Gym membership, condo and its facilities, your money and you

A young colleague spoke to me the other day. I term young as those who are younger than me by 5 years or more. How old am I? Many more years to 40. Haha. He said, if I were to buy a condo, rent it out and retain one access card so that I can use the facilities, do you think it is a wise idea. I told him, even if we don’t talk about the potential capital appreciation, the use of the facility itself is already worth it. For example, a typical gym membership for a year in a local gym might be RM1,500 per year and the branded ones even higher. You get free classes and the gym equipments are many times more well equipped than your condo but frankly, do you really use the gym?
He said, not really but then RM1,500 divided by 12 months is just RM125 per month. I answer, please be reminded the gym membership is for ONE pax only and it most probably does not come with an infinity swimming pool, kids playground, perhaps a tennis or a squash court and even a garden where you can take a morning stroll. Don’t forget also that whatever you pay to the gym no longer belongs to you but whatever maintenance fee you paid helps to maintain the facilities which will ensure your capital appreciation continues to go up. If your wife, your parents and your children wants to use the swimming pool, it’s free. If they want to join the gym membership, you just lost many thousands of Ringgit. He laughed. ‘True, True’.
Actually the situation that he spoke about, it’s already happening and he will not be the first one to do so. Another colleague is doing that every few weekends in her sister’s condo which was rented out. However, always understand that buying for rental meant that you must also make sure that it is easy to rent out. Keep your main objective in mind and not get too carried away when you see the many facilities that you can use and how happy your family would be because your tenant may not be renting from you because of these reasons. It may be because it’s near to his office or he just love your condo.
written on 26th Sept 2014
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