More flights, more connections; China and Malaysia

Now everyone can fly…. into Malaysia more. I think this can be an extension to what AirAsia has been saying to all its passengers since the very beginning. I must admit, AirAsia is not my first choice. Malaysia Airlines is. This is especially if I am flying with my family. When I am flying alone, the cheaper the better. 🙂  In fact these are the only two airlines that I fly with, unless of course there are no other choices, then I will open myself to others. Yes, I have flown with many other low cost as well as full-service airlines. However, it’s just like Japanese would prefer JAL, Hong Kongers would prefer Cathay and Thais would prefer Thai Airways, right. Coming back to AirAsia. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed with Chinese partners (Everbright Group and Henan Government Working Group) to establish a low-cost carrier (LCC) in China.
Full article in NST here.
 Who is Everbright? Here’s some reading.
Everbright in Wiki.
It was ranked 313 in Fortune Global 500 in 2016. In brief, it’s HUGE. Second question, where is Henan. Everyone knows Beijing, Shanghai and even Shenzhen but Henan…?
Here’s what Wiki says.
By the way, in terms of GDP contribution, it is ranked 5th and as at 2013 had a population of 94 million. 3 times that of Malaysia. 🙂  So, I guess they are good partners to have even if it’s always debatable as to who would have been better partners.

The MOU incorporates a joint venture to be known as AirAsia (China) and the base of this new business would be in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province. AirAsia China will also invest in aviation infrastructure, including a dedicated LCC terminal at Zhengzhou airport and an aviation academy to train pilots, crew and engineers, as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities to service aircraft. The MOU was exchanged between AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes, Everbright Financial Investment Holding Executive Director and President Wang Weifeng and Henan Airport Group General Manager Li Weidong at China World Hotel here today.
Full article in NST here.
Fernandes shared, “We chose Zhengzhou as our base due to its strategic location and importance as a logistics hub. As China’s gateway to Europe, Zhengzhou sits at the centre of a vast rail, highway and air transport network that forms the linchpin of China’s development plans for its central and western regions. With President Xi Jinping’s vision for One Belt, One Road, Zhengzhou is set to become even more important, not least as the heart of low-cost air travel in North Asia.”

My personal take from this deal is that there are going to be even more flights from China into Malaysia. This has to be good. I know, this airline will fly to many other destinations and not just Malaysia but this is going to be part of AirAsia and as of today, AirAsia is still very strong within Asia or at least within ASEAN. The connections will widen and hopefully Henan will just be the first base. I think many of China’s own low-cost airlines would ‘fight’ to keep AirAsia (China) at bay but this is the reason why the right partners would help tremendously. Looking forward to reading more of this joint venture. Especially the launching date and other details such as the number of aircrafts, the destinations and even the frequencies. At this moment, it’s just an MOU. Yes, of course when more people come, it would help the property market too. Recently, Zhengzhou in Henan restricted property purchase because it was too hot..
Read here.
 Keep following yeah.

written on 14 May 2017

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Definitely good news for the economy when traffic grows

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Updated – More freedom but less money?

What’s your thought about this? “More freedom but less money?”

If you know Cantonese, there’s a radio station in the morning that you could listen to. Melody FM. Haha. Yes, usually only those closer to 40 year old are listening. If you are English based, then BFM is a good one. Please do listen to stations which helps us to improve our lives and not just listening to latest songs and some jokes from the deejay. Anyway, there was this interesting topic about freedom versus lower pay between Gen-X and Gen-Y.

Photo by Jill Wellington on
Pexels.com

Gen-Xers are known to work for a long time with the same employers. (At 40, I have only changed job 3 times thus far.). Well, Gen-Yers are usually working for more freedom and surprisingly according to some surveys, are willing to have more freedom for less pay. A few callers called in and many agreed, saying that the job that they are doing now is very time taxing, thus it increased their stress and they have no time for family. There are just too many things that they have to do and even when they do more, their pay remain low. Of course, these days, we can find many of these younger people drive GRAB on weekends too.

I think the solution is not about having more time and less money. No statistics, just personal experience and readings for the past many years about what
‘time and money’
 and why when we really understand about both, we can have both. ‘Freedom’ to me simply meant we have sufficiency in both ‘time and money.’ Truth is, even if we have time, but we have no money, what can we do with more time? Watch TV? Well, even subscribing to more channels on Astro meant more money.  I know, even if we have lots of money but we have no time due to work, then we cannot even watch TV. My conclusion is simple, the freedom that we are talking should be on more time and more money to do more things we love. Not just one of them.

Just before I reached my 21st birthday, I took up a corporate sales job. It was 22 days after I am home from Bristol, UK. It was a very steep learning curve within the first few months because working well was everything about managing relationships. Well, from 2
nd
 year onwards, I sort of excelled in my work and was given
good increments and even promotions.
 I was even sent to represent ASEAN region for a huge annual negotiation in Tokyo Japan with a top telecommunicaton brand.

At the time, my salary was considered better than average already BUT I did not have much time and during the budgeting season, I left office only at midnight including once at 2am. When the new GM did not appreciate me enough, I joined my second company. It was still a tough life in the first few years. It was all about meeting customers, presenting, sending quotations, do reports and this was repeated day in and day out. By the time I reached home, it was already 8pm or later and I had no energy left. Fortunately, I saved a bit and managed to

accumulate some savings to buy my first property

at the age of 25. It was just a simple 730 sf apartment for RM123,000.

This first apartment f
orced me to be every more careful
 with my money and four years later, together with my wife, we accumulated enough for a second property. Second property was an amazing thing because we realised that even though we have two properties, we were paying for just ONE. The other one was rented out. That was when I realised that investment may be the difference between only having a full-time job and working till we retire or having the chance to retire earlier and do things which I may love. In other words, I may have the freedom of both time and money earlier than if I had only worked but not invested!

I am very far away from retiring BUT after nearly 20 years of working, I can choose to be in a job that I love instead of a job that I must work hard whether or not I like it. Thus, instead of thinking about career advancement or feel sad when I have just one month bonus or lesser every year when I was younger, I can focus on working happily while at the same time
evaluating more investments
 including property, stocks and even insurance to protect whatever I have.

When we are happy at our work, we naturally perform better too. Hope everyone noted that freedom is not having less money and more time or that happiness is having more money. Freedom is about having enough money and sufficient time to enjoy it. We should take steps towards having that real freedom. To have more ‘freedom’ in future, it may be best to start with that first property investment that you are still thinking about. Just do not buy the wrong one for the first one. Hope everyone gets the freedom they wanted It’s definitely not more freedom but less money.

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updated on 4 Dec 2017.

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More ‘freedom,’ less money is okay, true?

I was listening to my favourite radio station Melody FM (Cantonese) and an interesting topic came up. Citing a recent study, the deejay said that both Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers prefer to have more freedom and is willing to take a lower pay to
enjoy this ‘freedom.’
 In fact it was surprising because she had expected just the Gen-Yers to have such mindsets because Gen-Xers are known to join a job and work till they retire. Gen-Xers are those born between 19xx till 1976. A few callers called in and many agreed, saying that the job that they are doing now is very time taxing, thus it increased their stress and they have no time for family.

Whether you agree with the conclusion or not, let me share how such ‘freedom’ come about. No statistics, just personal experience and readings for the past many years about what
‘time and money’
 and why when we really understand about both, we can have both. ‘Freedom’ to me simply meant we have sufficiency in both ‘time and money.’ Truth is, even if we have time, but we have no money, what can we do with more time? Watch TV? If we have lots of money but we have no time, then we cannot even watch TV. So, only when we have both time and money that we truly have freedom. Not just one of them.

I took up corporate sales as soon as I graduated with a degree. First year was all about learning and by 2
nd
 year onwards, I sort of excelled in my work and was given good increments and even promotions. I was even sent to represent ASEAN region for a huge annual negotiation in Tokyo Japan. At the time, my salary was considered better than average already BUT I did not have much time and during the budgeting season, I left office only at midnight including once at 2am. This continued in my second company where it was extremely tough in the first few years. It was all about meeting customers, presenting, sending quotations, do reports and this was repeated day in and day out. By the time I reached home, it was already 8pm or later and I had no energy left. I did manage to accumulate some savings and I bought my first property at the age of 25. It was just a simple 730 sf apartment for RM123,000.

This first apartment f
orced me to be every more careful
 with my money and four years later, together with my wife, we accumulated enough for a second property. Second property was an amazing thing because we realised that even though we had two properties, we were paying for just ONE. The other one was rented out. That was when I realised that investment may be the difference between having a full-time job and working till we retire or having the chance to retire earlier and do things which I may love. In other words, I may have the freedom of both time and money earlier than if I had only worked but not invested!

While I could not retire yet BUT I can choose to be in a job that I love instead of a job that I must work hard whether to not I like it. Thus, instead of thinking about career advancement or feel sad when I have just one month bonus every year when I was younger, I can focus on working happily while at the same time
evaluating more investments
 including property, stocks and even insurance to protect whatever I have. When we are happy at our work, we naturally perform better. Hope everyone noted that freedom is not having less money and more time or that happiness is having more money. Freedom is about having enough money and sufficient time to enjoy it. We should take steps towards having that real freedom. To have more ‘freedom’ in future, it may be best to start with that first property investment that you are still thinking about. Just do not buy the wrong one for the first one. Hope everyone gets the freedom they wanted.

written on 7 July 2015

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More investments, more jobs and more property demand?

In order to have higher transaction numbers, besides just improving the sentiment, we need to also focus on the economic fundamentals; new investments to create new businesses and thus more new jobs. Without more people earning a fixed salary, the
demand for property cannot continue to go up
. Thus, I think the below news is a medium term positive news for the Malaysian property market. Too bad,I did not see anyone sharing this in their Facebook at all. Well, positive news are always forgotten anyway. Haha.

Within H1 2016, Malaysia attracted RM88.4 billion in investments. This information was given by the
Malaysian Investment Development Authority
 (MIDA). From this, an estimated total of 76,000 jobs would be created. These new approved investments are in the services, manufacturing and primary sectors. Where Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) are concerned,  a total of RM28.2 billion was approved during the same period. Oil and gas industry may not be attractive but they continue to be big. Two big petrochemical projects have been approved, one for Pengerang project in Johor and LNG9 project in Sarawak.

As per my sharing in my talk just a few days ago, I remain positive with the
longer term fundamental for property investing
. Besides just the economy, we also have the demographics which is still on the younger side. Take look at the image to understand. Today, the transactions would mostly be due to the people within the age brackets highlighted in a blue box. In the future, demand would be healthy because we still have a huge chunk of Malaysians within the red box. Happy believing.

written on 25 Sept 2016

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More Japanese manufacturers coming to ASEAN. GREAT news.

The first company I worked for was a Japanese multinational. In this company, I was given the opportunity to visit the London sales office, represented ASEAN on a billion dollar negotiation deal in Tokyo, travel to Singapore on average once every quarter for meetings and trainings and even visited its manufacturing plant in Perak on many occasions. They hired me in July 1998, amid the ASEAN financial crisis and throughout my 4 years there, I have experienced lots of career growth.

Japanese companies are a good place to start one’s career. I am glad they hired me out of 220 people who applied. Yes, that was 1998 and the number of job advertisements on newspaper were very few and very precious. You MUST work very hard and because of that, you learn a lot within a short span of time. So, when it comes to Japanese companies, it will always have a special place in my heart. Now, we have some good news.

Japan manufacturers are not new in many ASEAN member countries.  Good news for us. More  will be coming soon and the Japanese government is encouraging this too.
Article in japantimes.co.jp
    Japan will launch a ¥23.5 billion (RM958 million) program which will hep firms diversify their supply chains by financially assisting the construction of production facilities as well as feasibility studies in ASEAN countries.

An Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry official said that this will reduce heavy reliance on production in China. It said, “Even before the virus outbreak, there has been a growing need for Japanese firms to set up production bases in the ASEAN region. (The subsidy scheme) will help our country build better relationships with ASEAN countries, too.”  Japanese firms have tapped the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for alternative output bases under the “China plus one” strategy. Please do read the full article here:
Article in japantimes.co.jp

Assuming this subsidies will bring new manufacturing bases of 10 times the value of the subsidy, we are looking at RM9.5 billion to be invested into manufacturing plants here within ASEAN within a short period of time yeah. If we are speaking about increasing the manufacturing bases and reducing reliance, this is part of risk-management and when it comes to risk management, let’s understand that it should not take many years. Else, what risk are we talking about yeah.

The ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.  Never mind where in ASEAN yeah. It’s great news for ASEAN actually. What ASEAN members should do is to continue co-operation and integration between member countries. Speaking of just tourism after COVID-19 has subsided for example, we are 622 million strong. Assuming just 10% wants to travel around, that’s already 62 million tourists.   Happy setting up your plants here!

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More jobs will be lost, definitely. Just be ready.

Dear all, we may all lose our jobs at some point in the future. Oxford university economists Dr Carl Frey and Dr Michael Osborne say that 40 percent of all jobs would be lost to automation. It means that 40 percent of our friends or even including us may not get to keep our jobs. According to both of them, this may happen by 2050. Here’s that
article in theguardian.com
 This is what Paul Mason, emerging technologies director for Innovate UK said, The future of work will soon become “the survival of the most adaptable.” (It’s not just adaptability apparently, it may even be this. “Workers of the future will need to be highly adaptable and juggle three or more different roles at a time,” says Anand Chopra-McGowan, head of enterprise new markets for General Assembly. There are many more views within the article but this is its conclusion: “The nature of work is going to change – the jobs of tomorrow won’t be the same as jobs of today.”

What are our thoughts about our job today? Perhaps people managers may think that robots can never replace management capabilities. How could robots attend to the general questions posted by the staffs on a daily basis?
Middle managers may lose their jobs first, according to Adage.com
 According to the same article, robots may make much better doctors BUT it is unlikely to replace all the shortages of doctors today. In an
article in theguardian.com,

Martin Ford, futurist and author of
Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future
, explains the jobs that are most at risk are those which “are on some level routine, repetitive and predictable”. (Note the three words, ‘routine, repetitive and predictable.’ Then, look at what we are currently doing. Does it take someone many years to learn what we are currently doing or perhaps anyone can do what we do within weeks or months? Many times, we may not need some researchers from a top university to tell us the results of their study. We may know best.)

Here in Malaysia, we are also seeing a similar trend too. According to an
article in theedgemarkets.com,

International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said that loss of labour-intensive jobs are certain but these would continue to be replaced with high skilled ones. He said, “As you lose some jobs, you create new job opportunities. So the structure of work will change. This is happening in many developed countries where the services sector becomes more important.” In terms of retrenchment trends, 2017 saw 30,414 local workers being let go and this is 6.57% lower than 2016’s 32,552. On an overall basis, Malaysian Investment Development Authority revealed that a total of 56,420 job opportunities were created from approved investments in 2017.

I am more worried about the retraining of workers who were labour-intensive ones into high-skilled ones. It may not happen if the retraining fails or if the workers themselves refuse to move up. When this happens, it will become a social issue. However, if Malaysia is to move up the value chain, there really is not much choice. Job losses will continue to happen because of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 Looking ahead however, there’s one thing all of us must do; investing our wealth. Even a savings of a few hundred every month and a continuous

investment meant that our wealth doubles every few years.

The right property bought may also bring lucrative returns too. Read more, learn more and take actions. Cheers.

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written on 7 March 2018

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MORE land buying, even during current slow period?

It’s always funny. Those who loves to buy, loves to buy the most during slow or bad times. Those who are afraid to buy during great times tell you that they want to wait for bad time but during bad time, it is not likely that they can suddenly become courageous. Well, this is the world of property investment and it applies for stock market as well. Recent few weeks have seen more actions from foreign buyers but I have started to take profits for stocks I bought much earlier during worse times. I could not predict when the market would correct itself. If it does, well, great for me as I can then buy back. If not, well, the profits would be enough for me to do a lot of other stuffs. Haha.

Land buying continue to be active even during current slow time. Greenland Holdings Group Ltd bought land in Plentong from the Iskandar Waterfront City Bhd (IWCB) with RM2.37 Billion! Land size is 128 acres. if they are paying RM2.37 billion for just the land, I think the GDV would be at least a few times higher and this also meant that the development would take many years to develop.

They are not stopping with this. A report has emerged that they may also be buying another piece of land in Tanjung Langsat. For this piece of land, fortification of the land is needed for industrial purposes. It is reported that the company would like to diversify from just property development in Iskandar currently.

Another prominent developer, Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB) has won a tender to buy the land on which the German Embassy is situated on for RM259.15mil. The size is ONLY 1.8661 acres and it has buildings on it which meant additional cost to demolish it. According to appraisal from CH Williams Talhar & Wong and Raine & Horne International Zaki & Partners, this price is 6% higher than the market value of the land.

Well, it is always more advantageous to buy during bad times. Perhaps this is a good reason to buy because good deals would be hard to come by when the whole world wants the same piece of land.

written on 8 Apr 2015

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More land needed. Good news, definitely.

Developers, especially those who has a lot of land that they have paid a lot of money for would not want to hold those lands without doing anything on them. The holding cost is definitely high. Well, that’s the reason why when the developers buy new land, they will do their best to start developing it within 18 months. Another developer, Guocoland (M) Bhd shared in an article in
TheStar that they want more land!
This is definitely a positive news for the property market. Guocoland (M) Bhd is the property arm of Hong Leong group and its group managing director Datuk Edmund Kong said, “We have been lying low for a long time. So it is appropriate to buck up and move up to the next level. With a strong team now, we can move ahead with our plans once we have the raw materials (landbank) in our portfolio.”

He shared that Guocoland is launching developments with a gross development value of RM6 billion within the next 3 to 5 years.  For the year of 2018, it is targeting a sales of RM1 billion.  (Not many developers could have a billion ringgit target except the few big names we often read about) Kong said that looking at the land scarcity in Greater KL, it is more viable to target pockets of land and create more integrated development projects. For example, its 8.5-acre RM2.5bil GDV Damansara City. Within the mixed integrated project which is located in Damansara Heights, there are the Wisma Guocoland, DC Mall, Menara Hong Leong, Sofitel KL Damansara and DC Residensi. He also shared that the DC Mall would hit 80 percent occupancy next month. For a full article, do read through the full article in
TheStar yeah. Guocoland wants more land.

I think when developers build a little further away, it is important to have an integrated development. It will be tough to just build one block of condos, no matter how attractive the condos are. The question that the buyers would have would always be what’s around this new place that I am buying? For families, it would be schools. For younger professionals, it would be places to chill out. For singles, I think affordability would be the single most important thing even if they may be willing to have a smaller-sized place for the price. In terms of all future developments however, there are still many MRT stations that are near enough so that people staying there would have connectivity to working places and perhaps even skipping the jam on weekdays. Buying more land is definitely a good news. Happy developing!

written on 30 Oct 2017

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More malls in Kuala Lumpur! (beyond current ones yeah)

Many more malls in Kuala Lumpur. Too much retail therapy?

The biggest one of them all would be the Lalaport Mall @ BBCC with 1.4 million NLA sq ft. Okay, this is within the Golden Triangle but it is not that far away (less than 5km away) from The Exchange TRX Mall in distance and also in size too. The Exchange TRX Mall is 1.3 million NLA sq ft. Before everyone can say wah… there’s also the Merdeka 118 Mall yeah which is definitely within the vicinity and this is 900,000 NLA sq ft.

Maybe three of them could do a visit all three within the same day kinf of co-operation? 4 hours each? Never say never. Malls can work together if their enemies are all the other existing malls? 🙂   Yes, of course if it’s completed, we must visit all three and see if all three could have more than half of all different brands within the mall. If that happens, then at least every mall would attract visitors. Else, visiting just one mall meant we have visited all the malls.

This is what Rahim & Co says in their report

“The malls within Kuala Lumpur held up against the disruptive period and no closures of major malls were reported thus far. However, the pressure was more on retails tenants who had suffered from the sharp drop in consumer demand.”

This comment is both positive as it showed resilience and yet at the same time, it sounded a warning. Malls are okay does not mean their tenants could survive. Now, ever wonder what happens to the malls when their tenants do not survive? Well, there’s nothing to visit in the malls anymore. So, to all the malls, please be savvy to this fact and do best to ensure the tenants do not close shop. It is not that they wanted to delay their rental payments yeah.

Conclusion
 (my own 2 cents)

Malls do not close because of competition from online. They need to work together. Imagine a new brand trying to sell you very expensive handbags but you have never seen how high-end their retail shops are before, would you buy? I mean after you buy, your friends may not even know or seen the brand before!  However, malls will be competing against one another and it’s always the better malls which will ‘kill off’ the less competitive malls. Especially if the car parks are still SO EXPENSIVE once all the malls are open. Happy understanding.

The full report by Rahim & Co can be downloaded here.

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Lots more new brands to enjoy, really. Cheaper and better please.

Here’s one article not too long ago.
Closures ALWAYS point to ‘tough outlook’

Coming back to just days ago, my old friend is still insisting that the Malaysian economy is in trouble and that if the election result is not up to his expectation, Malaysia will go bankrupt within 5 years. Anyway, everyone’s entitled to their opinions and I just hope that he gets ready for his prediction. For example, identifying some other countries to invest in because he will have to quickly start selling his assets here and buying there. Since his business is based in Malaysia, he may have to move his business to other countries if the result is not up to his expectation within the next one week or so. In fact, if he is selling his property, he must also not try to price his properties too high and sell it 10 percent below the market so that it could be sold as soon as possible. Imagine if everyone else is also trying to sell at the same time , then perhaps even 10 percent down is not enough.
Selling your home faster? Some tops (updated) – Usable for RENs too

Anyway, coming back to the current Malaysian retail scene. Remember the closures of Tous Les Jours Bakery, Nature Republic, Tim Ho Wan and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.  Actually there’s more. For example GAP closed all its stores this year. GIANT supermarket also announced some closures of stores which were not doing well. Plus, we should also remember that some banks did some rationalisation exercise? So, yeah, there were quite a number of negative news. Well, here are some good news.
Reported in edgeprop.my
Retail Group Malaysia managing director Tan Hai Hsin shared that some 95 new foreign brands have made their debut in the Malaysian retail market since 2017 to date. He shared that there were a total of
71 brands  setting up shop in Malaysia in 2017. 75 percent of them were in the Klang Valley and 15 percent in Johor. (in other words, just these two accounted for 90 percent of all the new brands)  For 2018,
24 foreign brands from 13 countries have set up their first outlets in Malaysia. These new stores were mainly located in the Klang Valley, Johor, Pahang and Seremban.

Tan shared this about the Johor retail scene, “It won’t lose out to the Klang Valley. Quite a number of foreign brands had actually set up business in Johor before they expanded to the Klang Valley.” He also said something
I shared earlier in my article.

He said, “Online shopping will not replace you [retail stores] but you have to learn how to capture your customers. Every circumstance and market change represent new business opportunities.” As for the percentage for the online stores, it accounts for around 2 percent of total retail sales in 2017. He also said that in 2017, the Malaysian retail industry’s turnover was RM99.8 million. It employed 1.2 million workers in more than 240,000 retail stores, excluding hawker centres. (By the way, it’s quite common that many of these retail stores are always looking for staffs. Perhaps turnover is high because the pay may not be attractive enough. I used to work for a retail outlet selling clothes. I was paid something like RM4 per hour and I think these days, it has gone up a little depending on the brand we join)

Happy shopping because I think 2018 will be a pretty busy year for these new brands. I believe none are coming here with higher priced items because if they do, I wish them the best. This is the time that many new brands can capture market share, especially with better products and lower prices. Price sensitivity will continue. Just look at even the property market to understand why I say so. Landed properties are no longer just competing against landed properties but also bigger sized and more innovative high-rise units. This is especially when the trade off is the neighbourhood which the property is in. More often than not, the landed would have to be pretty far away in order to remain competitively priced. I think this is a great year for buyers, regardless of the item or asset.

written on 29 April 2018

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More new launches. RM1.8 billion by LBS.

One developer is optimistic about 2019 despite many people being negative about the current state of the property market. LBS Bina Group Bhd will be launching RM1.82 billion worth of projects this year. Its managing director Tan Sri Lim Hock San has also set a sales target of RM1.5 billion for this year, which is about RM100 million more than 2014 and around the same as last year. Lim said the target is achievable with the right product offerings and new launches that will take place mainly in Klang Valley. These include the LBS Alam Perdana township in Puncak Alam, Kita @ Cybersouth township in Dengkil and Residensi Bintang Bukit Jalil condominium. He added that LBS will continue to build affordable houses, middle-cost housing that caters to market demand.
Article in NST here.

Lim said, “Affordable houses priced below RM500,000 are the most popular as 63 per cent of the company’s sales were from this segment, while 36 per cent came from the RM500,000 to RM1 million segment and only one percent of revenue came from sales of properties priced RM1 million and above.” He also said, “LBS has once again achieved positive growth despite a challenging market environment. Achieving improved results over four consecutive years validates the strategy we have adopted. We have a good track record in providing strong product offerings which meet the needs of home buyers at the right time, and more importantly, at the right price range.”
Article in NST here.

RM500k property and the mortgage per month

When we look at the sales of LBS’s projects, we could see very clearly that demand continues to be strong for the more affordable projects, especially those which are below RM500,000. These are projects which will target households with two working professionals with a minimum combined net income of RM6,000 or higher. (Mortgage of RM2060 is around 35% of the monthly income) Image from calculator.com.my on left. There are definitely upgraders too demanding for better homes and this is where the sales of products between RM500,000 and above comes in. At the moment, I personally think RM800,000 is pretty maximum and we need a breather for the people’s income to rise higher first. Happy following.

written on 13 Jan 2019

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MORE opinions on ‘property market Malaysia’

After the first article was published about the different opinions on the property market in Malaysia, it garnered no less than 1,000 views within few days. I think everyone loves it if someone can read ten different articles from ten different places, summarises them into just one article. Ok, I am doing the second summarising today, covering the opinions that I did not cover in my first article earlier.

From Iskandar, we have REHDA Johor Chairman, Mr. Koh saying that the Year of the Horse is going to be challenging and that developers must be well-prepared to face the worst. In fact he said that most of the developers would not rush and instead would adopt a wait-and-see approach in the first quarter of 2014. Does this mean lesser launchings? Let’s wait.

KGV International Property Consultants (M) Sdn Bhd
 director
Samuel Tan Wee Cheng meanwhile said theat due to all the new policies, the buyers would be more cautious. The two significant ones are the RPGT hike
 and the ceiling price hike for foreigners from RM500,000 to RM1 million. (Currently, this has yet to be gazetted, perhaps effective only from April 2014)

Veena Loh, the General Manager of Malaysia Property Incoroprated (MPI) said that Penang will not be hot this year compared to KL. However, she opines that Iskandar Malaysia is going to be very good for the long term. Generally though, both local and foreign buyers will likely take a wait-and-see attitude this year. (2014)

Paul Khong, Executive Director of CB Richard Ellis gave a strong endorsements to the following areas in Klang Valley. He said, these areas can never be wrong. Damansara Heights, Desa Park City, Hartamas, Bandar Utama, Mutiara Damansara and Bangsar. Nevertheless, he did say that the landed properties in these locations are already at a premium.

The Managing Director of Khong & Jaafar, Elvin Fernandez said that landed properties and shop houses will continue to be favourite of many. He also said something which is most likely happening; interest rates will be going up this year. Nevertheless, he does not expect a drastic fall in prices though volume will drop a lot making it difficult for developers and making competition in the housing industry harder.

There, I think we have covered nearly all or majority of all the more famous comments which are published in major newspapers both offline and online. Many words kept repeating themselves, ‘prices not falling’, ‘cautious but optimistic’. Think what you think. Do what you do. Happy reading.

written on 25th Jan 2014

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Alternatively read the original article about the
‘recent opinions of property gurus’

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Need more profits? Just become a developer.

I always smile whenever I read about non-developer listed companies announcing to the world that they are going to do property development. It will help to increase their profits. Truthfully, what happened to their core business? Why is the core business not doing as well nowadays? Is it because they are no longer competitive in that business that got them listed in the first place? OR is it simply because property development is EXTREMELY profitable?

Speaking about EXTREMELY profitable, the results from majority of all listed developers indicated that the actual net profit margin is only in the range of 10% – 20%. Anything higher is normally due to some special circumstances. For these newer developers, I am not sure if they can earn much higher than these more established developers. Without a great brand to begin with, premium pricing is out. Without a huge GDV, they are also likely to engage contractors who did not get businesses from the bigger developers. More often than not, higher costs to be incurred. In fact, everything points to much higher costs because they even have to hire a new team for this new property development venture.

Suddenly it does not seem like something worth doing, right? Haha. Answer is wrong. Let’s look at Gross Development Value (GDV) versus the margin of say, 15%. Assuming the developer is doing just a small project of 400 units of affordable condos at RM400,000 each. That would be RM160 million GDV, giving a profit margin of RM24 million. Many of these companies that are venturing out of their usual core business may not have such profit numbers. Thus, RM24 million may seem little for the existing developers but it is a logical step for these companies.

In fact, more often that not, the land that they are developing happened to be a piece of idle land in a very attractive location. Thus, the potential profits is much higher than the above because the land cost is very low when compared to buying pieces of lands today. Happy learning and understanding why many are jumping onto the bandwagon of becoming a developer.

written on 19 June 2015

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More “shoebox” units in Singapore. Fancy one?

This is something which I personally would not buy. Well, at least when I still have a choice. We are talking about shoebox units. Yes, in other words, very small units. From online, I found out that shoebox units are defined as units which are up to 506 sq ft in size. This is smaller than most of the typical 550 sq ft SOHOs that we are used to see here in Malaysia. In Singapore, these units are already considered common and it seems that the number of units to be completed will peak in 2017. Thus, renting out these units may be harder compared to renting out one room instead. Alan Cheong the research head of Savills Singapore said that many of the overseas nationals (I think he meant many Malaysians too) could not afford to rent these units and would prefer to rent a room in an apartment instead.

The areas where these units would be coming up include District 19 – Sengkang, Hougang and Punggol where at least 700 units expected. Another 527 units would come from District 14 and 383 from District 12. In the suburbs, districts 17 would have 224 while district 22 would contribute another 151 units. Prices of newly-completed shoebox units is at around S$1,350 per sq ft in 2013 and is currently S$1,400 per sq ft. Rents however fell from S$2,600 in 2013 to between S$2,000 – S$2,200 this year. The gross yield thus fell to 4.1 percent from 5.2 percent previously. Cheong further stated that in the outlying HDB estates, the yields may be just 3 percent or eve lower.

R’ST Research director Ong Kah Seng reiterated that these shoebox units are relevant as they are normally occupied by younger tenants or owners. This is despite the falling prices due to growing supply. Based on NUS Singapore Residential Price Index, the prices of these shoebox units have fallen by about 10 percent from their last peak in August 2013.

If I am working in Singapore, I think I would still prefer to rent a room instead. This is because I would not want to pay S$2,000 for one shoebox unit rental per month. I think this is still more relevant to small countries with big populations. In fact Hong Kong’s shoebox units are nothing bigger than a hotel room nowadays. Read here:
Roof over your head and ever smaller sizes? Hmm

However I think there are some who said that these trends of smaller units are coming over to Malaysia, especially in the super hotspots. While I tend to disagree but as per the latest statistics, the fertility rate for Malaysia as at end 2014 has fallen to just 1.9. Read here:
2015: Birth-rate dropped to 1.9 for Malaysia

Perhaps another 20 years lah, then these shoebox units may have to be the trend. Happy reading and buying if you truly think these small units are great for long term investment.

written on 15 Aug 2015

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More supply equals lower prices? Or less demand?

AllianceDBS Research said that due to high incoming supply, the house prices would continue to moderate until next year. It said that incoming supply will be the highest in 10 years and this is good for house buyers. The current environment for property sales remain challenging and the strong house appreciation over the last few years driven by cheap liquidity is unlikely to recur. (I agree! Prices cannot go up simply because of affordability. How many really and truly rich people are there in Malaysia?) Well, the report did say that demand from genuine homebuyers continue to be strong. I think the demand must be complemented by ‘easier’ prices, somehow. Certainly, those RM750 per sq ft developments or higher must pray that the buyers would flock to their projects like years ago.

Future property launches are taking a longer time to sell just like the periods before 2011 where projects typically take two to three years to be fully sold. (I think the report may not have noticed some of the projects which have been completed today and still have buntings saying ‘limited units available. Yes, even for projects completed more than 1 year ago!)  It said that demand for development projects in prime locations with attractive pricing and selling points would continue to well. (I think they are right, people are still absolutely crazy for certain locations and would not even buy 15% lower simply in an area 10 minutes away. Sigh, no wonder prices for these areas remain at a premium)

AllianceDBS said that the current weak sentiment was mainly caused by slower and harder loan approvals despite keen interest from potential buyers. (Let’s be very objective. The banks must also be prudent and not lend just because the buyers are willing to buy. It must also correspond to the value that the bank has assigned to such a property. Buyers may be crazy for that certain property due to a host of reasons but banks are not obliged to lend, ok?) It said that developers are trying to make their units affordable through smaller sizes.

No property bubble is expected because prices are likely to remain firm even under current circumstances. It said that this is due to cost-push factors. I think the results from these developers have shown that there are certainly still rooms for slight adjustments and especially through smaller sizes. Besides that, Malaysia’s strong economic fundamentals and a robust banking system has also ensured no such bubble is expected. I repeat,
“strong economic fundamentals and robust banking system.”

Of course, anyone who chose to believe that the economy is about to collapse can also believe so and take appropriate actions. Nothing wrong with whatever view, as long as one act according to what one believe in. Please do not ask if the economy is about to collapse and yet follow though with a question of where to buy. Haha… Happy reading.

written on 12 Sept 2015

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Mortgage Financing in 2015? A must read by Miichael Yeoh

Market is slowing, no doubt. However, for those who needs a place and found a good place at the price that you can afford, it’s all about applying for the best mortgage package, right? It’s very important that we understand what’s really happening come 2015. As some of us might have read before, the Base Lending Rate (BLR) framework would be replace by the Base Rate framework come 2nd January 2015. What would be some of the important changes when this is implemented? Let’s read an article from the mortgage guru Miichael Yeoh to find out.

With a blink on an eye, we will reach the year 2015. I am sitting in front of my desk now and it’s already 11.30pm 15th December trying to figure out what will happen to the mortgage industry in the 2015. Well, I came to a conclusion that every year is different and as each year we mature so does the industry. You have also witnessed, how the mortgage industry evolve through time.

In 2003, you see the birth of Central Credit Information System (CCRIS) where banks can check the borrower’s credit history with a tap of a button. With that in place it changes the whole lending landscape. Getting a loan will not be easy as before as the banks can now view the borrower’s debt and payment record. Until today, this has hindered many loan borrowers in getting their loan approve by the banks. We, as human being will and have adapted to CCRIS overtime.

Now, coming to 2nd January 2015 a new interest rate framework called Base Rate (BR) will replace the old Base Lending Rate (BLR) since it was introduced way back in 1983. According to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), BLR is already obsolete and less relevance today. I have a lot of enquiries what will be the base rate like. The closest prediction I can give right now will be similar to Klibor rates in the region of 3% and it will fluctuates more often than BLR. Now, don’t expect to have a negative spread as low as – 2.4% below BLR. Well, it will be plus maybe 1% instead. I think both types of interest rate will have a similar average rate about 4.45% – 4.6%.

For those of you who have taken the loan before 2nd January 2015 you will still pay your loan instalment based on BLR. A word of caution and I think most of you are not aware that some banks have already incorporated a clause which states that the bank have the right to change the current interest rate which is BLR to the new interest framework which means BR in the loan letter of offer which you sign with the bank when your loan is approved. If you have taken a new loan from March or April 2014 onwards, go back and check your loan letter of offer. You might see the clause.

The next question on your mind will be how banks determine base rate. According to BNM, base rate would be determined by the financial institutions’ benchmark cost of funds and the Statutory Reserve Requirement (SRR). The interesting part is this, how low your interest rate actually depends on the spread which will be determine by the bank’s profit margin, liquidity risk, operational cost and ultimately the borrower’s credit risk.

It’s very normal that borrower’s worried about the hike in interest rate and sometimes it dampens the hope of new property owners. Well, part of how low your interest rate can go also depends on the borrower’s credit risk. If the bank categorised the loan borrower as high risk the interest spread will be higher. Be it BLR or BR, both interest rate have a spread at the end. Either it can be minus or plus all depends on the borrower’s credit rating.

This leads us to the next interesting topic. What determines or what is a good credit rating? Banks uses Debt Service Ratio (DSR) to determine whether you have a poor, good or excellence credit rating. In Singapore, if the borrower is rated AA by the Central Credit Bureau then the loan will easily be approved and the borrower will also get a very favourable interest rate. In Malaysia, DSR is calculated by taking the debt divided by the net income multiply by 100. If your DSR is high it means you are a high risk borrower and your interest spread will be higher. If your DSR is as high as 70% and above, you will have less bargaining power with the bank for a lower interest spread.

If you want a lower interest rate or even loan approval, you need to start your mortgage planning now. Plan at least 6 months ahead before you submit your loan to the bank. I will not go any further here as plaining involve learning and understanding the basic mortgage to looking into in depth individual analysis before charting a mortgage plan.I hope my article will shed some light into what’s coming up in the mortgage industry.

You can also visit his website for even more mortgage related articles too. Here:
miichaelyeoh.com

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Mortgage Singapore, ever higher from end 2014

In a report in channelnewsasia, it is said that the three-month Singapore Interbank Offered Rate (SIBOR) which is a key interest rate that housing loans are pegged has risen higher after starting to rise since end of 2014. According to the report, most of all the mortgage loans taken by Singaporean homebuyers are pegged to SIBOR. Thus, higher SIBOR equals to higher mortgage payments and thus lower disposable income, a double whammy. How high is it anyway? It’s at 0.67863 per cent. This is considered as a low base by any standard even when compared to majority of the other popular property markets. Of course, the reason why it’s a big news is because it has since jumped 50% from January 2015. It’s also at it’s highest point for the past 6 years. Following this, the mortgage rates have also risen and it now between 1.5 and 2 percent, still low but has almost doubled from just 3 years ago.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is fast, as usual and has given a warning that up to 10 percent of borrowers were overstretched. Yes, this is the usual group which will be the first to default once they could not longer afford the mortgage payments. Some of these include owners of multiple units who are also facing falling rentals too. Number of foreigners venturing into Singapore for work has also reduced tremendously. This is to ‘ensure’ Singaporeans are hired first before foreigners. The good news? According to property consultant Colliers International, the current interest rates would continue to remain low and some analysts said that it is very unlikely for the rates to return to pre-crisis highs.

Actually, irregardless of whether we are in Singapore or even Malaysia, it’s always dangerous to overstretch. Very true that during good times, these people would be those who would gain the most, talk louder than majority and go for the most holidays overseas. However, what goes up must come down and property is a sticky item when you try to dispose it during a slowdown. That’s why when market is turning for the worse, it gets bad pretty fast due to the sudden frantic selling. Is this happening soon? The sudden selling of properties from nervous owners? Actually the highest mortgage rates currently is just 2%, plus the MAS is monitoring and it has been reported that 2015 may just be the election year, so the answer is not likely. Nevertheless, it may also be prudent to sell first if the price is still good. Happy reading and stop guessing.

written on 5 Feb 2015

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Do not become a mortgage slave. Not now, not yet.

Who is known as a mortgage slave?

Anyone who has a home loan, is the person considered one? Mortgage slave’s definition as per wikipedia is as follows: Mortgage slave is a term used for homeowners in China who spend more than 70% of their disposable income towards repaying loans.
Click here to read in full if you like.

If you ask me, instead of 70% as per the above definition, I personally think as long as anyone spends above 50% of their disposable income on a property, they can be considered a mortgage slave. The reason is a simple one. With over 50% of disposable income being used for mortgage, even if the manager / boss has a bad attitude towards the person who’s a mortgage slave, this person would have no choice but to continue working…

Else, how to keep up with the home mortgage if one were to resign without a new job paying at least the same or higher salary?! Anyway, below are 4 reasons why first time home buyers still have a choice and may not need to be a mortgage slave in Malaysia. Not now, not yet.  There is really no need to overstretch financially no matter how much we are earning currently.

#1 Plenty of affordable choices still

We are not like a country where the only slightly more affordable property seems to be a unit as small as a car park size. We are also not a country where the people wait for their government to build them really affordable homes and they have to be limited in the flexibility to sell it for a big profit in the future even if the price have doubled after 15 years.

We are in Malaysia. If we need a place which is 15km from KL city centre (KLCC for example), the never-ending choices range from Jinjang to Mont Kiara, Sentul to Batu Caves, Wangsa Maju to Cheras to Damansara Uptown and so forth… (not all are affordable yeah) Plus, if we are looking at townships (whether newer or older), the choices are now aplenty; from Rawang to Semenyih and Nilai or even Banting.

Alternatively, just go to any property listing site in Malaysia and search for properties below RM300,000 and the choices remain aplenty. Developers are also doing their best to build all these RM300,000 properties these days. Thus, choices are available. It may just not be the type of property or the area we love, that’s all. Perhaps time to be more objective before having to become a mortgage slave?

Let’s face it, we only need to spend a little more time to search, and not just settle for the first ‘perfect’ deal we come across. Not only do we have the luxury of choice, but also the online tools to make our search quicker and easier.

#2 – Just because we COULD afford does not mean it’s a buy

I do think the maximum we should ever spend for a home instalment is 50% of the monthly net income. However, just because we could does not mean we should. If we could afford up to RM2,000 monthly mortgage and we bought a home requiring RM1,500 we would be able to save RM500 every month which could have been used for electricity… petrol… etc. Alternatively, RM500 savings inside the bank would yield the person RM6,000 after one year!

What’s the difference in property price for RM2,000 vs RM1,500 instalment? Do refer to the two charts below. The difference in property price is RM390,000 (monthly instalment of RM1,500) versus RM525,000 (monthly instalment of RM2,000). In actual amount, one could buy a RM525,000 property or save RM500 per month and buy a RM390,000 property instead.

#3 That dream home today is not the dream home tomorrow

Every time we are asked what’s our dream home, we could either give an answer which we could not afford or an option we could barely afford; stretched financially. Frankly speaking, after having bought and moved homes 4 times (730 sq ft apartment, 1,258 sq ft condo, 1053 sq ft condo, 1,743 sq ft condo), I can share from my experience that the dream home today may not be the dream home tomorrow. This year (end 2022) I will be getting the key to my next dream home and will move again next year. (early 2023)

This is why when we buy below what we could afford, we are killing two birds with one stone; have a roof over our head (even if that’s not our dream home) plus savings which we could use for any other purpose.
Here’s an earlier article about our DREAM HOME.
 Of course the other purposes, hopefully it’s for wealth building purposes yeah.

The ‘best home’ status of any new purchase is only for the moment. As our income continues to grow, we will move from
B40 to M40 and even T20. (Household Income classification)
 By then, would this home still be the ‘BEST’? Of course not!

#4 What if a good investment opportunity comes along?

Cash is king. Frankly speaking, the best opportunities come during a slowdown and these opportunities will only be open to those with cash to spare. If we were to have invested all we have into one home (the highest price we could afford), and are using up most of our monthly salary for repayments, bills, and necessities –  there wouldn’t be any (or enough) extra cash for that sudden opportunity.

In the business world, even the best companies keep reserves because they know that they may need it sometime in the future. Most bluechip companies have reserve funds for that potential opportunity that may appear during bad times.

Conclusion?

We still have property choices at the moment. We still get to choose whether or not we like to become a mortgage slave. I am not sure if one day there are no longer any affordable property choices. Perhaps that day may come. Just need to remember that buying will always be better than renting.

Yes, I know that renting a place for RM1,500 is likely to give us a comfortable place which is more expensive than RM400,000. It’s a question of losing the full RM1,500 or adjusting ourselves to a home which we could afford at RM1,500 mortgage per month.

Keep researching, keep saving and keep investing. That’s the best advice we should always keep in mind.

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Mortgage slaves, do we have such a group too?

Please do not believe property prices will always go up unless we are buying and keeping it for a very long time. Within a 10-year cycle, there are times it will drop, times it will be almost stagnant and well times when buying whatever in the market ends up with good profits if we sell it at the right time. That’s why there are those who cursed because they bought at the wrong time and were unable to hold and were forced to sell as well as those who swear by property investment because somehow all their purchases were sold at above the original buying price.

Have you heard of the term ‘mortgage slave’? As per wiki, this is the explanation: “
Home mortgage slave
 is a term for homeowners who spend more than 70% of their disposable income towards repaying mortgage loans.
“Click here to read more.

There’s an interesting article about Hong Kong home buyers for us to digest and understand as well.
Article in SouthChinaMorningPost: SCMP.com
 Article talks about Hong Kong people who seem to think property prices will only go up. In fact there are now a couple hundred of negative equity cases (property prices lower than mortgage loan) and it could even reach 1,000 by end 2019. The article said that while this trend seems to be worrying, it is worth nothing that in 2003, the negative equity peaked at 105,000 households. (WOW!)

However, even during those times, default rates were extraordinarily low. The reason is because the Hong Kong’s banks did NOT simply lend to anyone. They had a good financial prudential management in times of crisis. As for their clients, somehow they continued to make their loan payments regardless of the circumstances. The article also mentioned the Americans who were allowed and even encouraged to take on housing loans they couldn’t afford and thus it’s not possible to expect them to continue paying as soon as prices started dropping. This triggered the Sub-Prime mortgage crisis. The article concluded with its confidence with the current generation of local mortgage holders and even their families who will continue paying. The current negative equity can be a good thing, at least people do not blindly buy…
Article in SouthChinaMorningPost: SCMP.com

Source: housingwatch.my

We do not have the stats for negative equity BUT, it’s equally important to note that nearly three quarter of all borrowers are FIRST-TIME buyers. For these buyers, even if they were to lose their jobs, they will do their very best to continue paying because where else could they move to? This is the reason why I continue to believe the market is still full of ‘prime’ borrowers and the potential for ‘sub-prime’ crisis like that of the US is unlikely to happen.

Definitely not when even the developers keep talking about having to sell the same units again and again because the buyer just could not get their loans approved. I also hope that the banks in Malaysia will belike their HongKong counterparts too; exercise prudent financial management.
This is not the time to be lenient or give unneeded leeways.
As for the term mortgage slave; 70 percent of salaries going to mortgages, I think this is not in Malaysia. It’s more likely to be a loan for a car instead.

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Written on 7 Feb 2019

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Nearly all Malaysians could not survive 6 months without income

You should take a look at the front page of The Sun daily today. Do you now feel lucky if you are not within the statistics? Or are you now sweating or trembling since you are part of the statistics? If you are within the statistics, it’s time to really understand that this is the world today. To those who believe that this is happening ONLY in Malaysia, great. It means that you have managed to insulate yourself well from what is happening outside Malaysia today. Anyway, back to our article today; If I am in deep XXXX now, what can I do today? My personal recommendations as below.

Cut expenses. Majority of what we spend today is either not a necessity or can be on something less expensive. From smartphones to handbags and even the cars we drive. Yes, it includes that Starbucks we frequent weekly too. A Chek Hup 3 in 1 or a Old Town 3 in 1 White Coffee is nothing than just RM1 per pack. Hot water is nearly free. If we are talking about 2 in 1 black coffee, it is just 50 cents per pack or lesser. I do not want to get started about all the rest.

Save, then save more and then save even more. Jokes aside. Cutting expenses and savings typically move in-tandem. When we cut expenses but we forgot to save, the money is still with us and sooner or later, we will use it. Haha. So, SAVE it securely inside your bank and use it only for investment purpose. Nothing else.

Read, learn and talk. Read more business news, more property related news, more share market news. Basically read everything that people are making money from. Learn from those free seminars that happen nearly every weekend. Most of the time, it is paid for by the developers anyway. Talk to like-minded people. Establish lunch groups which talks about investments. By the way, gossiping gets you nothing more than free entertainment. Others are gossiping about you too…

Action, take them. Once we have some ideas and have done sufficient analysis, do it. Yes, use the savings you have and not borrowing 100% from the bank through some ‘awesome’ trick that you learnt. Truth is, if you can do it successfully, everyone else could. Do you seriously want to buy a property which EVERYONE can buy, even those less qualified than you? Then, don’t blame anyone when the market collapses. Remember 2008 mortgage crisis?

Repeat. Buying one property is definitely not enough today. Read here:
Honestly, is one property enough today?

Thus, after we have bought our first one, start the process all over again and perhaps buy our second one 5 years down the road. Keep doing this as long as we are able to and we would definitely retire comfortably. May not be a multi-millionaire but surely enough to last us till the day we bid goodbye.

Happy thinking about this.

written on 12 Dec 2015

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Most expensive Penang Property – CONDO

My childhood friend from Ipoh used to say that rich people in Penang only buys landed. Only middle class like myself would buy a much more affordable apartment or condominium. I hope he reads this because I just wanted to let him know that there is NO WAY we can ever buy these condominiums in Penang. As per propertyguru.com.my, the below are the three listings which are the most expensive at this moment. These are really by far only for the super rich and famous. Let’s look at them.

First one is Mayfair Condominium along the Millionaire’s Row. Until today I have yet to have any friend who could bring me inside to understand why is it so expensive and who are some of the people staying inside. I am also shy to make appointment to view the property because even if the price can be paid in Monopoly, I think we may need more than one set!

Second is Infinity Beachfront Condo. I have also never been to this but can you see the word ‘beachfront’ there? The premium starts from this one word. This one is in Tanjung Bungah which is well known to be only for those whose fortunes are huge. The water is supposedly cleaner than my place in Sungai Ara. Yes, my friend argued with me on that until I say, fine, I am using filtered water anyway, so my DRINKING water is as fine as your DRINKING water.

Third is Gurney Paragon. This one, I have been! Somehow I was shown around and the condo is really huge and has very nice seaview, when it is not low tide and we see the muddy terrain. The extra thing this one has is, it’s right above the Gurney Paragon which is top 3 mall in Penang now, together with Queensbay and Gurney Mall.

There, for those who are earning normal pay like me, it is ok. We can still sip our cup of Starbucks with our friends. I bet you the owners of these units may just also love to sip Starbucks like we do.

written on 11th Dec 2013.

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RM238 million ONLY for one unit. Most expensive property in Asia?

Most expensive property in Asia?

How much would we pay for a home? Well, it depends on how much our wealth is, right? Perhaps a few million ringgit is very common here in the luxury hotspots in Damansara Heights maybe. However, what about RM50 million? RM100 million? Or as the title says, RM238 million? Nope, the price is not for one whole development yeah. It’s for ONE unit. The city is Hong Kong and the developer is one of the big brothers of property development in Hong Kong.  Happy finding out a bit more.

Article in freemalaysiatoday.com
   Hong Kong tycoon Victor Li’s CK Asset Holdings Ltd sold a luxury apartment for a record-breaking HK$459 million (US$59 million). This is the price for a five-bedroom apartment at the 21 Borrett Road project spanning 3,378 square feet. It  translates into HK$136,000 (RM70,852) per square foot, sale materials show. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, this is the most expensive apartment in Asia. Do read the full article here yeah.
Article in freemalaysiatoday.com

Oversupply and Empty Units still do not mean dropping prices

Photo by Max Vakhtbovych on
Pexels.com

Many times, when the property prices have gone up, it would stay there even if there is a so-called oversupply of units. It will be a game of how long these owners could hold on. We need to remember that even assuming there is so-called oversupply and there are many empty units with owners, the prices need not be dropping yeah.

When it comes to the super-wealthy, any so-called pressure would not affect them from external is unlikely to affect them. The only thing which could affect them would be if they themselves are in financial trouble. Else, these super expensive purchases in our definition will still continue to happen and very soon even this most expensive property in Asia will be broken again and again.

This is why in some markets, the last option for the government is to charge vacancy tax to owners who left their units empty. Then, hopefully they could use these tax earnings to build some homes for everyone in need of a home but just could not afford the properties. Thsi would continue to happen unless the situation prolongs until some of these owners could no longer hold on and start selling at lower prices. This is why waiting may be a very long game. It’s best to be on the lookout for a good property instead.

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Most Liveable City and the effects from Covid-19.

First of all, we need to understand that most liveable city and best retirement city does NOT mean the same thing. The former simply meant that it’s super liveable and nothing about the cost of living and the latter meant that it’s affordable enough and has all you need after you retire and income may have stopped or decreased. The following is all about the most liveable cities. Thus, you will not be seeing the cheaper cities which may include some in Malaysia as well. E.g?
Top 3 in the world for retirement

Article in nst.com.my
  European cities are now behind those in Australia, Japan and New Zealand in the ranking of the world’s most liveable cities. Auckland tops The Economist’s annual survey of the world’s most liveable cities in 2021 followed by Osaka and Tokyo in Japan.

“Auckland rose to the top of the ranking owing to its successful approach in containing the Covid-19 pandemic, which allowed its society to remain open and the city to score strongly,” the Economist Intelligence Unit said.

The study also showed that eight of the top 10 biggest falls in the rankings are European cities. Pressure on European health systems also had a knock-on effect on culture and overall liveability because of restrictions on movement, the Economist said. Honolulu, Hawaii, in the United States jumped 46 places to 14th because of its containment of the pandemic and fast vaccination programme. Please do read the full article here:
Article in nst.com.my

Covid-19 will not be here forever… Revenge travel will return suddenly

Would these cities in Europe return to become the most liveable cities in the future? After COVID-19 has come under full control? I do think so. What’s even more important however is this. The new norm would come back to old norm. People would still travel to all these most liveable cities, not just the new number one. In fact, “revenge travel” is going to happen and rest assured that international airports will be full of people, even if most may be required to wear masks.

Revenge travel means everyone is taking a revenge because they have been forbidden to travel for over 12 months and by the time everyone is allowed to travel, it would have been 24 months, easily. Imagine 24 months of travel all happening within 12 months. Assuming they did not all go to the same countries, it meant that many countries, especially the most liveable ones would receive a lot more tourists than usual too.

I know, some would like to remind me that travelling may only be possible in 2023. I believe I would be right just as you believe you are right. We shall see yeah. Happy travelling! In the mean time, ensure you get vaccinated soonest possible too.  Cheers.

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Most of everything is just a click away, online.

Long time ago, when you want to take a loan, you would either choose a bank you trust the most or you use a lot of your precious time to listen to different bankers tell you why theirs would be the best choice for you. Today, if you are still doing that, there’s nothing wrong but to be more productive as well as more informed, go online. If someone were to ask me, which loan is better today. BLR based or fixed rate? There’s actually no need for me to bring out my calculator, key in all the different assumptions and write down one by one on paper and then show the final result. I just need to google for the answer. One such site would be ringgitplus.com  Here, it takes nothing more than just filling up three blanks and one mouse click. You get answers to everything you would like to know. One example: (refer attached). Using ringgitplus.com is FREE. 🙂

This is just one of the many websites which has cropped up recently and continue to provide more information. This has also made every bank become more competitive because it is just so tough when you are ranked last all the time in all these online comparison sites. As they say, transparency is key to continuous competitiveness.

In fact, it is not just for mortgages but you can compare the best cars to buy, side by side. You can also compare the hotels in terms of STARs, prices, services level etc side by side. When you apply for jobs today, JobStreet.com allows you to know in advance who are you competing against for the particular job that you are applying for! Thus, if you are a developer, whether new or established or a real estate agent today and you ONLY advertise your services in traditional media, good luck to you. The conclusion, it is not just the best loan for you is just a click away, in fact, many things that you would like to gauge or compare are also just a click away.

written on 4 April 2014

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From most polluted to ‘Venice of the East’.

Yes, an online article in propertyguru.com.my said that one of the most polluted rivers in Johor will be transformed into the ‘Venice of the East’ once it’s cleaned up. This is part of a RM2.5 billion revitalisation project by Riverside Terra Sdn Bhd. The river is Sungai Danga. The aim is simple. This ‘Venice of the East’ will become a renowned riverine tourism destination. Besides just the river itself, there would also be apartments, hotels, office suites with berthing facilities, retail shops as well as a 6km long landscaped pedestrian path on both banks of the river. Besides that, there would also be the construction of two man made islands with a theme which will reflect the state’s ethnic and cultural diversity.

I have personally been to the real Venice in Italy. It was there that my ex-girlfriend (my wife today, haha) and I got entertained by a handsome Italian who sings as he slowly navigate his gondola along the canals and showed us how some of the buildings were already below the water and that the water was rising every year. He even told us that the prison was also underwater. No idea if what he said was true though! Actually, the river was not that clean either but it is connected to the sea. However, there were really lots of activities along the river catering to ‘cheap’ tourists like me to the expensive ones like those featured in a James Bond movie.

Thus, it would not be easy to become the ‘Venice of the East’. One thing that I never doubt though would be the developers of today. Many have wide experience and connections to make a lot of things work and thus I am waiting to see more images or the overall project plan for this once its available. No doubt, some would say Singapore already have Clarke Quay which is already so popular, who would want to flock to this ‘Venice of the East?’ I think everyone should understand that these two would be a little far from one another to be a competition in the evenings when you just want to be near to water and enjoy your Happy Hour. If you are in Johor, why jam all the way to Clarke Quay and vice-versa if you happen to be in Singapore. Not true? Well, then just find a place overlooking a clean river with lots of activities to buy in Singapore then. 🙂

written on 18 May 2015

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Most popular areas for homes in Selangor

When it comes to buying a home, certain areas are way more popular than the rest. Meanwhile when an area is popular, it will attract more attention, more recommendations from friends and definitely higher pricing as well. It’s just a balance between the demand (higher in this case) versus supply (limited if the area is already mature). Selangor has the highest property transactions in the country. Today, we look at the 5 most popular areas for homes in Selangor.

The data is provided by
PropertyAdvisor.my
 and the
Article is in freemalaysiatoday.com

#1 – Klang
 – One of the oldest town in Selangor.  Klang is a well-connected area with notable highways linked to it, such as the federal highway, New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE) and Shah Alam Expressway (KESAS).  Median price increased by 8.23% in 2020 versus 2019.

#2 – Kajang
 – Rapidly growing city best known for its delicious satay. It is well connected to other cities with highways like North-South Expressway (NSE), Kajang-Seremban Highway (LEKAS), Silk and Grand Saga Expressway. It is also connected via the MRT Line 1 too. Kajang’s median price for houses has grown by 16.9% in 2020 compared to 2019.

A breakdown of the rise and fall of median prices of properties in Selangor. (PropertyAdvisor pic)

#3 – Puchong
 – Puchong is close to both Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur. It is connected by major highways such as Shah Alam Expressway (KESAS) and Damansara Puchong Highway (LDP). It is also connected by the LRT too. Median price appreciated by 22% in 2020 versus 2019.

#4 – Shah Alam
 – It has old charms and modern amenities. Shah Alam is well-connected to other cities through LRT, KTM and highways like Federal Highway, New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE), North-South Expressway Central Link (ELITE), Guthrie Corridor Expressway (GCE) and Shah Alam Expressway (KESAS). Median price of homes increased just 6.38% in 2020 versus 2019.

#5 – Cheras.
  This is a modern-day suburb with shopping malls and more. It is also well connected to the MRT lines. In 2020, the median price of Cheras properties has increased by a moderate 7.32%.   as its transaction volume has dropped by 40.06% compared to the previous year.

Do read the article which has more details in
Article is in freemalaysiatoday.com

Buy based on why, not based on where

Whether the area is popular or not popular is secondary to WHY we want to buy. If an area which is not stated within the top 5 list above fits all criteria to buy like close to the working place, close to the children’s school and even nearby the mother-in-law’s home whose cooking is extraordinary, then please skip the top 5 areas and buy where it is better for ourselves. This is also one way we could skip paying higher for an area just because it is a popular choice among more Malaysians.

How to start searching for the home we truly like? Here’s one way.

List down the places you would need to go on a daily basis. Then, choose an area you love a lot. Use google map and look at all the areas which you will be driving through from this area you love to those places. Start your search for homes along the neighbourhoods which you will pass through as you drive. Once you have found a few, search the prices and the types of homes available. By doing this, your search for a home becomes more objective as well because the truth is, we are usually irrational. Happy searching.

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Do you want to drive an Electric Vehicle which is the most popular in the world?

When it comes to Electric Vehicle (EV), only one brand is the de-facto EV brand recognised by all

Yes, it’s Tesla. The brand without a single petrol engined car. The brand which has just 4 models and is able to dominate the sales chart of EVs all over the world… until 2021. In 2022, it’s no longer that top EV selling car company. Do take a look at the chart below to see which brand suddenly become number 1 within just 1 year by growing more than twice its total sold numbers in 2021. Yes, it’s now BYD. I have seen this car on the road many times and it says BYD stands for Build Your Dream.
Chart below comes from visualcapitalist.com

An overall view of how are countries represented?

Just need to note that as of now, the EV brands from China are not as globalised as Tesla. Let’s see how things may change as these Chinese EV brands are building factories beyond China in order to keep growing fast and not relying on just the domestic market alone. As usual, countries with car companies have started to put up barriers of entry. “If you like to sell in my country, you should produce in my country…”  Yes… this happens in case everyone thought these advaced countries are all for FREE trade. 🙂

CEO may also be the face of the company and that’s good branding too

Part of the reason why Tesla is so well known may also be due to its CEO, Elon Musk. Please start to think of any CEO of any car company which is selling hundreds of thousands of EVs around the world. Sorry, I could not. If you could, your general knowledge is very good.’ Please start to think of any CEO of any car company which is selling hundreds of thousands of EVs around the world. Sorry, I could not. If you could, your general knowledge is very good.

Okay, enough of some general knowledge for today in a topic I love; cars. Happy reading and property and financial related news will be back tomorrow at 6am. It’s daily 6am for the past few weeks. 🙂   Thank you for reading.

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Very interesting. The most popular project in Penang.

I came across this in my friend’s property site,
penangpropertytalk.com
.
It shows the top 50 most popular projects in Penang within the past 90 days. This is based on the number of page views for all the projects. From the list, I think it’s still certain that Penangites are definitely still in love with the island. The only project based in mainland Penang is Eco Meadows and I think the reason is quite clear. This is because of the huge branding and marketing activities done by Eco World. When I first moved to Penang for work in 1998, everyone I know would tell me that their favourite place is the island. It is the place where all the actions are. In fact all the Penangites from mainland would drive into Penang island for entertainment every weekend!

I think there are today much more entertainment in mainland. There are also many more bigger integrated plans. For example, the future IKEA in Batu Kawan as an example. Read here:
Vision City, the Verve and Ikano for mainland Penang

However, whenever I asked my Penangites friends, their answer remain a standard one. They believe people would move to mainland only when island has become prohibitively expensive. The latest one was just days ago. A close friend asked me about buying in mainland. I asked if she will be staying, she said, ‘of course not.’ She was not thinking of staying in mainland but is buying mainland with the hope that people would ant to move to mainland? Of course, if the project is a good one, it may still give great returns. She is still deciding.

If I am still based in Penang today, I would still be staying in Sungai Ara. However, to be honest, I would be very tempted to buy in mainland if I can get a really good deal in terms of price and size. As usual, I seldom follow the majority and I may be wrong. Even buying Sungai Ara then invited so many “NICE” comments because I did not buy near Queensbay or Greenlane or Gelugor etc. Well, my potential decision allows me to do following. One stone to kill three birds. Sell high for my island home and buy low for my mainland home plus much bigger space for my growing family. Just my views. I could not act on them because I am now based in KL. The same principle applies though because I sold my Kelana Jaya (1,055 sf) home and moved to Damansara Damai. (1,743 sf). Haha. For all project announcements, you can drop by
penangpropertytalk.com
 Happy deciding, whether it’s island or mainland. It’s just two bridges away anyway.

written on 5 Sept 2015

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Most wealthy Malaysians – the top 40

Did you read an article about the richest Malaysians in Malaysia recently? There’s one in
TheStar
 about the top 40. Who’s new, who’s out and basically what do they do and how much is their actual net worth. This is what they actually have, after deducting all their debts, if any. 🙂  In brief, the top five are as follows: Robert Kuok of PPB Group Bhd/Kerry Group with a net worth of RM37 billion, Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay of Genting Group with a net worth of RM22 billion, Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow of Public Bank Bhd with net worth of RM20 billion, T. Ananda Krishna of Usaha Tegas Group with a net worth of RM20 billion and Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng of IOI Group with a net worth of RM19 billion. All the top 40 are billionaires. Want to know all the remaining 35? Read the article in
The Star loh.

For those who have identified all the top 40 and believe it’s possible to catch up with them, I wish you all the best. Think ‘online start-ups and you may just make it within a few years’ time. Look at GRAB for inspiration. As for the rest of us who intend to continue working, perhaps it’s time we come back to reality. For the majority of working professionals, I think we are within the groupings of B40, M40 and T20. What are these three groupings?
Malaysiakini has a concise article
 explaining the differences. Where income is concerned, the article which is based on 2014 numbers showed the following: T20 which is also the top 20 percentile has a median household income of RM11,610 followed by M40’s median household income at RM5,465 and B40 with a median household income of RM2,629. Within the T20 earners, 20.5 percent of them identify themselves as government servants, 8.1 percent identified themselves as employees, 57.8 percent as private sector workers and 13.5 percent as self-employed. I am guessing that all the super-wealthy people are not free to answer any questionnaires sent to them and thus may not be included into the statistics.

For the middle income group, M40. These are what they identify themselves as. 3 percent identified themselves as employers, 17.3 percent as government servants, 59.2 percent as private sector employees and 20.5 percent as self-employed. (From this number, we can also note why many in the private sector are asking for more affordable homes. They are a huge group within M40)  Finally the B40 group has the following: 0.8 percent identified themselves as employers, 8.1 percent as government servants, 56.9 percent as private sector employees and 34.1 percent as self-employed. (From this number, we can see that a huge number of private employees may be stuck in low-paying jobs. These would be those jobs for which the employees themselves are not able to have much negotiation powers due to the nature of the work which can be easily replaced)

One way to also look at all these numbers would be the fact that salaries alone is not enough. We need investments. One job may also be insufficient. It’s time that we think of another income stream. Nope, it’s not only about becoming a UBER / GRAB driver. How about starting an online shop? There are so many online retail sites that we can be a part of. It is definitely possible to start baking cakes from our homes. I just ordered a 2kg cake for my daughter and I picked it up from a bungalow unit. I think the baker is by far richer than me! During conversations, I learnt that my friends have also ordered from the same baker. WOW. One more good choice would be to start writing about something we are passionate about. Look at
paultan.org
 for inspiration on what happens when your site becomes extremely famous. Let’s keep doing more because we are the best people to help ourselves. Cheers.

written on 4 Feb 2017

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When Earth gets too expensive, let’s move to Mars! Okay, how much?

Sorry, I will not treat this as serious because there’s just too many places on Earth which I would love to visit before I say bye-bye to this world. Definitely not looking to stay in a red coloured planet yet. Want to know what it’s like to live in Mars? A man survived and I could say thrived too. Keyword: potatoes.

However, it seems that space travel is not going to be limited to just flying out into space, gaze at whatever the space has to offer and come back safely. Now, the option may just include a stay in Mars too. Well, at least that’s what going to be offered in the future anyway.

Article in cnbc.com
  Elon Musk is “confident” moving to Mars will “one day” cost less than $500,000 (RM2.07 million) and “maybe even” cost below $100,000 (RM414,000). He says that the cost to move to Mars will “low enough that most people in advanced economies could sell their home on Earth [and] move to Mars if they want.” (The median home price in the U.S. is $223,900,
according to Zillow
.)

Musk said the final cost will be “very dependent on the volume” of travellers.  He was commenting on a Twitter thread about the Raptor engine (the engine which will power the rocket’s travel to Mars) has achieved “power level needed for Starship and Super Heavy.”  The “aspirational goal” for SpaceX is to send the first rocket to Mars (with cargo only) in 2022,
according to SpaceX’s website
. The second mission, which will take more cargo and crew, is aiming to go in 2024. Please do read a lot more details in the
Article in cnbc.com

Okay, I personally think it’s fine that a few hundred thousand people from some of these advanced economies could and would pay to uproot themselves from earth and stay in Mars. I would welcome it too. After these early adopters, the cost will definitely be even lower and that’s perhaps a good thing for Earth. (in case we really have to move when it’s no longer inhabitable).

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said that our sun is already halfway through its life:
“If our Sun is and a half billion years old, how much longer will it shine? Stars like our Sun burn for about nine or 10 billion years. So our Sun is about halfway through its life. But don’t worry. It still has about 5,000,000,000—five billion—years to go.” After this, it will be 2,000 times brighter than it is today. If you already feel hot today, imagine that!

Coming back to reality. The cost in the beginning even if we wanted to go is likely to be extremely prohibitive to most of everyone.  Stay grounded, keep working, investing and buying that property okay. Happy understanding.

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Header image source:
https://mars.nasa.gov/

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