:0) the post you responded to was done 2010, when I made the move, and since then, happy-happy
Now, the abode we moved out of has just been sold by wife Message 34198903 to whom I had gifted the home way back when, and my in-laws who have been living in it must move out. The abodes features are 1300 sft, full ocean view from all rooms except bathrooms, one long apartment in a 5-apartment bungalow
The youngsters who bought it aggregated the four apartments at 'market' price back in August, and unfortunately publicly announced that they would either buy or force-auction our apartment by end-year 2022. They thought they could do so by having purchased the other 4 apartments per their industrial real estate experience. They even shouted to the news papers back in August 2022 :0)
Alas, sadly, homes do not work the same way exactly as industrial property.
Bottom line, they were forced as opposed to they forced, and paying enough for wife to buy two apartments of the same feature-set to either left or right of the same location, what I call a win-win with us harvesting the redevelopment profit on our unit without redeveloping. I love HK and its property and tax laws.
The boyz were so enthusiastic about their project that they told the world how they, having bought 4 apartments of the 5, are going to build on great beautiful mansion on the prime prime spot. Problem, the force-auction law in HK only works on residential buildings if some factors are satisfied, namely
- building must be >50 years of age (ours is)
- in dilapidated condition (our building is fine)
- one must redevelop and put more units on the site than existing, and building one mansion in place of 5 apartments does not qualify) -- oops, judge, what to do?
In any case I did some math, and
- I bought the apartment in February 1999, and oz of gold was priced at ~$250, now, 24 years later, at $ 1,826, an 8.64% annualised capital gain
- the apartment achieved 9.36% capital-gains, not counting the 24 years of otherwise expensive rent-free living (thank goodness HK does not have capital gains tax)
- we were lucky to have caught the boyz short one apartment, for market-price transaction would have resulted in 50% of our actual take
- takeaway, gold is good, very extremely good, even though gold does not pay a yield
Note: I believe gold gained in overall purchasing value over the last 24 years and certainly over the last 18 years, as measured by university tuition
in 1999 @ ~$24K, and now $80K, 5.14% annualised increase
in 2004 (when coconut born Oct) @ $40K, and now $80K, 2.93% annualised increase
whereas
Gold did 8.64% per annum over 24-years, and 6.34% per annum over 18 years
Additional note: capital gains tax is theft, especially if used to support wars
I think the boyz shall make money doing the redevelopment, on the other 4 units they bought at market price, and might even make money on our now ex-unit if they can lift the eventual selling price of the intended mansion by some singular featuring of the overall ocean view etc etc
Accounting for attributable rent, ocean view might have kept pace with true / purchasing power inflation unless polluted by income tax issues, otherwise, and in the absence of capital gains, Gold beats ocean view, although ocean view is arguably a consumption item whereas Gold is sleeping capital
In any case it is better to have ocean-view + cash + gold than to HODL ocean-view alone at this juncture, I wager
in the meantime the Jack and coconut got a useful lesson
- never panic when the counterparty thinks they have you
- research
- put aside some gains into Gold, always |
