Jan 8, 2008

Always buy top floor when buying condo for investment

The pricing of condo by most developers is that as you go higher, the price will be higher. Some buyer choose higher floor because of better view and some investor will choose lower floor or not so high floor to take advantage of cheaper price.

But are higher floor more expensive as far as investor is concerned, to me, it is not really so. The higher floor is costlier and not necessary more expensive. As the buyers are billed by developer according to stages of completion. The first 10% being upon signing of sale & purchase agreement, the second 10% being upon completion of foundation and the third 15% being upon completion of structure. If one is taking a 80% loan for the purchase of condo and if he is buying a top floor, then he may only need to pay 20% and loan release will only take place when the construction of structure reach top floor, thus saving on substantial amount of interest payment. If one is buying low floor, the billing for completion of structure and all subsequent billings will be much earlier and interest charges will incur. Therefore if an investor is buying lower floor, he will incur higher interest charges whereas if he buys higher floor, he has to pay a higher purchase price but buying higher floor offer an advantage in term of better cash flow for the investor as if the investor is taking only 80% loan, he may only need to service the loan when the overall structure is almost completed, i.e. when the overall project is probably 50% completed and the number of month where interest is charged is also less considering that the remaining construction time needed is much shorter compared with if one is buying lower floor.

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