first property purchase
Tue, 2004-01-06 10:58 — Anonymous
Hello. I am looking to purchase my firts flat in HK. I don't wanna spend more than 2 million. I would prefer to rent it out for the most part. My questions are:
What can I realistically expect to get for 2m on HK island
How easy will it be to rent
What will happen 10 years down the line (will I still be able to sell it if it is then 15-20 years old?
any advice appreciated
Re:first property purchase
Mmm.... HK island
With my somewhat limited knowledge on this topic i'd say a flat between 400 and 700 square feet depending on where you look on HK island.
I heard you can still find cheap property in ChaiWan, but I would not want to live all the way out there.
Renting I know nothing about, so I'll leave that one for the other forum members.
When a flat is 15 to 20 years old you should give it a major renovation in order to sell it. From what I know, old flats or not very popular with potential byers and with banks that provide the mortgage...so be carefull here.
This is what my research has thought me as I'm also in the market for a new property for the first time.
Check this website. It's been a great resource for me:
http://www.gohome.com.hk/english/home.asp
Re:first property purchase
If you go to [url]http://www.centanet.com/ctline/owa/ctline_trane[/url] and click Residential > Hong Kong Island (West) > Sheung Wan > Queen's Terrace, you can see new flats selling for around 2 million, renting out for 6-8K a month.
If you expect to hold it for ten years, conventional wisdom says you should buy something new - 5 years old to make it relatively easy to sell at the end of that period.
MrB
Buying property
1) Off Hong Kong Island is going to be cheaper.
2) New properties even listed at 80% usable area are going to be smaller than old properties with the same listed area and lower usability. How, nobody knows. As an example my previous house (65% usable 1400ft) was smaller than my current flat (90% usable 700ft). Go figure.
3) Mortgage is usually only granted for a maximum of 30 years - the age of the house. This doesn't include large estates such as Mei Foo, Telford Gardens, Taikoo Shing (this is a good one on the Island) or Heng Fa Chuen because they are considered relatively safe bets by the banks. The first three are also extremely good value if you don't mind the somewhat dubious exterior.
4) What will happen 10 years down the track....I would say don't trust anyone like me who bought around 1997 for advice on that. Things look good but the prices of property are very closely related to the prospects of HK, if the economy is good prices will keep going up.
Best of luck.