Where To Invest?

[CyRaX]

Good choice, I think you are referring to Prim*l ? If so they have a monopoly in the local glass business, but guys seem to be hit big time with the oil price increase. But now its more cheaper to import from China or India directly, so in a few years time their numbers are not going to look that good. Already a few big guys are looking at alternate sourcing options, so in my view not the best long term investment.

yep P*ramal glass house. Yeah true after they hit 12.60 there prices drastically went down to around 7 lucky for me I already sold em off. Now its around 5 i think. They had the potential of reaching 20 but due to some unethical dealings of one of the major shareholders they had a big hit.

Agreed, not really the ideal company for long term investments. Ive been eying on R*ch*rd Per*es, they seems to be pretty stable.

[techlove]

I've sent money from my NRFC to my oversease account many times with not much trouble.All Ihad to do was write a letter to the bank here,sayingl;''I need to transfer a sum of $$$ from my NRFC to my account in ####.Last time when I wanted to send 500 something they charged me $10 'coz I wanted to do it on the same day.

If you don't have an NRFC ,try to find a friend who has one.AFAIK it's the most secured and legal way.

About Western Union,ain't Peoples Bank do their forieghn transactions via them? That's what I thought all the time.

[Magnum]

right now the share market is kinda in a bad state

[MasterDon]

Update : I managed to send the money guys.I basically used the process madmax posted.Thanks all of you for the help,much appreciated.

[Sebasty1987]

Ten years ago, I decided to invest in the currency. But I started losing money and realized that I was doing something wrong. I asked for help but didn't know where. My friend recommended an article and I read about financial advisors there. I found an online financial adviser and he told me what I was doing wrong and advised me to invest in shares of a company. Now I make a lot of money thanks to yourmoneygeek.com

Edited August 3, 2020 by Sebasty1987

[GK_007]

Hi Guys,

Sorry to bump up an old thread. Guess its the right thread to ask this. Just want your valuable thoughts on this.

I have been thinking about buying an Apartment from Colombo, with the expectation of renting out. But lot of people advice against it with the current situation and the I myself is having doubts whether I will be able to rent it out in 3 years once its complete. Specially because,

1-There are lot of housing units that will be coming up during next 2-3 years and most are vacant even now.

2-Buying power of people has gone down. 

On the other hand the loan rates are attractive these days and I hope its now or never. Since I am scraping all my savings and sacrificing a large sum of my salary for a loan, 😕 just want to know your thoughts on this.

I suppose the prices will not drop, hence there will be a capital gain.. But my main worry is whether I will be able to rent out... Coz if not it will not be sustainable for me.

Your advices, thoughts are welcome.

[Quiet]

One word - Over supply by 2023

[RWD]

Land is always the safest bet for someone who is relatively risk averse. 

[ajm]

Yes bare land will always be in demand and easy to sell, unlike land with houses or flats. Assuming Banks will not go bankrupt, foreign currency deposits might be an interesting option(140 to 200 rupees per USD, almost 50% increase in 5 years and you get at least 3%  annual interest from the Bank on top of that).

Edited April 12, 2021 by ajm

[MaleCortana]

On 4/11/2021 at 9:31 PM, GK_007 said:

Hi Guys,

Sorry to bump up an old thread. Guess its the right thread to ask this. Just want your valuable thoughts on this.

I have been thinking about buying an Apartment from Colombo, with the expectation of renting out. But lot of people advice against it with the current situation and the I myself is having doubts whether I will be able to rent it out in 3 years once its complete. Specially because,

1-There are lot of housing units that will be coming up during next 2-3 years and most are vacant even now.

2-Buying power of people has gone down. 

On the other hand the loan rates are attractive these days and I hope its now or never. Since I am scraping all my savings and sacrificing a large sum of my salary for a loan, 😕 just want to know your thoughts on this.

I suppose the prices will not drop, hence there will be a capital gain.. But my main worry is whether I will be able to rent out... Coz if not it will not be sustainable for me.

Your advices, thoughts are welcome.

So why don't you buy an already built apartment and rent it out? That way you can not take a big hit for 3 years. Anyway there's only a few people who buy and plenty who wants to rent out one. If you're looking at renting out apartments please look at management fees per month as well. No point charging someone 60k per month for rent if the management fees are close to 30k a month. I think the lower end of management fees is still close to 10k month.

PS: I did a side-hustle as a real-estate agent for a company that sold multiple properties, so disclaimer  

[GK_007]

3 hours ago, MaleCortana said:

So why don't you buy an already built apartment and rent it out? That way you can not take a big hit for 3 years. Anyway there's only a few people who buy and plenty who wants to rent out one. If you're looking at renting out apartments please look at management fees per month as well. No point charging someone 60k per month for rent if the management fees are close to 30k a month. I think the lower end of management fees is still close to 10k month.

PS: I did a side-hustle as a real-estate agent for a company that sold multiple properties, so disclaimer  

Thats indeed an aspect I never thought of..thanks buddy will take note of that. As @Quiet has mentioned many claim that there will be an over supply of apartments.. What do you think about that... 🙂

[Sylvi]

Members,

Any thing to do with food business, Bakery, Lunch packets. In the Night have take orders for Dinner.

Or do only for day time without night orders.

All above you will want skilled manpower, But still you will make minimum 50% profit.

Morning you invest Rupees 25000/= after the end of the day you will have the said profit.

There will be still leftovers of prepared food.

Give them free to poor.

I had the infrastructure which was mine in Colombo 03.

I did all above during 1983 to 1992 problems time but I did not have a proper person to  handle all above.

Sylvester Wijesinghe

Sylvi.

[MaleCortana]

8 hours ago, GK_007 said:

As @Quiet has mentioned many claim that there will be an over supply of apartments.. What do you think about that... 🙂

Yep yep I agree, most houses in Sri Lanka according to a study done some time ago was vacant (30-40%) I think. Which is why I initially said, plenty of people to rent out apartments to, not enough people to sell apartments to. Not a lot of people have the initial capital to buy, but lowest interest rates in banks have helped a bit but not a lot. Some people claim there is a 'bubble' in the sense that apartments aren't selling which I disagree solely on my experience (14 floor place, 10 houses per floor almost everything had gone except the penthouses which costs about 90mil)

[iRage]

8 hours ago, MaleCortana said:

Some people claim there is a 'bubble' in the sense that apartments aren't selling which I disagree solely on my experience (14 floor place, 10 houses per floor almost everything had gone except the penthouses which costs about 90mil)

Well...people have been saying there is a bubble for the last 8 years when I first started looking in to proeperty ownership. Which is for the most part true...there seems to be far more hype about the country's growth prospects and in-country/international migration than there actually is (there is migration but not the kind that the property developers hype about). This was used to get Sri Lankans abroad to invest their money in to all these condominiums with ridiculous price premiums. Over the last 8 years I don't think this anticipated exordus of expats in to Sri Lanka (both repatriating Sri Lankans and working foreigners) ever took place. But still the over supply seems to just keep on chugging along. It is almost like the country is just building these things for the sake of keeping cash flowing through...so yeah...the bubble is turning in to a hot air balloon which at somepoint iis going to reach the upper atmosphere and burst.

@GK_007...are you contemplating on doing this to establish an additional line of constant revenue ? or are you looking to investing in to a fixed asset that you can dispose of after X years of appreciating (i.e. not really care too much about having a constant cash stream out of it)? 

Some of my family members did purchase these apartments (well two cousins from the same family)...and it is not easy for them to find tenants at the expected rates as most of the people looking for apartments in the city are locals who want to be closer to work/school or outstation based locals. Not the high-income Lankans or the expats. Even my house....5 years ago I found a known expat family to rent it out to at a decent rate but then 2 years after that there were none around and those who rented were locals (which was not easy at this particular price point). Lets be honest...there are only a hand full of International NGO/UN/Embassy/Donor Agency people around and high earning Lankans. There was a time when Indian companies had their local offices/partners sign up apartments/condos on long term lease but have not heard of that in a while. On the other hand...some of my other family members setup annexes and small houses which they rented out for like 20,000 - 50,000ish and those just got rented out in literaly a matter of hours after the adverts came out. 

[MaleCortana]

52 minutes ago, iRage said:

On the other hand...some of my other family members setup annexes and small houses which they rented out for like 20,000 - 50,000ish and those just got rented out in literaly a matter of hours after the adverts came out. 

Yep yep, I also made the assumption that @GK_007 is looking at apartments to buy in the inner-Colombo 35 mil range (Which is your average 2 bedroom/3 bedroom apartment) which depending on its location go from 50k - 70k per month. Other apartments that go beyond 100-150k per month are anyway stuff like Tr*ll*um where apartments seem to have hit close to 60mil

[GK_007]

2 hours ago, iRage said:

you contemplating on doing this to establish an additional line of constant revenue ?

Yes @iRage thats what I hoped. Besides I will be going for a big loan and will be stretching my comfort zones financially 😕 but now after all your comments feel its not worth. Because after paying the installment of around 150k and management fees around 15k min if I am getting around 80k its not worth. And it seems even getting that sum consistantly is not promising as well... I'v been too optimistic of consistant cash inflows in this venture. Thank you all for your valuable feedback. 🙏

[iRage]

2 minutes ago, GK_007 said:

Yes @iRage thats what I hoped. Besides I will be going for a big loan and will be stretching my comfort zones financially 😕 but now after all your comments feel its not worth. Because after paying the installment of around 150k and management fees around 15k min if I am getting around 80k its not worth. And it seems even getting that sum consistantly is not promising as well... I'v been too optimistic of consistant cash inflows in this venture. Thank you all for your valuable feedback. 🙏

Fair enough....the investment has to be a long play where you accept the fact that your profit lies in the apartment/land/house appreciating. Land appreciates...but for an apartment or a house to sensibly appreciate..it has to be the right house/complex.

[Sylvi]

On 4/14/2021 at 9:43 AM, iRage said:

Fair enough....the investment has to be a long play where you accept the fact that your profit lies in the apartment/land/house appreciating. Land appreciates...but for an apartment or a house to sensibly appreciate..it has to be the right house/complex.

Members,

Property appreciation is the  most profitable thing in Sri alanka or any City in the world.

I will post on to the thread moderators had allowed out of automobile matters to post to me.How Colombo propriety had appreciated in last 75 years. Also agricultural land had appreciated in last 30 years.

Please log into that thread.

Sylvester Wijesinghe

Sylvi.

[Sylvi]

2 minutes ago, Sylvi said:

Members,

Property appreciation is the  most profitable thing in Sri alanka or any City in the world.

I will post on to the thread moderators had allowed out of automobile matters to post to me.How Colombo propriety had appreciated in last 75 years. Also agricultural land had appreciated in last 30 years.

Please log into that thread. Reflections On Sri Lanka's Automotive History By Mr. Sylvi Wijesinghe

Sylvester Wijesinghe

Sylvi.

 

[AVANTE]

On 4/11/2021 at 9:31 PM, GK_007 said:

Your advices, thoughts are welcome.

Some solid advice from the people above really. Best off keeping your money safe for now. I'll just add my two cents though and this reciprocated with what @iRagesaid near the end.

Small houses do get rented quick, especially in peaceful areas. Just like how there are tons of outstation people trying to migrate to Colombo, there are also people trying to get away from crowded towns.

So far this month alone, we've had nearly 3 families asking to rent out our 2nd floor and one guy wanted the 3rd floor for business purposes, to open up a small scale garments factory of sorts. 

Even one of our neighbour's rented out their small home to another party and moved to their ancestral home. 

So you can see a pattern here. Especially near big schools, there are tons of rooms being rented out to school kids who come from far away places to such schools. 

Also regarding the purchase of land, which we do as a side hustle, I'll add another word of advice. Don't put all the eggs in one basket.

Buy small pieces of land in different places especially places that are in demand or soon will be. Ever since the Easter bombing incident and now corona, people are extra careful with their money.

Not many have the power to purchase big land anymore, unless it's dirt cheap, in a high demand city or a farming piece. People are either renovating, moving to apartments, migrating or just buying a house to avoid the hassles of dealing with the baas fellows.

I'm having a hard time trying to push off a 20 perches and 27 perches spot near mawanella town. I've divided them into smaller pieces and hope it will get sold within this year. Meanwhile one of our smaller pieces, 4 perches, 1.5km away from the town has been having way too many inquiries recently.

Also, when it comes to really really small pieces of land in places where the demograph is of a lower income bracket, make sure not to keep insane profit margins as that would be immoral and preying towards such unfortunate families who really need a place to settle in that specific area as soon as possible. 

Good luck. 

Edited April 16, 2021 by AVANTE