When comes to property, the most important factor is location. I don’t prefer to go for low cost because the price appreciation isn’t much. This could be due to the lack of awareness to upkeep the flat.

Try look for medium range apartment in good location, high occupancy rate, near to malls, shops, LRT, good maintenance body, etc. This kind of apartment has the potential to appreciate.

If the rental can yield approx 8% and can cover your installment and monthly expenses, then if the price really inches up, then it’s bonus to you

From those figures, your property yield is around 8.6% compared to your borrowing cost of around 5 – 5.5% probably. So the bank is working for you here

PS. Not sure if you can, but if it is possible to refinance the loan at the current rate of 3.5 – 3.8%, you’d be looking pretty good!

If I purely look at the interest portion of the installment, it is only RM270/mth. I have been servicing my loan for over 5 years now, and another 5 to go. But like always, there is no sunshine all day through… in the midst of the good thing happening, I realised that the property has not inched upwards with regards to market value. After 5 years, it is still priced at about RM70K… if not lower, when actually sold.

So is this a good thing?

It’s really hard to predict when is the right time to buy. I wonder how many people can really predict the bottom like in March 2009, buy a lot and earn that amazing 20% to 30%.

Timing is really difficult, at least for me.

I always go for long term.

Of course some basic common sense must apply, check on the thing that you want to buy, whether it’s a house or a share stock. And then, of course it is very important to sell it when the price is higher, Only then you’re making a profit. Therefore, a property being physically big and heavy is not as liquid as shares(being pieces of paper or digital these days). That’s why I’m with Larry on this.

For example in the period from April to last month, a lot of people who invested in the Stock Market were able to make 20% to 30% or higher. That is considered a very short term in being able to make that kind of return. Then towards end June the market took a dip. Some investors lost the entire April-June gain. But then after that, in the last 2 weeks, the market gain momentum and the market is at its highest since the last 1 year. Regardless, whether they came in 3 months ago or two weeks ago, everyone makes. So, just don’t sell when the price is cheaper than what you paid for. And check your timing.

Also, If you want to buy shares, depends whether you want to be in it long term or short term. If you have all the time in the world, go get some blue chip. If you’re a short term impatient guy whose time is always running out, this is what I do. Subscribe to investment bank’s daily report, occasionally read financial newspapers and watch out for tips on what’s hot. Very likely, these will be the most active counters/shares traded. Watch the trend in prices going up and down for a while, catch it when you think it is low and sell when you’ve made at least a minimum 5%-10%. I used Maybank2u Online Stocks. Very easy and fast. One last tip: Don’t be too greedy. Good luck!

Shares and property do have their own pros and cons. If you ask me, I would prefer to investment 70% and 30% of my money into property and shares respectively.

For shares, I prefer to go for fundamental ones, at the end, it’s hard earn money. Within this 30%, I allocated some to big cap, resilient and prudent management bluechip while some to REITS. Sound very conservative right?

For property, location is the key. To lower the risk, I always look for completed property so that you know what’s happening or going to happen around it. Rental is the income. It’s a long term investment and should keep it as long as you can, at the end, it’s a passive income for many generations to come. Also, look for freehold.

Opinions are welcome.

However, I have strong doubts on what U posted this time for following reasons,
1. deposit 10% & take a 400K loan will incure huge interest and quite impossible to make any meaningful profit.
2. U will have to folk out 2K~3K per month just paying for the interest for begining few years before U can reduce the loan principal amount. The property doesn’t belong to U until the last installment & bank cud sieze the property anytime if U just failed to pay 2~3 installments.

The only viable possibility is U rent out the property at good price & the tenant pay U very consistenly.  This i feel is definitely more difficult than finding a good stock.

I kid you not, this is real and protected by Bank Negara. All I ask from you is an open mind and heart Cheers.