My colleague told me yesterday DBS came up with this report title “Will Property Still be Your Pot of Gold?” Basically, DBS’s assessment is that properties, as an investment vehicle, may not be the best retirement investment in Singapore. Or something along those lines. I think the news commentary around that article is a subject of debate for many. But if you ask me, a lot of us are pondering about the property as an investment versus other asset classes as well. What the DBS team did well was to let the data tell the story.

1. Population growth has come down over the years. More adults are retiring and we were unable to successfully replace them with more babies.
2. Private property is getting more expensive if we normalize the size of the home to what we used to have in the past.
3. Growth rates have come down.
4. Leverage plays a big factor in returns.

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