I choose to invest most of my money in real estate because I am well versed in it, says property agent Donny Lee.’
Coming from a humble family background of 6 that once cramped in a 3-room HDB flat, Donny Lee was determined to make a mark in his life and provide a better life for his parents and siblings.
Like many locals aspiring to dream big, he understood that doing sales was the way to make the most money within the shortest possible time. When introduced to real estate, he knew that he had found his calling.
In 2009, Donny joined ERA Singapore and within 2 years, rose from a rookie real estate agent to one of the company’s Top Achievers and Leaders. Today, he is a property investor, coach and mentor to many team leaders and fellow trusted advisers. He has also stepped up as a company trainer with a strong sales force of more than 8,100 agents. Together with his wife and fellow business partner Velisa Leong, and their two daughters, Vera and Carla, they live in a 4-bedroom Penthouse in Tampines.
Q. Tell us about yourself.
A. I am a Senior Division Director with ERA, 39 years old and graduated with a diploma in Engineering from Temasek Polytechnic. My wife is 41 years old and she is also in the real estate business with me. We are very blessed to be able to work in this industry together; winning the champion position for the Top Husband & Wife award during our Q1’21 Career Advancement quarterly conference.
Q. Please describe your home.
A. We live in a 4-bedroom Penthouse in The Tampines Trilliant which we bought for $1.708M in Aug 2020. It is a 1,970sqft duplex unit with 4 bedrooms. The main reason we chose this property was because of its ideal location near the primary school we were enrolling our children in.
We also like the well-designed layout. For penthouses, usually the upper level only has 1 bedroom leading out to a huge open terrace. Our unit, however, comes with two good-sized bedrooms on the upper level which leads to open terraces that had been fully fitted out by the previous owner. The living and dining areas are spacious and nicely lit by natural light. As we enjoy hosting our friends and family, the spaces allow us to entertain comfortably.
My favourite parts of our home are the living hall and dining area. Flanked by an entire row of full-height windows, the space is bright and well-ventilated. As our unit is on the highest floor, the unblocked view is also mesmerising.
Q. What’s currently in your property portfolio?
A. My wife and I had a 999-year leasehold, 3-bedroom unit at Riverbay. We bought it for $1.093M in the year 2015, directly from the developer. We sold it last year for $1.18M and have made close to a profit of $100k. As we bought it directly from the developer, we managed to save a lot of money on renovation because all the major works such as floorings, cabinets, aircon units were already done by the developer. I used the profit from this sale to upgrade to my current home.
We bought another private residential property in 2018. It is a 452sqft 1-bedroom unit. The purchase price was $537,000 and it is now valued at $620,000. Currently, we are leasing this unit out and it is fetching us a rental yield of 4.69%. We plan to sell it in the next few years and invest our profits in a bigger unit, buying directly from a developer again.
All of our properties are financed with bank loans and I’m a firm believer of leveraging on them to create wealth.
Q. Describe your property investing strategy.
A. I have been attending the consumer seminars conducted by ERA where strategic insights on the latest property investment strategies and deep analyses of selected projects are shared. They have helped to do my analysis based on these three metrics:
1. Evaluate the land bid price of the project vs the nearby land bid prices;
2. Compare nearby developments’ unit type, age of property, and past transacted prices;
3. Looking for upcoming nearby developments based on the latest Masterplan.
In addition, the three factors I look out for when buying a property are:
1. Distance to MRT;
2. Large land size projects (min 300 units);
3. Within 1km to good schools.
Q. What’s your view of the property market?
A. Singapore is a land-scarce country with a growing economy and an increasing population. Our stable political climate helps to attract many international brands and companies to set up their companies here, which in turn attract a lot of talents to come here for work. Some come with their families while others start their families here. I foresee the demand for housing to be even stronger in years to come.
From a national statistics standpoint, one of the important trends I noticed is that our private homes’ price growth is lagging behind our household net-worth growth in recent years. Hence, I firmly believe there is a lot of room for property prices to catch up vis-a-vis the growth of household net worth.
Q. What’s your current home financing strategy?
A. My current housing loan is with Maybank at an interest rate of 1.1% with a 28-year loan tenure. I am intending to refinance it a year later to stretch the loan tenure to 34 years which will lessen my monthly mortgage so that I can free up the money for other investments (i.e. another property) while patiently waiting for property prices to move upwards. When I sell this property, I only need to pay off the outstanding loan amount with no interest.
I choose to pay my mortgage with cash, viewing it as a monthly savings plan. Being self-employed, I do not have monthly CPF contributions from the company. But I have been allocating some funds into my CPF every year to let it enjoy the high-interest rates and accumulate my retirement sum.
Q. What’s your overall investing strategy?
A. I have an investment in various real estate shares and also unit trust in investment link policy. As I do not have time to analyse stocks and shares, I choose to invest most of my money in real estate because I am well versed in it. My investment portfolio consists of 90% in real estate, 5% on insurance investment and, 5% on stocks and shares. I find the interest given by the CPF board to their members very attractive. They are paying 2.5% to 3.5% for the ordinary account and 4% to the special account. And this interest will be compounded yearly. For our investment condo at Rezi 26, I have refinanced it and chosen to pay the mortgage in cash. As it is fetching a good rental yield, the monthly rental income is more than enough to cover the mortgage.
Q. What is your dream house?
A. A big sea fronting penthouse in District 15. My wife and I love the sea, so the East Coast vibes suit us. If we can own a place like this in the future, it is like we have hit a jackpot.
Q. With regards to your business, what is your investing strategy for it?
A. I started with just $10k capital in the year 2009, as this is a low-cost business. I immediately made a profit after transacting my first deal. Every year I will set aside a 5-figure budget to invest in myself by attending training courses to upgrade my skillset to perform better in my real estate work.
I also like to invest in various creative marketing instruments that can value add to my clients. Last but not least, I also intentionally invest a portion of my funds into my team to enhance team synergy and provide platforms to showcase them.
Q. Moneywise, what were your growing-up years like?
A. I grew up in a family of 6, staying in a 3-room HDB flat together. My dad is a taxi driver and my mum is a homemaker. I have 2 younger brothers and 1 younger sister. My dad is a hard worker who drove a taxi for almost 15 hours a day, 7 days a week to provide for his 4 children for many years.
He is someone I respect immensely and also my role model. He taught me the value of hard work and to always place our family as top priority. My mum chose not to work as she wanted to spend more time looking after us and to make sure we grew up well and not mix with bad company. She always made sure our daily needs were taken care of.
Q. What was your family’s lifestyle?
A. My parents brought us up in a simple, humble lifestyle. Having a toy, watching a movie or even having chicken rice was a luxury. I still remember the first turkey that I had for Christmas which was given by my dad’s boss – as kids, we were ecstatic.
They always focused on building the right values in us and also encourage us to pursue our dreams and support us in all ways possible. To me, I have the best parents as they have given me lots of love and encouragement in my growing-up years which helped to build my confidence and strong positive values to pursue my goals.
Because of the lack of finances to fulfil my childhood goals, it drove me to want to be successful so that I can fulfil them later on; this also ensures that my children & wife will lead a life without lack. A lot of the credit goes to my dad for leading by example on the value of being a hard worker in life, bringing bread home to the family, protecting the family, and loving my mum.
Q. Do you have any anecdotes on money lessons you would like to share?
A. Pay yourself first. This means, instead of using your earnings to pay the bills, use the money and set it aside for a “Financial Freedom” bank account. I use this account for investments, particularly in real estate. Now I have additional accounts like “Long-term saving for spending” to save up for luxurious items in the future, “Give” account for donations, “Business” account for business and “Education” account to upgrade my skillset and knowledge.
Q. Do you have anything else about yourself that you would like to share?
A. Who I am today is shaped by my family and I am a firm believer in prioritising family first – they motivate me to be the best version of myself every day. I also believe in delayed gratification — spending on the needs of my family (a home) before spending on my own wants (cars). I chose to live by design and not by default – one has to fight for his or her dream. My favourite quote is “the best days of our lives are ahead of us.”
