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What should I invest in?

Here’s how to decide on an investment, based on some basic key metrics. For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll compare investing in real estate and an entry-level product in the capital market – Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

Initial capital 

The amount of initial capital required to invest in either of these options is one of the biggest deciding factors.

The cost for a downpayment of a residential property in Singapore starts at several hundred thousand dollars.

Then, there’s the cost of mortgage loans and your eligibility for those.

However in the case of ETFs there are many different initial capital requirements for various options. You can start by investing as little as $30.

Liquidity 

Real estate, given that it is tangible, immovable, also not fractionable, is usually considered highly illiquid. The sale of the property often comes with costs too. In most markets, sellers are required to pay a fee of 1%-3% of the selling price to real estate agents for their services.

The time taken to sell a property may range from 1 week to 1 year (based on personal experience) in markets with an oversupply of options for buyers. So just be prepared to continue with the mortgage loans in the meantime. You can calculate your potential mortgage loans here.

ETFs, on the other hand, are considered to be highly liquid. The time taken to sell your investment is usually 3 days. Also, there’s usually little to no charges incurred when you sell as most platforms usually charge a sales fee but not a sell fee.

Rate of return 

The average rate of return for the Singapore resale property market from Jan 2009 to Dec 2018 (10 years) was 88.4%.

While the average rate of return for the SPDR Straits Times Index ETF (for the sake of comparison) in the same time frame was 107.16%.

For a highly liquid investment like ETFs, prices are easily and frequently tracked. Conversely, most people don’t track the value of their property as frequently or easily. It’s important to note that the beauty in value investing is that you don’t need to track it everyday, you should only have to check it once a month and review the performance semi-annually.

Tangibility 

Tangibility doesn’t relate to any form of higher rate of return. It does however give us a sense of security which results in a greater emotional attachment. So, depending on your investment priorities, you may want to consider excluding this factor if you want to make less emotionally driven investments.

Refer to low entry low entry investment options here.