Hi there, I have a semi d in built Timah area and considering to renovate or or do full reconstruction.

I rented the place out to expats for the past few years and they love the interior and hence even before the rental spike in the recent years I am able to command a rental of 12k per month.

As I want to move in to the place myself pls give your advice. The place was built in the 1990s but the previous owner did an a & a 10yrs ago that added in an inground swimming pool and some renovations but still old facade.

It is in a 2.5 storey area the land is around 3600sqft, gfa 3900sqftand built up 5000sqft. Based on architect review, after reconstruction I am able to achieve only a bit more at 4200gfa and built up 6200sqft but with modern facade and lift.

if I do just internal renovation estimate 600-700k but if recon estimate 3times the cost. Is it worth it to do recon since it was a and a less than 10yrs and would it enhance the property value vs cost with lift and modern facade? 
 

thank you for your comments!

By reconstruction, do you mean a full tear down? Like a new erection? I read somewhere in this forum now construction costs is about $450/psf but the way i see it, it will not come down for the foreseeable future. Might as well bite the bullet now. Maybe don't do the full 6200 sf if your lifestyle don't require?

Not rebuilt but reconstruction. Just left the pillars and foundation intact and build all the way up. The original ceilings and layout is quite ok so no need total rebuild.

so basically max out the 2.5story envelope 

 

I think you should ask yourself what is your long term plans first. By long term, i mean 10, 15 and 20 years and beyond. If you are planning to stay in the house long term or even take is as your retirement house, then you shouldn't be asking about the resale value and instead focus on what to do up for the house to ensure you don't encounter big issues in future.

Since your house was built somewhere in the 1990s, It would be close to 30 years now even though the previous owner did A&A 10 years ago. Even if you throw in 1.5M to do a reconstruction, I don't think this 1.5M will add on to the current valuation even if you decide to sell the house in the near future (within next 5 years). So if you don't have long terms plans to stay there, spending so much money to do up the house may not be worth it unless there is a huge spike in landed house prices again. We've seen landed houses prices jump more than 50% over the period of 2009 to 2013 and it is unlikely to happen again in the near future even though the prices will increase due to inflation, etc. Do also note that if you need to take a construction loan to finance the reconstruction, the interest rates for bridging loan (until you receive TOP) is much higher than mortgage loan and it will increase again soon due to USA increasing their rates.

My view is that if there's no major structural issues with the house and you are ok with the layouts of the rooms, etc, then just do a renovation as opposed to a full reconstruction if you are not planning to stay long term.