Owning Vs Renting (Condo In Pasig/ortigas)

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Huggybearman
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Posted (edited)

An interesting topic, which I have pondered myself over the years. May I add my perspective to those who are considering buying a condo versus renting. I moved to Thailand in 2008. I thought that would be my last ever move and seriously considered buying a condo for my retirement. The selection was vast, prices reasonable if a little high, so I decided to rent for six months to give me time to decide which area I would like to live. In the intervening period I invested my savings in a variety of investments, including some day trading on the stock market to give me something to while away my time. I found that the return I was getting not only paid my rent, but paid for my entire monthly living expenses, leaving my capital and pension intact. After a few months I realised the condo unit I was renting was not ideal and when the lease was up moved to another unit which was much more suitable. That would have been difficult if I had owned my unit as there are so many units on the market I would probably have taken a loss. In 2010 i met my lovely filipina lady who was living and working in the UK at the time. We subsequently moved to Phils and of course that entailed yet another move. Easy to accomplish as I was renting. We found a very nice house at a very reasonable rent which has enabled us to use our still intact capital to involve ourselves in micro financing of farm crops in partnership with local farmers who are unable to finance planting of crops themselves, as well as retaining the bulk of my UK investments. That has developed into us now renting some additional ten hectares of land which we now cultivate ourselves. I very probably could not have considered any of that if I had bought my first condo when I first moved to Thailand in 2008. In fact, I would very probably still be there, in my first condo.

The point I am making is that none of us can foresee where life might take us in the future. If your finances are sufficient to easily afford a condo then of course, certainly consider it. But if, as was pretty much my case, it was probably going to consume most of my accumulated wealth, then pause and take time to carefully consider what your future may hold. My advice would be to sit on as much of your hard earned wealth as you can. You never know when you might need it. And if it all falls down around my ears, I can walk away tomorrow, and all I have lost is the advance rent on some land, which was very affordable, and perhaps some un-harvested crops. The rest is still nicely tucked up in UK and US investments.

Sorry for the long winded post. Just another perspective to ponder.

Ken

Edited by Huggybearman
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afathertobe
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I thought I'd give an update on my current state of research. After looking a bit deeper into some properties, and following their progress over the years via skyscrapercity I am now a bit disillusioned and skeptical about the condo market in Manila at least. Some 2BR units in one particular building costs almost exactly as much today as it did in 2008 pre-order. The same goes for Trion Towers in BGC for example, if you go back to people buying units in Tower 1 5-6 years ago or more they spent as much as I would have to do today. And there are lots of complaints about agents disappearing, PM not responding to problems, unit handover not happening after down-payment and and... 

 

That plus the fact that the traffic situation and public transportation doesn't seem set to improve anytime now, heck there aren't even concrete plans for a metro through the metropolitan regions yet I really don't think I should buy anywhere but BGC, Makati where condo prices are already at a European level... so in short, the market doesn't look too interesting to me at the moment. I'll continue renting for a while and see what happens. 

 

Oh and the agents are a incredible pain to deal with... the nonsense I have to put up with just with simple queries wants me never have to deal with them again... 

Edited by afathertobe
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Spectre13
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Posted

Renting is only "throwing money away" if YOU believe it is ;)

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