I collect rent from 2 properties but pay $3,900 to rent my own home — does this still make sense in my 70s?

Hi Stacked,

I’m in my mid-70s and currently rent a one-bedder at Avenue South Residence for $3,900 a month. I’ve lived here for two years and recently renewed my lease for another year.

But I also own a 1,076 sq ft four-room HDB flat near Yew Tee MRT, which is rented out for $3,000 a month. I also own a condo in Nusajaya, Johor Bahru, which generates RM2,700 a month in rent.

I’m considering these two options:

1. Sell both properties and buy a resale three-room HDB flat for my own stay; or
2. Sell only the Yew Tee flat and buy a small private condo closer to my married children, while retaining the Nusajaya property.

Which option do you think would make more financial sense at my age? Some of my priorities include my retirement income, financial liquidity, ongoing housing costs, and a desire to live closer to my children.

Thank you.

Hi, and thanks for writing to us!

Before you decide whether to sell either property, or to purchase another home, we think it’s worth looking more closely at the properties that you currently hold.

Based on what you’ve shared, your portfolio includes two properties that generate rental income: your flat in Yew Tee which brings in $3,000 a month, as well as the condo in Nusajaya that is rented out for RM2,700 (S$848) a month.

All in, we estimate that the gross rental income from both of these properties adequately covers the rent of the unit you live in at Avenue South Residence, which you pay about $3,900 per month.

Granted, this doesn’t account for other expenses like property tax, maintenance fees, and other associated costs. But even with these deductions, it seems that your rental income supports a substantial portion of your present housing costs.

This gives you a good amount of leeway to consider different options. But since you are also in your 70s, we think a more defensive approach towards your property portfolio might serve you better. This would be geared towards protecting the value of your investments over pursuing returns.

From a logistical perspective, the process of selling a property, buying another home, potentially carrying out renovations, and moving in can also be a demanding experience.

We feel that a priority that you should consider is that any move should provide a clear improvement over your present arrangement. That might mean releasing more money for the rest of your retirement years, reducing the number of properties you need to manage, lowering your monthly expenses, or allowing you to live closer to your children.

With this in mind, let’s first estimate what you could receive from selling the Yew Tee flat. This helps us to evaluate the benefits of potentially right-sizing to a three-room flat.

Average prices of four-room flats in Yew Tee, as of 2025

In this case, we’ll assume that your married children live in one of the neighbourhoods in the vicinity of Avenue South Residence, which is located off Kampong Bahru Road in Bukit Merah. We’ve compiled the average prices of three-room flats in the surrounding neighbourhood as of 2025.

To make our analysis, we’ve used the prices of four-room flats around Yew Tee MRT as a stand-in value for the estimated resale price of your flat. Based on recent transactions, this works out to an average price of around $556,000.

Unfortunately, the data suggests that resale three-room flat prices in Bukit Merah — your potential right-sized replacement home — appear to be quite volatile. If we examine flats with leases beginning in the 1960s to 1980s, there is a wide price range to consider starting from $320,000 to $535,000, according to transactions lodged last year.

Moreover, newer flats in locations such as Cantonment Close, Jalan Membina, Henderson Road and Boon Tiong Road can also fetch relatively high prices that range from $695,000 to $850,000.

This suggests to us that downsizing would not automatically leave you with a lot more liquidity. If you wanted a newer three-room flat, or a similar flat in a strong location that is close to Avenue South Residence, the proceeds from the sale of your existing Yew Tee flat may not suffice.

You could find yourself in a situation where you might have to fork out more cash on hand to make up for the difference in price, despite moving into the smaller home. Thus, your purchasing options could be confined to the older flats in the area.

If you do opt for an older flat some three-room flats, with leases commencing in the 1960s and 1970s, can fetch average resale prices of $300,000 and $400,000. At these prices, you could potentially unlock around $150,000 to $250,000 from the sale of your Yew Tee flat, based on our initial calculations.

But we would also like to point out that buying an older flat comes with familiar concern over the negative impact of lease decay on the value of the property. 

But since this is likely the final stop on your property journey, you may not feel this is as relevant in your situation. What really matters is the condition of the block and unit, as well as the cost of renovations and whether the area can meet your lifestyle needs as you grow older. 

Since you’ve been living in a one-bedder at Avenue South Residence for the past two years, there’s a good chance that moving into a three-room flat may not feel like a significant loss of your living space; but this is also a very personal preference.

 Ultimately, we think that an older and more affordable three-room flat could be a viable way to downsize, and it would allow you to stop paying $3,900 a month in rent and meet your other objectives: living closer to your married children and releasing some of the money locked in capital for your retirement.

Would buying a smaller-sized condo unit near your children also make sense?

The other option you are considering is selling your Yew Tee flat, and then purchasing a small-sized condo unit in a development that is closer to your children.

To evaluate this, let’s look at the average resale price of one-bedroom condo units in Bukit Merah. This will let us know if these units are within your affordability, and how much you need to budget.

Average resale prices of 1-bedders in Bukit Merah (based on tnx done in 2025)

*These figures also represent only the difference in quantum between the two properties. They do not account for stamp duties, legal fees, renovation, and other related costs.

Unfortunately, our analysis of the transaction data suggests that there’s a considerable gap in the average price of one-bedroom units in the area and the average sale proceeds that you would receive for your existing flat.

For example, a one-bedroom unit at Harbour Suites, which offers the lowest price in our table, still commanded an average price of around $700,000. To afford that, you will likely have to fork out an additional $144,000 after you sell the flat.

Most of the projects listed in the table above typically command average prices of approximately $900,000 to $1.3 million. This would require a substantial top-up of roughly $360,000 to $760,000, depending on the unit and other attributes.

If you wanted to own and live in a unit at Avenue South Residence, the transaction history indicates that most resale one-bedroom units in that development changed hands at an average of around $1.03 million, based on caveats lodged in 2025.

Compared to the estimated value of your Yew Tee flat, this would mean putting up an additional $479,000. Any outstanding loan, CPF refund, agent commission etc. would further widen the gap, after the sale of your flat.

On the other hand, purchasing a condo unit would allow you to avoid the monthly rent of $3,900. However, you would also give up the $3,000 monthly rent generated by your Yew Tee flat. In simple cash-flow terms, the immediate improvement would therefore be closer to $900 a month, before accounting for other costs.

(We assume you would continue receiving the approximately S$848 in monthly rent from your Nusajaya property.)

Given that you can already rent a unit in your preferred location for $3,900 a month, we would be cautious about committing so much more capital more to a one-bedder. 

If your priorities are to simplify your housing arrangements, preserve liquidity, and remain close to your children, we think that an older three-room HDB might be the more conservative choice.

Should you sell the condo unit in Nusajaya?

Let’s address the most important issue.  If you purchase a three-room HDB flat, retaining the Nusajaya condo may not be an option.

This is because HDB counts overseas residential property — including in Malaysia — as ownership of private property. Thus, you would need to sell the condo unit in Nusajaya within six months of buying a three-room flat.

However, if you purchase a condo unit in Singapore, you would be free to retain ownership of the Nusajaya property. In that scenario, it would make sense to assess the Malaysian property separately as an investment asset.

From a financial perspective, we can’t make a clear statement about selling the Malaysian condo.

 We do know the condo generates RM2,700 (S$851) a month, but we don’t know how much you originally paid for the condo or its current market value. Without these details, we can’t calculate its rental yield or estimate the resale value.

Generally speaking, we can say a chief concern is how much you want to deal with tenants abroad and the complications that owning and leasing a foreign property entails. 

Another factor is that the value and rental income are in Malaysian ringgit, which can add a currency risk to the equation.

All of this limits us to a vague position on this property. If the condo unti in Nusajaya has appreciated in price over the years, and can be sold at a reasonable profit, it could be a good opportunity to simplify your property holdings while releasing additional funds for retirement. This may be especially useful if you decide to buy the one-bedder condo unit, instead of a three-room resale flat.

On the other hand, if selling now would result in a substantial loss, and the property continues to produce a good net rental income without being too demanding to manage, there may be less reason to rush into a sale.

Our thoughts

Given everything that you have shared about your situation, and the analysis of the relevant transaction data, we think that there’s no need to rush into making a decision. After all, you’ve renewed your lease at Avenue South Residence for another year and the rental income from your two properties offsets most of the rent there.

From our perspective, this puts you in a comfortable position to bide your time and mull things over.

If you want to live closer to your children and free up money for retirement, an older three-room HDB in Bukit Merah frankly seems the better option. A flat that costs around $300,000 to $400,000, might see you reap a profit of $150,000 to $250,000 which you can reinvest, build up your legacy portfolio, or just enjoy a better retirement lifestyle.

And again, we think you might not feel the reduced living space since you’re currently already residing in a smaller unit, making the potential move to a resale three-bedder a space upgrade. However, this decision means selling the Nusajaya condo within six months of buying the three-room flat.

Buying a private condo would allow you to retain the property in Nusajaya, but most of the one-bedders that we listed here would require a top-up of several hundred thousand dollars. This is a tough recommendation, given that you have to be protective of retirement funds at this stage of life.

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