I lost over 20% on my property investment in London over 9 years - here are my key takeaways

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When we bought my London flat, my Mother and I had been comfortably settled in our family home for 30 years, and weren't expecting to move anytime soon. As I had already been in the UK for four years (and would spend a total of 11 years there), it seemed sensible to buy a small shoebox unit in London, as...

When we bought my London flat, my Mother and I had been comfortably settled in our family home for 30 years, and weren't expecting to move anytime soon. As I had already been in the UK for four years , it seemed sensible to buy a small shoebox unit in London, as London rents were we felt that we could save quite a bit doing so. Moreover, London prices had been rising crazily before we bought, so we were optimistic that we could make some money in the process.

Don't forget that you have to account for exchange rate fluctuations when purchasing overseas properties. On paper, you may get more than what you paid for the property. However, after converting back to Singapore dollars, you could actually make a loss. In the worst case, you won't even get any offers!

However, just as the OCR and RCR regions have been outperforming the CCR in Singapore in recent years, central London properties may not always be the best UK property investments .To give a personal example, a British friend and I both bought new launch flats from the same developer at the same time. However, my flat was on the boundary of Zones 1 and 2 whilst hers was in a "gentrifying" area. To put it nicely, it's an up-and-coming area.

Do note, I am not saying central London properties aren’t profitable. Instead, I’m saying, if your only aim of investing in UK property is to make as much profit as fast as possible, don’t have tunnel vision: research central London, non-central London, other English cities, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales before you buy!There are many arguments for and against buying new builds as well as for and against older properties.

If you are gazumped several times those costs start adding up. Buying a new launch directly from the developer removes this uncertainty from the equation. However, do note that even new builds aren’t set in stone: my apartment ended up being ready one year after the initial TOP date, which resulted in an extra year of rental expenses, so do factor all this into your decision.

 

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