To be frank, all these talks about taunting and laughing at those who bought Iskandar properties are rubbish as well. Those who bought during those dull period ( when coastal highway and LEGOLAND are all palm trees & Iskandar got nothing to show ) are laughing their way to the banks and there are investors who earn millions of Sing dollars even after converting back to Sing dollars.
The fact that the market is down does not mean that it will be down forever. During Mah Bow tan era, there was oversupply of HDBs and after a while, there was great demand and prices shoot sky high
I think those who bought last time (back in 2006-2010??) when much of it were forests and plantation had the advantage of buying it at more affordable prices (cheap) and they were the first ones to go into it.
I assume a good handful here earn at least close to $100k a month or more. (Ok, rough estimation only. I know many may think this is peanuts amount! But let's just assume for discussion purposes.) If a person had bought a landed property say a nice spacious 3000+ sq ft back then at below S$200k (while Singapore's one cost a few S$million in comparison), even if the property fails, the amount to lose is not painful for this group of people. After all, most who went in back then really wanted it for own stay rather than for investment cos they hated the high prices in SG and small floor areas. Even if they hold, there is a good chance it is affordable to many future buyers.
But the problem with those who bought their Iskandar properties in 2013/14 is clearly the prices have been inflated a lot. There are more limited buyers next time. Those who earn only $100k a year will feel the pain of losing more than $300k if there is no tenant and it's negative cash flow every month for indefinite number of years.
So for the first group who bought much earlier, they have a big advantage in exiting because they bought low, so they can sell high. Even in worst case scenario, if have to sell low, they will probably still make maybe a bit only. But for the second group, they bought high. And with the huge oversupply revealed now, can't possibly sell high. Even to sell low and make loss I think may be a problem cos new buyers got so many choices to choose from next time. Why would they want a resale property?
As usual, I'm considering from an investor's point of view. Not if someone is using it for own stay.
Of course, if one earns a lot more, is a multi-millionaire, then the above is not of a concern. They can dump their money on rubbish properties here and there and with zero returns, they won't feel anything. For eg, if a person's net worth is $10 million, losing $300k is a lot bearable than someone whose net worth is only $300k itself. That probably explains why we see so many China Chinese buying properties everywhere but leave them vacant. We won't go into details here where some of them get so much money from and what they are trying to do....
