The market for condo for sale Singapore for $400,000 is booming. As of this writing, there are over 50 listings, which translates to a price of $400 per square foot.
The condo for sale singapore listings have been generating over 40,000 new listings each month since the summer. The bulk of attention has been on condominiums for sale in Singapore’s central business district (CBD) and areas like the Marina Bay area around Marina Bay Sands. The CBD is where most people live and work. This is where most of the government services are provided, so the CBD is almost certainly where you would want to buy a condo if you were looking to rent or buy one in Singapore.
This same reasoning applies to areas like Changi Village, Bukit Timah, Tampines and even Central Business District (CBD) – these are all places you would want to live in if you were looking to rent or buy a condo there.
And then there are areas like Jurong East and Jurong West that have been growing rapidly as young families move further out into the suburbs (more on that later).
For example, here’s an apartment listing in Jurong West:
Or here is an apartment listing in Tampines:
You might not be aware that what your home looks like depends on where you live – it does! In fact, it’s pretty important when buying a home or renting one – as we’ll see later on.
So yes – I know it sounds silly at first glance but let me back up and explain why it’s so important. Housing prices have surged because people have switched from renting to buying homes instead (paying more than R30k monthly now), and because young families have left their parents’ houses behind in search of cheaper housing options (getting divorced or separating). This has created a huge demand for housing as people try to avoid paying high rents/mortgage payments combined with high property taxes/insurance premiums.
For example:
There are also many studies showing that elderly people are more likely than younger people to need help with everyday expenses such as food shopping and transport fares making them more susceptible to being evicted from their homes by landlords who profit from higher rents/property taxes/insurance premiums than younger tenants do. Since rental property prices keep rising much faster than other types of property prices (e.g., houses) this makes it easier for landlords to.
Buying a Condo in Singapore
If you need to buy a condominium in Singapore, but don’t know how to do it, read this post.
In the course of writing it, I had to do some research on foreign buying regulations, and as a result of that found out about the requirements for buyers of condominiums in Singapore.
This seems like an odd thing for me to write about, but then again I don’t often get the opportunity to buy a condo in Singapore (I currently have no interest in doing so) and so I am hardly going to be in a position where I need to educate myself on the rules.
What I wanted to do was present some practical advice on how it actually works. You can find the full text here.
The only real thing you can do is make sure that whatever you are buying is not illegal – but this is not always possible. If there are any legal requirements (such as those on income), make sure that you are aware of them before you go ahead with your purchase.
For whatever reason (theoretically because we deserve our right to choose), Singapore is also one of the few countries which charges an extra 2% tax on sales of foreign-made goods and services. If you are buying or selling any kind of property in Singapore, you will have to pay at least 0% tax if your total transaction value is less than $10 million (including GST).
The only exception is property transactions where your total transaction value exceeds $5 million; at which point the tax rate will be 0%. You can find out more about what these things mean here: SLA Foreign Ownership of Property.
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Types of Condos in Singapore
Singapore is such a great place to live, but what if I want to move here? Do I have to buy a condo? No, you don’t. But some people do.
There are many reasons people buy condos. They want to be near family and friends, they want to have a pleasant, relaxing lifestyle, and they want more space than they can command in a big house or apartment. And that’s exactly what the vast majority of condos in Singapore are all about: spacious living with the benefits of modern amenities like high-speed internet (Singapore has the highest broadband penetration in the world) and quiet streetscapes.
It’s not hard to find an average-sized condo for sale in Singapore (or even in any other mega-city), though you certainly won’t find one for $400K. But there is much more to condo buying than just finding a place for your family and friends — you also need to consider your finances carefully, as well as the legal implications of making such an investment.
In this post I’ll look at three different types of condos available from various builders — those that are built strictly for cash buyers (opting out on leases or covenants), those that allow leaseholds (making them much more expensive than similar condos available from other builders), and those that are marketed strictly as investment properties (income-producing assets).
Condo vs. Apartment
If you’re new to the condo/apartment market, it seems that any property worth over $400,000 as of 2016 is going to be listed on a website. In fact, according to data from real estate site Zillow, this figure has gone up by more than 50% in just three years.
Of course, this is not an accurate reflection of the market or the cost of buying a condo. In fact, a half-million dollar condo in your own city might well be a little more expensive than a $400k one in Orlando. Furthermore, while there are many things you can do with your apartment as well as with your condo that are different from what you can do with one another (such as renting out the lounge room), there are also some specifics about how these properties should be marketed that make them unique among others and make them worth talking about.
Given all this, here’s what I did before I started writing this post: I bought a condominium for sale near my home for $400k (and I only pay $1200/month). The unit is brand new and fully equipped with all appliances including dishwasher and microwave. It has air conditioning, a balcony and large windows that overlook my yard and neighbors’ backyards. No other condos have had air conditioning or balconies like mine prior to me buying mine.
I wanted to do something different: tell people about it immediately after they see it on Zillow. So far so good: my online exposure rate is up by at least 5x over similar properties that have come on the market in the past month (I’ve been lucky enough to have some positive feedback throughout). And I now get inquiries even when I am not advertising; many people simply ask me “what’s it like?” or “is it decent?”
The key ingredient here was finding an affordable way to promote my property (or at least something cheap enough so that people wouldn’t feel ripped off if they didn’t buy). Luckily for me there was an app called “Sapphire” that allows users to show their condo for sale directly onto Facebook and Twitter without having to pay for advertising space (and which has been around since 2014 anyway).
When Sapphire comes across someone who is interested in seeing my place within 24 hours of posting it on Facebook or Twitter — even though they don’t technically want to buy — they start getting notifications.
Finding a Condo to Purchase in Singapore
Singapore is a great place to buy a condo. It’s not as big and well-endowed as New York, but it’s still a very nice city with good food, great beaches and some very desirable places to live. There are a lot of condos available, but they can be expensive.
What makes them expensive?
Lots of things! The most obvious one is the property market in Singapore. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that finding a condo for sale in Singapore $400,000 is the only way to get one for your needs – there are quite a few alternatives (can you afford the price difference?).
Some people prefer to buy their own properties or rent from friends or family – but this is pretty much unheard of in Singapore. If you want to live in the city center, you need to either find a condo for sale singapore $400,000 as an investor (which will be even more expensive) or buy outright with your own money. And this means it’s time for you to read on and look at what options are out there before dropping down so far into that abyss of price disparity.
How to Buy a Condo in Singapore
Singapore is a wonderful place for business. The land is cheap, there are a lot of people, and the infrastructure is top-notch. Last year, Singapore was named the world’s most liveable country by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Why? Because it’s a city-state in Southeast Asia that connects to other countries by land or sea, and its policy makers are working hard to make it a magnet for investors and companies alike.
While there are plenty of reasons why Singapore is such an exceptional place to live (golf courses, scuba diving, great restaurants!), one of the biggest incentives for new businesses to set up shop in Singapore are its low costs of doing business — including taxes and property fees.
Property prices in Singapore have been on an upward trajectory while rents have been relatively stagnant (and even decreased slightly in recent months). According to Apartment Finder , although average asking rents across major cities have increased between 1% and 4% per year since 2000 (depending on which source you use), the average condo rent in Singapore has increased by just 1%. There are also various tax breaks available for foreign investors who buy properties here (the capital gains tax rate is lower than that of other countries).
And yet many people still don’t know where they can go to buy a condo or apartment in Singapore — especially if they have no experience with real estate markets elsewhere (at least outside of North America). That’s why we put together this guide about buying a condo for sale singapore $400,000 . With many options available across all price ranges and sizes, this guide will give you everything you need to know about finding the right property!
Conclusion: Condo For Sale Singapore 400k
… you might be thinking that listing your house for sale is a great way to generate passive income. You’d be wrong.
The truth is that the passive income of most property owners comes from mortgage interest and property taxes — not from selling property or being on the market. For example, a typical condo or apartment building in New York City generates $1 million in rent each year, and the owner gains around $200,000 through rental income and property tax payments. This is not because the company is generating cash flow from its sale or rental business. It’s because those types of businesses are taxed as property sales and real estate investment trusts (REITs) .
On the other hand, if you only want to sell your condo to someone who wants to buy it as an investment , you can create a lot of passive income by listing your condo on open offers at multiple locations (at least six).
After all, who wants to buy condos in Manhattan with no tenants?
So why not simply list your condo on Craigslist? Because there’s zero chance that anyone will actually want to pay $400k for it — especially if they don’t live in NYC! And even if they do, the real estate market won’t support it.
If you can find another way to generate some income while putting up your home for sale, or have other reasons for selling it yourself, by all means do so – but think about how much time and effort you’d have to put into marketing instead!
