Why Overseas Properties Are Least Loved When Marriages Fail

Overseas properties may seem like the bargains of the century when compared with pricey Singapore real estate, but buying cheap can often mean you are in for a lot of expensive grief down the road.

- Tan Ooi Boon

The last thing you should do is assume that all real estate purchases will be profitable. Like any investment, property prices are ultimately influenced by market conditions and prevailing interest rates.

Going by divorce cases in Singapore, quite a number of well-off couples seemed to think it was a good idea to invest in foreign homes when times were good.

But when the relationship hits the rocks, these foreign properties often turned out to be the least preferred assets because they are tedious to deal with.

It is much harder to get a proper valuation done if you are not there to oversee it, and there is always a risk of reducing your own share of the matrimonial assets by submitting an inflated value for the split.

Take a recent case here involving four investment properties in Japan, Australia and Britain. The husband submitted a total valuation of about $580,000, while the wife's valuation was more than $700,000.