo that was just recently built. Compared to older offerings, they might end up being more logistically sound. Why would that be?
Well, older buildings may have been built in good parts of the city, but the facilities around it may not have been planned properly, causing some inconveniences. On the other hand, newer places tend to be planned with everything in mind, from the places where people will live, to the shops that they will need, all placed in areas that are easy to reach. They will also be less susceptible to any effects of the weather that older buildings may not have accounted for, such as floods. Nothing is more irritating than having to wade through flood water just to get the groceries that you need for the week, after all.
In Conclusion: Get a New Condo if You Want the Best of Everything (and Are Willing to Pay a Good Price)
Hopefully, by listing a number of possible factors for you to consider the next time you are faced with such a decision, you have a better idea of what would work better for your specific property investing case.
Eventually, everything boils down to the budget that you have. If you can’t afford to buy a property to rent in, say, Orchard Road, then you will have to make certain adjustments to your investing plan in order to achieve your goal. You might also have to set your sights on a home that is smaller, or one that is located in a less ideal neighborhood, in order to make your plan work. One upside of this is that the property will be more budget-friendly for potential renters.
Good luck in your property investing endeavor!