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If you read, watched (or been bombarded) by short form videos by property agents, you would have heard a Singapore gospel: property is the only “real” way to build wealth here. Buy a second condo, rent it out, let the tenant pay down your mortgage, and watch your net worth compound.
It is also, on a pure mathematical basis, usually the worse trade — once you strip away the emotion and run the actual numbers on yield, leverage cost, tax, and stamp duty. This article walks through exactly why, using a real worked example: a S$1,000,000 portfolio split across ten SGX-listed REITs, compared against the same S$1,000,000 used as a 25% down payment on an Outside Central Region (OCR) condominium that is then leveraged at 75% and rented out.
Comparing an Unlevered Yield to a Levered One — And Still Winning
