Is it a good time to buy a house? A simple look at real estate investment.

Recently my husband and I, we started discussing about moving into a bigger house.  We bought our current house about 5 years ago when we decided to settle down. Back then I remember the property price was rocketing as the economy was getting better. The houses you thought you could afford were going beyond the original market value as the economy was steadily improving until the end of 2009. In 2008, the Housing and Local Government minister Datuk Wira Chor Chee Heung said that there is a long way to reach the property bubble in Malaysia. According to him, the property prices were rising as a result of initiatives and measures taken by the federal government due to the land cost, building materials and vibrancy of the economy. Anyway, by the middle of 2009, some of the housing developers were facing difficulty selling their units as a result of a sudden gloomy economy condition which resulted in poor sales. I still remember when my husband told me that there’s this condominium selling their units for a discounted price, somewhere around the Cheras area. I was in awe. It took me a while to grasp the whole idea of finally owning our own house. My dad has always been a man who constantly reminds me how important it is to own a house than to rent one. He always says when one rent a place the money spent is actually lost without any returns compared to owning a house which appreciates with time and when sold you actually make good profit, which you can always invest in another house.  Purchasing, owning, managing, rental or sale of property for profit is what we call property investment but somehow it is not for everyone. Normally most of us would only house-hunt when we need to which could be due to a change of career location or for an upgrade. Now that we do own a house and thinking of an upgrade ourselves, looking at the prices I think I’m going to faint. I mean, for the size of our house being a condominium unit, to my surprise we can actually sell it for double the price we bought it for. Of course it makes you wonder how come? Well the whole area appreciated with time and being on top of a hill doubt as the “Little Genting”, the condominium is overlooking the beautiful view of the city of Kuala Lumpur which is amazing at night with all the lights. Plus with all the renovation done from the kitchen cabinets to the sliding door for the bathroom to separate the wet area to the dry, some of the units can be viewed as worth the money spent.  Since the property prices are incredibly high right now selling our house is definitely the right move as you have no idea how long the economy could sustain before the bubble bursts. And when it does, all the property prices would also drop which would mean selling our house would be difficult and not to mention the profit we might not make.  SO it might be the right time to sell but is it the right time to buy? It’s definitely a risky move. We are thinking maybe we could sell now but wait to buy the next property hoping by next year the price just might decrease. But can anyone be certain of this economy situation? Is it that predictable? If it was I’m sure everyone would be into property investment and make millions.