Wow, its been a busy week this week. Not only did we set in motion the
sale of our flat in Grand Waterfront, and also confirm renting the
neighbouring tower in the same place, we also bought a new flat too!
Judy got a call from one of the estate agents saying that a new
development called Harbour Place was having some superb pomotional
offers that we should consider. Harbour Place is situated right
between the Hunghom train terminus, the Hunghom ferry pier and Whampoa
Gardens. It has seven blocks, and is developed jointly by Sung Hung
Kai Properties and New World Properties. Its long history of
development included it being a public housing estate, with the outer
frame looking rather spartan compared to more contemporary styles.
However they later decided to market it privately since it was on
prime harbourside land.
We had checked it out earlier in the year when they were selling
blocks 4,5 and 6, but at the time it was way put of our budget. This
time, they were offering blocks 1,2 and 3, the ones closest to the
harbour. They were also offering special mortgage deals such as 3yrs
interest payments paid by the developer, or 18mths guaranteed "rent"
of 5% of property value per month by the developers.
We got that news on Friday afternoon, and racking our brains for the
entire night working out costs and viability of the purchase! At first
we thought that the three year interest-free plan would be best as we
can charge lower rent yet still cover principal payments. But when we
talked to Ricacorp estate agents and explained that we wanted this fot
investment purposes, they suggested that the 7% discount would be
better. We would save on purchasing costs like Stamp Duty, legal fees,
and we can sell practically anytime if house prices suddenly rise,
whereas the three year plan would really need us to keep the flat at
least that period to maximize the benefits. The discount also gives us
a nice buffer against any market downturns. Sweet!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
We're moving to a new place!
One of the things we've been busy about since returning from our honeymoon, was considering when to sell the flat that we're in. It's very nice, but there are several things prompting us to make this decision soon. We know that the house prices are rising, and during our honeymoon it did peak to about HK$2.8mil for a flat of our size. The prices then dropped, and was slowly rising again. We wanted to catch it on the uplift, before there's another implosion on the stock exchange, holding back prospective homeowners from releasing their money for the deposit.
Secondly, it looks like the old buildings right in front of our flat will be demolished very soon. The tower that will be built there will be over 100m high, which is enough to block our view of the open ex-airport area. We already had several viewers come up and immediately lose interest when the agent said there would be a new tower blocking the view. For sure, the view is not the only reason why you would buy Grand Waterfront... the expected value of the area would still increase, especially once the key infrastructure of the Kai Tak project is completed. However, we can't really wait that long for the third reason:
We put down the minimum 5% deposit for the flat, meaning that we are paying a huge proportion of our mortgage money per month just on interest. We wanted to save on this, by selling the flat off as early as possible. Yes renting also incurs a cost that is not recoverable, but at least the release of commitment to the mortgage allows us to engage into the final reason for selling:
The HK Mortgage Corporation (HKMC) stands absolute on its basic rule that one cannot have their total mortgage payments over any number of properties to exceed 50% of their household income. So, lets assume my salary is $30k/mth. That means my mortgage payments cannot exceed $15k/mth. And given that Grand Waterfront is costing me $14k itself, I cannot buy another property, even if I have 30% deposit available for the new flat.
So, having rationalised all of that, we put the flat onto the market, and hoped for the best. We decided on our original target price of HK$2.7mil, which would have given us around half mil gross profit. Not bad for a commitment since Sept 2006! Its funny how some agents said "Look, lets set the original price at $3mil...." to which Judy and I both said "Why do that and scare off prospective buyers? Lets just put it at $2.75mil." Then we started to realise why.... some idiot agents entered that into their systems, and told all their customers that we would be willing to haggle down to $2.45mil! Rediculous! Seems that everyone has gotten so used to this haggling that they wont buy unless they feel like they've made a massive saving of over $300k. We both disagreed with this antiqidated dance, and held fast to our target price.
It worked. A young couple came along twice to the flat, and still tried to haggle to the "nice sounding" number of $2.68mil. We stood firm, and then the young lady turned to the agent and said "Well, you know what to do." On hindsight, that could have meant that the agent gets the 1% commission from us, but a slightly cheaper rate from them. I dont know and cant confirm on that, but thats what my colleagues have suggested to me.
Anyway, thats the sale of the flat sorted. We finally vacate the flat on 17 July and hand over the keys at that point.
So where are we going to?
Funnily enough, we're moving just two blocks over to Tower 2, 39/F, flat H, Grand Waterfront!!!
We inititally decided to look for new properties in Tseung Kwan O area, as construction recently completed and landlords were expecting to start letting out to tenants. The rent turned out to be quite expensive. We talked to our neighbours over dinner about this, and they suggested "If you're paying that much, why not rent here?" And fortunately enough, we found a flat that was just going to be vacant at end of June, perfect for us. And because its the exact same layout and orientation has our flat, everything can slot in exactly as we like! Another agent tried to convince us that this was a mistake, and we should have went with their offering, a 585sq ft flat facing the sea. Yes, it would be bigger, but maybe noisier as I would expect it to lower down, and hence closer to the bus terminus downstairs. Furthermore, we might have to get all-new furniture, since the orientation of our sofa might not be right for the new living room. Anyway, its done and signed for, so we'll be happily renting a quiant 500sq ft flat just literally afew steps away from where we are now!
Perfect!
Secondly, it looks like the old buildings right in front of our flat will be demolished very soon. The tower that will be built there will be over 100m high, which is enough to block our view of the open ex-airport area. We already had several viewers come up and immediately lose interest when the agent said there would be a new tower blocking the view. For sure, the view is not the only reason why you would buy Grand Waterfront... the expected value of the area would still increase, especially once the key infrastructure of the Kai Tak project is completed. However, we can't really wait that long for the third reason:
We put down the minimum 5% deposit for the flat, meaning that we are paying a huge proportion of our mortgage money per month just on interest. We wanted to save on this, by selling the flat off as early as possible. Yes renting also incurs a cost that is not recoverable, but at least the release of commitment to the mortgage allows us to engage into the final reason for selling:
The HK Mortgage Corporation (HKMC) stands absolute on its basic rule that one cannot have their total mortgage payments over any number of properties to exceed 50% of their household income. So, lets assume my salary is $30k/mth. That means my mortgage payments cannot exceed $15k/mth. And given that Grand Waterfront is costing me $14k itself, I cannot buy another property, even if I have 30% deposit available for the new flat.
So, having rationalised all of that, we put the flat onto the market, and hoped for the best. We decided on our original target price of HK$2.7mil, which would have given us around half mil gross profit. Not bad for a commitment since Sept 2006! Its funny how some agents said "Look, lets set the original price at $3mil...." to which Judy and I both said "Why do that and scare off prospective buyers? Lets just put it at $2.75mil." Then we started to realise why.... some idiot agents entered that into their systems, and told all their customers that we would be willing to haggle down to $2.45mil! Rediculous! Seems that everyone has gotten so used to this haggling that they wont buy unless they feel like they've made a massive saving of over $300k. We both disagreed with this antiqidated dance, and held fast to our target price.
It worked. A young couple came along twice to the flat, and still tried to haggle to the "nice sounding" number of $2.68mil. We stood firm, and then the young lady turned to the agent and said "Well, you know what to do." On hindsight, that could have meant that the agent gets the 1% commission from us, but a slightly cheaper rate from them. I dont know and cant confirm on that, but thats what my colleagues have suggested to me.
Anyway, thats the sale of the flat sorted. We finally vacate the flat on 17 July and hand over the keys at that point.
So where are we going to?
Funnily enough, we're moving just two blocks over to Tower 2, 39/F, flat H, Grand Waterfront!!!
We inititally decided to look for new properties in Tseung Kwan O area, as construction recently completed and landlords were expecting to start letting out to tenants. The rent turned out to be quite expensive. We talked to our neighbours over dinner about this, and they suggested "If you're paying that much, why not rent here?" And fortunately enough, we found a flat that was just going to be vacant at end of June, perfect for us. And because its the exact same layout and orientation has our flat, everything can slot in exactly as we like! Another agent tried to convince us that this was a mistake, and we should have went with their offering, a 585sq ft flat facing the sea. Yes, it would be bigger, but maybe noisier as I would expect it to lower down, and hence closer to the bus terminus downstairs. Furthermore, we might have to get all-new furniture, since the orientation of our sofa might not be right for the new living room. Anyway, its done and signed for, so we'll be happily renting a quiant 500sq ft flat just literally afew steps away from where we are now!
Perfect!
So, where are the photos then??
Confession time, I have been rather busy (read: Lazy) to get what little photos I do have on my iPhone, uploaded to Flickr.com for everyone to enjoy. Yes, I know there's a 3rd party app on Installer called "Pushr" that allows you to upload to the site, but it can get abit tedious when you have over 100 photos to edit and sort then upload. But rest assured it will be done... at some point... in the near future.... :P
Busy as can be in HK
Well, as most of you may already know, Judy and I got back to HK safely and without any issues to report.
I managed to return to UK on Monday just fine, and was quite happy to have spent some time with my parents while getting my UK passport renewed, and booking my flight back home. I even managed to get some Computer Lessons in for Dad every morning, as he started to explore what a computer is and is capable of! I'm well proud that Dad has finally got around to trying to learn about this, although he's understandably frightened about anything strange or odd that is beyond his 5-step process to turn on the PC, open Hotmail, Listen to HK internet radio and read chinese news on the web.
The UK passport was mercifully renewed within 4hrs, thanks to the "recently" updated documentation on my previous renewal in 2004. So I had abit more time to see some friends from KHS and from Uni, which is always a pleasure. I was especially excited to have finally met up with my best friend Chetan's newly born baby! Aditya is so small, but really cute and so well-behaved. Gives a short warning that he's hungry, or needs nappy changing, before really wailing.
In the meantime, Judy had a monumental task of trying to clean up the flat, since there was like 3 weeks worth of dust to vacuum and things to tidy up! By the time I got home, she had transformed it into a top 4-star hotel! Since then, she's become very adept at housecleaning, and making the place feel wonderful. Yep, its definitely worth letting her take time off from work to help clean up the house, and experiment with various recipes, which often taste absolutely delicious!
I managed to return to UK on Monday just fine, and was quite happy to have spent some time with my parents while getting my UK passport renewed, and booking my flight back home. I even managed to get some Computer Lessons in for Dad every morning, as he started to explore what a computer is and is capable of! I'm well proud that Dad has finally got around to trying to learn about this, although he's understandably frightened about anything strange or odd that is beyond his 5-step process to turn on the PC, open Hotmail, Listen to HK internet radio and read chinese news on the web.
The UK passport was mercifully renewed within 4hrs, thanks to the "recently" updated documentation on my previous renewal in 2004. So I had abit more time to see some friends from KHS and from Uni, which is always a pleasure. I was especially excited to have finally met up with my best friend Chetan's newly born baby! Aditya is so small, but really cute and so well-behaved. Gives a short warning that he's hungry, or needs nappy changing, before really wailing.
In the meantime, Judy had a monumental task of trying to clean up the flat, since there was like 3 weeks worth of dust to vacuum and things to tidy up! By the time I got home, she had transformed it into a top 4-star hotel! Since then, she's become very adept at housecleaning, and making the place feel wonderful. Yep, its definitely worth letting her take time off from work to help clean up the house, and experiment with various recipes, which often taste absolutely delicious!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)