Leveraged Yield of Return for your Property

Property rental is a passive income dream for a lot of people, which is why you see many people flocking to condo launches these few years.

And the main attraction why property is better than bonds, equities or other asset class is that it is the easiest for average folks like you and me to leverage up.

Recently, the Singapore Government have been trying to stem this property speculation wave, which have seen property prices climbing like mad.

So how much return can you make nowadays if you try to rent out?

Leveraged Yield Formula

The formula to calculate how much leverage yield as an investor you can garner when you rent out your property can be represented by this generic formula

L = (R – (1-N)*C)/N

where

• L = Leveraged Return
• R = Yield on asset e.g. rental yield, yield on bond
• C = Cost of borrowing e.g. interest from bank
• N = % owner have to put down

You can use this formula for other leverage strategy as well such as borrowing to buy bonds or REITs

REITS, Business Trust, Infrastructure Stocks

The unleveraged yield on asset (R ) on such assets typically range around 6-8% for REITs, infrastructures, utilities.

The leverage rates vary from 30%-50%.

In the case of an average asset, say Industrial buildings in REITs, or utilities their returns typically ranges from 6-7%.

The leverage can go up to 40% or 50%. The boost usually is rather significant as shown above.

It is why REITs are attractive since majority are rather leverage.

For the more conservative assets such as preferred shares, blue chip REITs the yield is lower, but the borrowing costs are lower as well. They may be more conservative.

But if you put down more of your money, the boost to yield is going to be less

Commercial Properties in Singapore

RENTALS have kept pace with the rise in private home prices, but not across the board.

"Rental yields remain at 3.7 per cent islandwide," Maybank Kim Eng said in a report that compared 2011 and 2012 rentals at projects with more than 10 rental contracts.

The minimal change in the figure indicates condominium rental rates have generally kept up with the increase in prices last year.

However, not all districts fared equally. The worst showings were in Newton and Sentosa, with yields compressing to just 2.2 per cent last year.

What used to be the situation before the cooling measure is that you can probably put down only 20% of your money.

Even with a lower yield on asset at 4% and a cheap borrowing cost of 1.5%, the leverage return is an astounding 14%

If the leverage is drastically constrain, your returns look rather close to what you get as the returns on REITs, business trusts.

That is to say you put $400k in a condo downpayment versus $400k in a basket of stocks yielding 7.5%

Conclusion

At the end of the day, people buy property not so much for the rental but for the leverage appreciation.

The different asset classes grow at different rates and they have different depreciation levels as well

1. Property 99 years lease?
2. Commercial property 999 years lease?
3. Ships 25 years?
4. Roads 15 years?

From the looks of it, my figures are even conservative since in the quote above the yields can be near 3.8%.

Property, stocks or bonds, at the end you have to determine the cost of purchase and the value you get.

Buy something that is dear and you do not have much safety.