Top 5 Must Use Free Property Research Tools
This is my list of the most important free property research tools you have to use when doing research to buy a property. If you are looking for a good property investment, these tools are an absolute must.
Watch the video above and learn how you can use these tools (and more) to find good property investment in Singapore. Sign up and learn how I use my Property P.L.U.S System to select good property investments for my clients.
Before you buy a property, it is very important to have access to good tools to help you collect and make sense of data. Today, I want to share with you the top 5 free property tools I use that you can also use to do your own research.
First on the list is the mortgage affordability calculator. This is the very first step you have to take before you even can decide how much of a property you intend to invest in. It will tell you your maximum loan tenure and also the maximum loan amount from the bank based on TDSR.
Simply key in your (and/or your spouse) age, monthly gross income, (variable income if any), debt such as car loan, school loan or credit card loan and the calculator will be able to show you how much you can borrow from the bank.
This tool uses Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) formula for Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) and Weighted Average Age so it is very accurate.
*TDSR is based on 55%, the latest as on 15th Dec 2021
Price Trend / Past Transaction / Project Info
If you love technical analysis, you will definitely love this site. Next we need to study and analyse whether a certain project is worth buying. We do this by studying the price trend. Overall, we are looking for properties that have upward trend line, yet it is not at an all time high.
We use 99.co’s property research tool, 99.co/singapore/condos-apartments. Under Explore, go to “Condos in Singapore”. From there, key in the condominium you want to research on and then go down to Transaction History (Past Transaction) & Price Trend.
Other useful function from the research that I use is that we can see the floorpans of the different stacks in the development and more importantly, schools that are within 1 km. Lastly, you can also find out the tenure and built year where we find out how much lease is left.
Overall, this site is where you will be spending most of your in. 99% of your time will be used to study and compare the various projects and to determine which is the best value but for you, if not the best investment.
Another key website which I often use to find good profitable properties is using the URA Masterplan.
The URA Masterplan is a government plan for Singapore’s land use that is reviewed every five years. This translates the broad long-term strategies of the Concept Plan into detailed plans to guide the development in the medium term over the next 10 to 15 years. In in other words, this is the magic crystal ball that tells you where in Singapore the future development will be and in turn the next huat location.
Few Important things I look out for are future residential developments within the 1-2 km, potential commercial plots of land for shopping centres or commercial buildings, yellow and white sites.
Go to ura.gov.sg/maps, under “layers”, toggle Master Plan Approved Amendments.
So you have shortlisted a couple of properties and have viewed the various properties and now you want to make an offer. How would you know what offer to make?
Head on down to urbanzoom.com and click on Zoom Value. Input in the property address and information and you will be able to get the valuation out. This valuation is based on AI research on neighbouring properties.
(As of 2023, UrbanZoom is currently offline. Hence an alternative you can use is Property Value Tool by 99.co)
Alternatively, another site you can use is Edgeprop Fair Value. Their computation is also based on past transactions around the vicinity.
The valuation can help you to understand the fair market value of the property. Moreover, even if you are willing to pay above valuation pricing for the property, do remember that the bank will only loan up to 75% based on valuation pricing. (Loan-to-Value Ratio)
Having 2 software is good to give you a good indicative valuation of the property although most of the time the difference is very minute, less than 5% difference.
Last but not least, a good mortgage calculator can give you a lot of information when you take a loan from a bank.
You can use this calculator to your advantage after you have chosen your property that you want to purchase and before negotiating with the seller on the price.
By inputing the property price, the loan amount (up to 75% of property price) and the loan term which you can get from the affordability calculator, it will tell you your estimated monthly payment.
This is very useful as by adjusting the values of the loan amount and/or the loan term, you can either adjust the total interest you intend to pay, adjust the cashflow (rent – monthly repayment) and also the amortisation table (for advance users).
For example, if you plan to sell the property in ten years time, you can look at the amortisation table for 10 years later to find out the total interest paid and hence find out your total profit.
This calculator is different from the affordability calculator as the former informs you your maximum bank loan and loan term.
Misc
attribuild.com is able to rate the floor plan of the unit with good, average or excellent. Everything you need to know about the strength and weakness of the floor plan is here. It will calculate how much useable space with an in-depth analysis and even rank using their proprietary scientific methodology.
(Update: As of 2022, the website is down. The owner of the website plan to make it a paid version. Will update more when we have further information.)
Property Price Index – this tool tells us how the Singapore Property Market is performing. It is a reflection of the supply and demand of properties in Singapore. There are a total of 5 chars depending on the data you need. This can help you determine when to buy and what to buy.
- Overall Private Property Price Index
- Private Property Price Index (By Region)
- Private Property Price Index (Landed vs Non-Landed)
- Commercial Property Price Index (Office vs Retail)
- HDB Resale Price Index
Decoupling Calculator – useful for people who want to avoid paying ABSD by decoupling their private property.The aim is to work out the best scenario for the purchase of your second property with minimum stamp duties. Free Excel for you to download.
Investment Articles and Research – Not only does this page contains several investment articles and research, it also contains four additional calculators that is free for download. All the below worksheets and calculators are for advance users. Do use at your own discretion.
- Cashflow Statement & Financial Ratios for Risk Assessment
- Housing Instalment Calculator
- Private Property Financial Worksheet
- Refinancing Interest Savings Table
So, there you have some property research tools that I hope help you to go out and to find the data. And if you want help actually assessing that data and collecting the right data, not just collecting all the data of a property, you don’t want to get data overwhelm. You want to understand it so you can make the best decision as to what’s the best property for you invest in.
Arrange a consultation call with me, understand how I use my Property P.L.U.S System and with all the key data points, show you exactly how I analyse that data. What do the figures mean? What do the trends mean? And how can I compare one area to another so I can really understand an area and feel confident to invest.
So if you want to check out the Advanced Suburb Research course and get access to that checklist, go to onproperty.com.au/suburb.