[Hehe]

I'd offer another view on RE, but again, they aren't financial advice, just my personal view according to my own personal situation. Make your decision based on yours.

My family has a long history investing in Commercial RE, although we do keep an eye on RE. My cousin, specifically, spends most of his working minutes studying everything as they have a huge portfolio. (8figures)

This virus is going to bring havoc to many industries because from all major sources of scientific background, this is shaping up closer to our seasonal flu rather than SARS where it died down after a few months. Just in case you think this is going to be something similar to SARS, I can just tell you right now. It won't. Because even if it dies down like SARS, the effect of it is much more serious and would require more time to recover.

Now, with that in mind, let's talk about what my family thinks it's going to do to the general RE market, residential or commercial alike or even the broader asset market:

A huge portion of RE value derives from local people's income. It doesn't matter whether the buyer is local or oversea. Ultimately, the decision falls onto that the LOCAL market has to be able to absorb it at x price. The disruption that's currently taking place had many businesses closed down. Some are temporary, and some are permanent. One thing for sure, there'd be jobs lost.

As businesses recover from the aftermath, it won't simply snap right back. During the 2008 crisis, it took the world roughly 2.5yrs to normalize, and 5yr to come back to where it was. This time, the effect is going to be deeper and more personal, as it affected jobs in many sectors, regardless of one's income level. And more time will be required to come back. People who do not have enough fund to weather this period are going to suffer, some even have to sell/lose their home because they can't make their ends meet.

Global asset market, be it stock, RE, commodity... whatever took one of the longest bull market in modern history. A 12yrs run if you simply use the 08 market collapse as reference. The "correction" that we had last 2 years, if you call it that was simply a reflection of value given the policy in place.

Now with all asset markets really doing its corrections, RE will not be able to stand out of it. Call me Mr. Doom or pessimistic, but the bubble has burst.

Cash is king now and it (as in all assets) is going to keep adjusting itself until the cash finds a better opportunity than staying under the mattress. Stock has the largest liquidity, hence it drops the fastest. RE can take some time to adjust, but the truth is, all banks and lenders will be tightening up their lending practices (even with near 0% interest) because, with no end in sight for the virus, they want to conserve as much cash as possible. Lending out in this market environment is not an investment, but rather a liability.