Cent & Sensibilities

• Season 2

SEASON 1

EPISODE 1 - RENT VS BUY

With the property market in Asia booming, is renting for losers? We look at the pros and cons of buying into the market now. Have property prices gone up too much and should one wait until a correction 18 months down the line? Or will the sub-prime rumblings from the US fade away and better to buy now instead of waiting until prices really start to take off again? Rentals have also shot up over the past six months, does it make sense to rent anymore? Lin talks with two people who have opposing views on Singapore property to help you make up your own mind.

Dennis Yong, a veteran real estate agent with several properties under his name believes now is a good time to put your money into real estate because the market has yet to reach its full potential.

	Franck Bouillier, owner of a rental company, who says don’t buy now, because the market will fizzle out by early next year.

BUY SELL HOLD SEGMENT

Excited by all this talk about the property market booming but don’t have a large amount of money to fork out?

Well, there is a way for ordinary investors to get a piece of the action.

In this segment, Leong Sze Hian, President of the Society of Financial Service Professionals, talks to Lin about an investment instrument called a REIT, or a Real Estate Investment Trust.

Generally speaking, a REIT is put up by a company which collects rent on the properties it owns. These can be commercial properties (such as factories or offices), retail properties(like shopping malls) or residential (apartments and houses), and the properties can be in all sorts of places – Singapore, China, India. The income produced, minus costs, is then distributed among its investors.

Sze Hian explains just how easy it is to buy a REIT and how little you need to invest in order to become a full-fledged, indirect “landlord”.


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