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First separate the fee from the purchase price. Some costs may be fixed by the transaction or jurisdiction, while anything charged by a party to the deal may have different room for discussion. Ask for an itemised total before negotiating. A 97-day listing alone would not persuade me there is...

The useful goal is to identify genuine seller flexibility, but 50 days cannot establish that on its own. A villa listed unchanged for that long may have a patient owner, whereas another may have been withdrawn and returned with an apparently fresh marketing date. I would also separate condition...

Ask each lender for the same set of figures in writing: payment schedule, all compulsory fees, balance at selected dates, and the cost of repaying at those dates. Then run at least three scenarios: keep for 15 years, refinance earlier, and sell earlier. That prevents the decision from depending...

Buyer financing may be part of the delay, especially at the upper end, but it should not be assumed from listing age alone. Is there any way to distinguish offers that failed to proceed from properties that received no acceptable offers? Those are very different signals.

Judging the flat by its 4.6% gross yield feels too generous, while rejecting it solely because the net figure falls below a fixed threshold feels too rigid. The useful middle ground is to calculate returns on all cash committed to the HK$7,176,000 purchase, including applicable duties and...

One addition: an annual repair reserve can make the spreadsheet look smooth while the cash flow is anything but smooth. Run a version where the larger repair lands during a vacancy. If that creates a funding problem, the deal is too tight regardless of the average net yield.

I agree on testing the rent, but not that every unusual repair should simply be rolled into a higher vacancy allowance. Keep vacancy, reletting expenses and physical repairs separate. Otherwise you cannot see what is driving the weak case. A 5-bed home may also have a narrower tenant pool than a...

Portability also needs unpacking. Does it merely allow the loan to follow you to another acceptable property, or does it preserve the fixed rate and avoid early-repayment charges? Ask the lender to explain what happens if sale and purchase dates do not align. A feature called “portable” may...

For condition, separate cosmetic datedness from deferred maintenance. Old colours and finishes are one category; ageing building elements or unresolved defects are another. Obtain estimates for work you would actually undertake, then test the valuation both with and without optional cosmetic...