"Currently featuring a column on Toyo Keizai ONLINE" Real estate investment risks

Good morning, this is Matsushita.

Yesterday, in between work,

I read an article in a column on a site

that discusses failures in apartment investments.

I have not studied real estate investment in detail, and for individual investors in recent years,

from the outside, I have thought there were very dangerous signs regarding real estate investment, but

recently, this issue has been surfacing here and there.

Real estate investment, in terms of investment as well,

is the same as stock investment and FX,

and the cautions and approaches are the same, I think.

First and foremost for both is

Don't touch what you don't understand.

Until you can understand it to some extent, first learn.

That is the iron rule.

However, just like stocks and FX,

investors approaching real estate investment

are few who truly understand it,

and more often than not, they swallow what sales companies and sales representatives say,

taking it at face value.

No one starts investing expecting to lose money.

If that’s the case, then why can you make a profit?

Why would there be such a good deal?

These are questions we must consider.

The reason you can make a profit in stocks or FX is

to identify the distortions or deviations existing in the market,

to patiently recognize them,

and to continue buying and selling calmly.

The distortions and deviations that exist in this market,

the advantages, you must find them.

I will not find them and say, “Here you go” and hand them to you.

Real estate investment, in essence,

is the same on this point, I think.

In financial markets, the word “risk” means uncertainty, and uncertainty

increases the longer the investment horizon is,

and this is a property of it.

If you know this basics, real estate investment is

riskier than stocks or FX.

Whether in real estate, stocks, or FX,

there are special reasons why profits can be made,

there is a special reason.

If you know this special reason and

keep it in your investment,

you can make a profit.

As long as that particular reason is not in your investment,

the potential for profit is low, so until you find it,

continue to learn until you obtain it.

In real estate investment, as well as stocks and FX,

when you lose, you lose catastrophically in an instant.

Do not take that lightly, and

move forward carefully and thoughtfully.