Investors in foreign real estate have been advised by OPP’s John Howell to ignore market hype and take on board the advice of experts. In a television interview aired on Channel NewsAsia ahead of the OPPLive Asia trade show in Singapore, Howell suggested that hype over property markets should not be a key factor in investment.
Instead, he said that carrying out in-depth research and listening to industry experts were much safer and more reliable ways to property investment. Howell said: “It is very easy to get so excited about all the hype and the prospect of profit that you lose sense of reality and I think the reality check is your starting point.”
He continued: “Look up these countries on the corruption index, if they are way down there at 80, 90, 100 on that index, do you want to do business there? And think about the language problems, think about the money, absolutely no point investing money in a currency that is going to fall in value against your own because your property can double but you lose all your money.”
Howell continued by saying that before investing in a new market, investors should “be cautious” and “get some proper advice” before they make any final decisions. He was speaking at the event where he is one of a number of high profile speakers offering their advice on the property market in Asia.
He also said that there are many other barriers and challenges faced by investors, including language, and so it is necessary to do proper research beforehand. We can start to search; there are so much of information now on the internet. They can start talking to professionals eal estate appraiser and thinking about what their investment portfolio ought to look like.
Whilst he urged caution, Howell also admitted that when the proper preparation is done, international and overseas property investment can be a hugely profitable and rewarding choice.
He said: “Where are there are lots of risks, and also there are lots of rewards, there is this complete misapprehension that there is a continuum of risk rewards- the more risk you can take, the more rewards can you get, just not true. There are so much conservative places to make investment where the rewards are all out of proportion to the safety and there are other places which is suicidal which don’t give you any like enough reward to make it worthwhile.”
