Well if you're talking about retiring somewhere, salary and GDP don't matter so much. Japan probably is slightly cheaper to live than Australia. So the AUD goes further in Japan.
For retirement, wouldn't Vietnam be a much cheaper place? Safer as well, in comparison to say Thailand. Don't know about their residency rules though. Sapa is beautiful.
I was just giving an example. Recently I was checking property price oscillations and also home price index values for some countries. It looks like you literally lose 50-75 % of your purchase power when moving a more prosperous country (where the overall economic outlook is a lot better - even in case of "total collapse"). This means you sell a 4 bedroom house and buy only a 2 bedroom house in the other country, where otherwise wages are somewhat higher as well (also social and healthcare system). So, it's better on the longer run. Still: it's the dillemma - have a big house in a 'poorer country' with less perspectives for the future or, have 50-75 % smaller in the other country, while having overall a 'happier life' (20-30 % more income, better safety, more business opportunities etc.). And no, it's not retirement far from that. Just an opportunity.
True! The big dilemma here is: would you rather have a huge house in a poorer country with much less life perspectives or, would you move to a more prosperous country, but then you'd most probably have to settle for a 50-75 % smaller home, but just slightly higher income and you'd like in an efervescent, more prosperous city with more career/life perspectives on the longer run. The latter is more attractive, but note that you'd sacrifice a large property, which you will never recover.
"even the mainstream media are shouting it loud" The above being the case then everything is fine. I can only recall the media calling for a crash and IT Never Happens, it is when the media is quiet that things could turned peared shaped.
Sure, but that's the case no matter what the market is doing. Aus property market is in limbo, some conservative areas are still going up while most of the crazy influxes are down turning. Like after the boom in the 90's we are now seeing migration within Australia. I know one couple who sold their east suburbs house in Sydney and bought a house 15 minutes out of Brisbane for 20% of the sell price. Since world war 2, Australian property prices has never been in a downward trend by any meaningful definition of the term. The only way aus prices will really go backwards is if immigration stops and population growth goes stagnant or backwards. Which is never going to happen here, given the fundamentals. (pretty awesome place to live). There are not many countries that have higher wages then Australia. I would want to be with friends and family. This is the only reason why I haven't moved to some rural town in Australia. I would move to Tamworth before I move to Japan xP.
Investing in real estate on international level is an investment you need to understand not only the local markets, customs, laws and cultural behaviours. You need to understand the local economy versus the international position of the country (currency[wars]) on the world stage and not to forget the role of asset protection. If you choose to move to another country to live there you have to check the taxation laws of your country of nationality with the taxation laws of the country you are going to live in. There are countries where expats living outside the country are still being taxed as citizens instead of inhabitants. So for some expats you end up paying tax twice. If you thought that was not though enough there are countries that have laws in place to collect debt from your kids, grand kids and/or great grant kids if you and future lines fail to pay the debt you might leave behind. You want to do that to your loved ones? Living in another country sounds so fantastic by the main stream media programs but non talk about all these hidden traps. Even when your sell your home in country A and want to shift your money to country B you need to be on the "ball game". Even before you sold your home you need to have bank accounts opened in another country (countries) to transfer the money before economic sh!t hits the fan, and you never known for sure. Don't forget that when you sold your home and have the money in a bank account sitting there for 6-12 months or longer (or even shorter, eg. 12 hours) you can be frozen out of the banking system while you're sleeping and the bank gives you an IOU or countries with bank bail in laws get active. Or think reversed the country you love so much and look through colour lenses at of living there is actually under financial stress and freeze your newly transferred cash and confiscate it. The best thing to do in my opinion is to make up your mind where you want to live first and invest secondly as you only have an X amount of time to live and never know when your number comes up. Take in consideration you current nationality, the benefits and negatives of it. Then look to where you move your investments to and from as there are plenty of opportunities as long you do your due diligences. However remember that there is never 100% certainty as rules keep changing in your country of nationality, residence and investment. Plus there is a whole lot more to think about when you go into details that matter. In fact so much you can write Harry Potter novels than Harry Potter novels exist
Getting actual "usable" wealth out of the real estate boom requires that you reduce your exposure to the market after the price has gone up. If someone bought 10 houses 20 years ago and sold them today then they've done pretty nicely, there's no denying that whatsoever.
Personally would sell. Doesn't matter if it goes up much from here, as the amount you could lose when it does fall will be much greater.
Suppose you sell. What if the crash destroys your money in the bank the next day. What then? Sell now and buy cheaper/better instead could be an option, I think. From real estate to real estate, not to money or PM's.
Why not PM's? Safer bet than real estate any day of the week. If you have multiple residences or one surplus to your needs, downsize now and put your cash into hard solid PMs.
It’s a big call without a mass unemployment. Since 10 to 15% interest is unlikely in medium future. Also even with a recession prices might not fall much more than 10% but have zero growth for ten or twenty years. Btw I sold all my properties starting from 2016 to 2018 and I wouldn’t buy any properties yet.
Look at the period after the last two booms (or three is it?), there was a 5 year flat period. Conditions are much worse this time around, and we are surely on the brink of another big general financial market collapse after more than decade of growth (a.k.a GFC 2.0). So it's going to be at least 5 years flat at best.