I started my own property journey from a 4-room HDB. When I first entered real estate, I thought property investment was mainly about buying something affordable and waiting for the price to appreciate. My first private property taught me otherwise.
I bought a freehold condominium believing that freehold tenure and potential en bloc value would make it a good investment. After holding it for about seven years, the appreciation was minimal, and it changed the way I look at property. Freehold does not automatically mean a better investment, buying cheap does not automatically mean value, and holding longer does not automatically mean making more money. What matters is the entry price, supply, competition, buyer demand and the exit.
Since then, Benson and I have moved from HDB into private property and eventually landed, and those moves shape how I advise clients today. I've been in Singapore real estate since 2011, across HDB, condominium and landed property, and every conversation I have with a client starts from the same three questions:
- Where are you today?
- Where do you want to be 5 to 10 years from now?
- What property move can potentially help you get there?