Recently, I was going through my financial statements and realized that in 2011, I incurred expenses of more than $1 million dollars in cash within 11 months! Now, you must be wondering whether I had been jet-setting around the world, purchased a sparkling new Lamborghini, or bought an exotic holiday home. No, no, no, I did none of these!  I spent the money on another 3 new investment properties to expand my property portfolio instead.

Am I crazy? Well, I didn’t regret my decision as all the 3 properties have appreciated in value since with a combined value in excess of $2.85 million. What’s more, the additional properties have been generating good rental yields for me since 2011. Would you call anyone crazy if he or she spends a million today for an asset that brings you cash flow and could increase significantly in value in the future? You probably would invest every cent that you have on that asset, wouldn’t you? However, no one has a crystal ball to tell if a property would rise in value or would fetch good rental returns in the future. The truth is that many people get burnt in buying investment properties. Really, most people don’t make it in real estate investing. They don’t succeed in making money out of their properties as they are not doing the things that should be done, and the reason is they don’t know what should be done in the first place!

Property prices in Singapore have been rising rapidly for the last few years. Investors’ sentiments on local properties remained upbeat even after 8 rounds of cooling measures implemented by the government. While the latest round of cooling measure (announced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore on 28 June 2013) has taken a toll on property transaction volume, the demand for Singapore properties remain strong.

We are currently at the peak of the Singapore property cycle since 1965, with residential property prices at an all-time high. Despite the sky-high prices, there are no shortages of investors snapping up local properties. These investors are now paying for prices many years ahead, making it near impossible to have decent investment returns. Many are still buying and hoping to cash out the capital gains on their properties within the next 3-5 years. So, are these buyers investing or are they gambling?

Monopoly, the world’s most popular board game, has for years entertained millions of people with the imaginary thrill of what it is like to be a real estate tycoon. I started playing Monopoly at a tender age of seven. At that time, playing the board game was just pure fun. Little did I realize that the game actually taught me valuable lessons which would become useful for my future property investment ventures!