It’s a quieter year for property market in 2020 for Malaysian homebuyers if we compare this to the way hotter years. However, it was definitely not a total silence kind of year yeah. Just within H1 2020, we already achieved over 75,000 transactions just for residential properties alone. If you want a perspective, the total of ALL overhang properties is below this number. As for where some of these transactions may have happened, iProperty.com has revealed the top 10 most searched areas by Malaysian homebuyers in 2020.  Happy Reading.

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Press Release: The 10 most searched areas by Malaysian homebuyers in 2020

KUALA LUMPUR, 6 JANUARY 2021 — iProperty.com.my, has revealed the 10 most searched areas by Malaysian homebuyers in the year 2020. The list looks at data for the highest number of searches among homebuyers who visited the property site from January to December 2020. The search data is captured by iProperty.com.my,Malaysia’s No.1 Property Site, The properties are ranked in ascending order and the popularity is displayed in terms of percentages (%).

Number 10: Kota Damansara

Percentage of views: 6.79%

The improved amenities and infrastructure coupled with improved connectivity make this township in Petaling Jaya a widely searched area for homebuyers to live in. Additionally, the MRT Kota Damansara makes travelling to other parts of Klang Valley much easier.

Kota Damansara offers properties from all ends of the price spectrums. The median price for a condominium is RM600,000 whereas the median rental price for a fully furnished 3-bedroom 1,237 sq. ft. condominium unit is RM2,300. This area is accessible via LDP and NKVE and is only a short drive away from Bandar Utama, Mutiara Damansara, Damansara Perdana, etc.

Number 9: Rawang

Percentage of views: 6.93%

Rawang has undergone nearly 200 years of change since the British Malaya era. Today, Rawang is flourishing and has never looked more promising. It has progressively developed by transforming an ordinary old town into an urbanised township. The fast-growing property development and demand has opened the residential property market in Rawang. Landed houses are in an affordable range compared to other parts of Klang Valley. According to Brickz, the median price for a terrace house in Rawang is RM289,000.

This had led to buyers becoming less hesitant to the idea of moving to Rawang. It also has the potential to attract local and foreign families who wish to own a landed property in Rawang as there are options for vernacular, national, and international schools. The nearly 60 metres tall Rawang – Serendah bypass eases the journey to Serendah, Selayang, and KL city centre. It cuts the journey down from two hours to just 30 minutes during peak hours.

Number 8: Tropicana

Percentage of views: 7.57%

Tropicana Golf & Country Resort is an exclusive and all-inclusive gated community. This 625-acre upscale township is located in the prime suburb of Petaling Jaya and is home to residents who enjoy the convenience and comfort of resort facilities right on their doorstep. This township offers a mixture of link, semiD, and bungalow houses overlooking the charming landscape and surrounded by lush greeneries. The median price for a bungalow at Tropicana Golf & Country Resort is RM2.3 mil.

Number 7: Ipoh

Percentage of views: 7.71%

Ipoh is the capital city of Perak and it is one of Malaysia’s biggest attractions. This former mining town is located about 200km from Kuala Lumpur (KL) and 150km from Butterworth (mainland Penang). It charms its visitors with attractions like Concubine Lane and Birch Clock Tower, and it is also the gateway to Cameron Highlands.

Based on listings on iProperty.com.my, terrace houses in Ipoh are ranging from three to five bedrooms with built-up sizes within 1,200 sq. ft. to 4,550 sq. ft. The median price for a terrace house in Ipoh is RM220,000. Ipoh is also number one for the top five areas in Malaysia for properties below RM500,000.

Number 6: Ampang

Percentage of views: 8.22%

Ampang has been long known for its exorbitant real-estate prices and wealthy residents. Besides Mont Kiara, Ampang is also favoured by the expatriate communities due to its amenities like international schools, private healthcare facilities, and entertainment.

Ampang is also home to a large Korean community in the Klang Valley. This area is ideally located close to the KL Golden Triangle and major roads and highways such as Jalan Tun Razak, Jalan Ampang, AKLEH and MRR2 are moments away. This affluent township is also listed as the top 10 most searched areas to rent in Malaysia in 2020. The median price for a condominium in Ampang is RM1.15 mil.

Number 5: Damansara Heights

Percentage of views: 9.67%

The enclave neighbourhood of Damansara Heights or Bukit Damansara is dubbed the Beverly Hills of Malaysia as it is sprawling with bungalows, villas, and other luxury residences. Its immediate affluent neighbours are Bukit Kiara, Sri Hartamas, and Bukit Tunku. The median price for a bungalow in Damansara Heights is RM3.5 mil.

Other than upper-class Malaysians, expatriates are flocking to this area for its trendy nightlife and entertainment, as well as a selection of bars and restaurants. It is also surrounded by a network of highways and main roads such as Jalan Tuanku Abdul Halim, Jalan Damansara, and Kerinchi and Damansara Link. Access to Sultan Abdul Halim Highway is also seamless due to its proximity.

Number 4: Cheras

Percentage of views: 10.6%

Cheras has remained in the top five for the most searched areas among Malaysian homebuyers. Eventhough it went down one spot to the number four position in 2020, Cheras is still popular among homebuyers and potential buyers. Cheras isn’t only one of the townships with the easiest access to the main rail lines, it is also one of the most searched areas to rent in Malaysia in 2020. The readily available public transportation services and amenities, as well as a range of houses and price spectrum, make it favourable among house hunters and investors. The median price for a condominium in Cheras (KL) is RM350,000.

Number 3: Shah Alam

Percentage of views: 10.66%

This Selangor state capital is Malaysia’s first planned city and known for its family-friendly attractions like i-City. The LRT Bandar Utama-Klang Line or LRT 3 connecting Bandar Utama to Johan Setia in Klang will not only alleviate travelling time to other parts of Klang Valley but will also boost the capital growth of properties in Shah Alam especially those projects nearby the train stations.

The new LRT line will be extending the connectivity of two million people in the Western Corridor to other parts of the Greater Klang Valley. There are at least 4 properties in Shah Alam near LRT 3. The median price for a condominium in Shah Alam is RM390,000.

According to the H1 2020 Portal Demand Analytics by iProperty.com.my, Shah Alam recorded a positive YoY residential property demand, standing at +7.63%. With countless public parks, shopping malls, attractions, and things to do in Shah Alam, it is the natural choice for homebuyers.

Number 2: Petaling Jaya

Percentage of views: 15.6%

Petaling Jaya, popularly known as PJ has levelled up from the sixth spot last year to the 2nd in 2020. It’s also one of the most search areas among renters in 2020. The reason PJ makes it into the list year after year is because of its proximity to KL and the endless amenities readily available in the area. As far as shopping is concerned, there are a few shopping malls within its vicinity. Besides the ever-popular 1 Utama, there are smaller neighbourhood malls such as Paradigm Mall, Atria Shopping Gallery, and Starling Mall in Damansara Uptown.

The LRT 3 will further alleviate the public transportation service in PJ as it allows seamless commuting to Bandar Utama, Shah Alam, and Klang. There will be five LRT 3 stations within the PJ area.

Number 1: Johor Bahru

Percentage of views: 16.24%

Johor Bahru tops the chart for the most searched areas among Malaysian homebuyers in 2020. Johor is an attractive residential option for many foreigners who work in Singapore. Nevertheless, the closing of the Johor-Singapore border due to COVID-19 have dampened their purchasing sentiment.

According to the H1 2020 Portal Demand Analytics by iProperty.com.my, the terrace house category is the only one that remained steady in terms of median prices. For H1 2020, the terrace house segment recorded YoY capital gains of +4.97% and the median price was RM360,000.

— end of press release —

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Malaysian homes are more expensive than Perth? I agree.

There has been a few recent reports about Malaysian properties being much higher priced in terms of affordability when compared to developed countries. I think there are truths to this as I happened to have just visited Perth. Note, I said some truths because it is not all truth as well. In Perth, I was staying in Belmont which is considered an established area. I rented a one storey home with a back yard and a front porch able to fit 2 cars side by side. Two living rooms, three bedrooms and the backyard huge enough for a BBQ session of 15 pax. The price of the said property I believe is around AUD$500,000. Currencies aside, are we able to buy such a property for such a price in Malaysia? Answer is Yes and No. Yes if you buy a little further away and No if you are talking about majority of any popular area. For some, even two times of 500,000 may not yield you the same home. So, yes, there are really some truths to these reports and I have to agree.

However, having said that, have you ever been to any Australian property fairs in Malaysia recent years? Or even recent months? I am very sure you can see AUD$350,000 properties being bandied about. It includes even guaranteed rental schemes. Well, the units are most probably a one bedroom type of unit and the rental would mostly to students. Why are they targeting us (Malaysians)? Well, in Australia, foreigners cannot buy from the secondary market and even the thought of buying must first be preceded by act of getting approval for you to buy one. The few situations which foreigners are most probably allowed to buy is in the chart shown. Now do you know why they target us Malaysians? Well, truth is, for around AUD400,000 there are still quite many secondary choices that Australians have. Just take a look at their dominant property site, realestate.com.au and search for the AUD400,000 homes. Yes, the choices are aplenty and it’s almost certainly a landed property instead of the usual high rises that they are selling to us in Malaysia.

So, yes, the property prices in Malaysia really do seem high in comparison to even Perth which is already lower priced than Sydney or Melbourne. Sorry, the last time I was in London was over 15 years ago, thus I can only rely on news reports for London property prices. I think for London, they are higher than us. So much so that some London population is putting the blame on foreigners for pushing up their property prices. Well, truth is, locals always have a choice. They know the area well, or perhaps too well and thus they refused to believe it when property prices started to rise and when they realised, it was a little too late. This has happened in many local cities, not just overseas. I had a very good time in Perth for one week. Visited nothing less than 10 different parks, reserves, beaches and all of them were less than 15km from one another. All of them, clean and well maintained. I think even when prices are similar, are we able to have these public spots which are clean, refreshing and well maintained? One day, perhaps. For now, if we compare just on the basic stuffs, Malaysian (KL) property prices in general are considered more expensive than a developed city like Perth. I agree. Happy comparing.

written on 27 Nov 2014

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Malaysian House Price Index is negative 0.7% quarter on quarter!

This Malaysian House Price Index (MHPI) has been released every quarter. In fact if we were to refer to
housingwatch.my we could see they
 have average numbers all the way back to 1990.  This is the number derived from property transactions. It is NOT the price the owner wants to sell. It is NOT the price the buyer wants to buy. Without a transaction, nothing changes for the Malaysian House Price Index.

Property price is still increasing or decreasing
…

Looking at below would tell us that on a Year-to-Year comparison, the price has increased by 0.4%. This is like no movement at all. Meanwhile quarter-on-quarter basis, means in comparison to the previous quarter, then the price change showed a decrease of 0.7%. Again, this is considered insignificant but it will be significant if we continue to have two more quarters of negative downtrend.

Return on Investment? Do not be surprised.

If we are to look at property as an investment over a period of 10 years, say 2010 to 2020, then the home we bought in 2010 may have just doubled in 2020. Do refer to the image below for the average property price in 2010 and the average property price in 2020. Imagine the return on investment?

2010: RM200k property price. Downpayment of RM20,000.

2020: RM400k property price. Increase of RM200k. Returns = RM200k / RM20k = 10x. In other words, based on a simple calculation, our ROI was 100% per year!

Another way to show the calculation? RM200k increase in price divided by 10 years = RM20k per year.  We invested RM20k in first year and every year, we get RM20k in returns. Yes, this is 100% per year yeah…  I know, we still need to minus the stamp duty, legal fees and maintenance etc but if you still do not get my point, it’s okay. Please move on to other investments. Property investment is a very slow moving asset.

Image course: Napic

Malaysian House Price Index – who says landed gives the BEST return?

My good friend always remind me that high-rise units, the number can increase easily. Landed properties meanwhile are limited because of the limitation of land. When supply can increase quickly, the price will not.  Capital appreciation in terms of property price growth would thus be very limited. Well, perhaps we look at actual number shall we? Image below is from Napic.

When we look at the average for all houses, we could see that prices nearly doubled after 10 years. Meanwhile the top performer is really LANDED. It belongs to terrace homes. If you bought one in 2010, the property price have increased by more than double!  The second best performer is however not another landed property. It’s not semi-detached and it’s not detached either. It belongs to high-rise units with an average increase in property price by close to double.

Focus on the right property. Not who’s right.

Stop arguing about landed or high-rise. I will let you win anytime you say landed is better. I will just continue buying good high-rise properties. Start understanding that as long as we did not buy the wrong property in either the landed or the high-rise category, we will do just fine. Remember yeah, urbanisation will continue to happen and it is highly unlikely that everyone would be able to afford a landed property in bigger cities like Greater KL, Penang or even Kota Kinabalu…

So, we have learnt a lot by just looking at the Malaysian House Price Index. Happy understanding.

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Positive. Malaysian household spending to increase in 2021. What about you?

It’s a simple fact. Wirth higher salary comes higher spending. If Malaysian household spending is to increase in 2021, it means that the Malaysian household income is stable and Malaysians feel positive about spending. If their salaries go up (bonus and increments), the spending goes up too. Fitch Solutions Group Ltd has just forecasted that Malaysian household spending will be growing again in 2021 after a contraction in 2020.

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In 2020, our unemployment number moved upwards and it was even higher than 1998
(read here for the earlier article on how high did it go up
) and this was compounded by the fact that the Movement Control Order (MCO) meant that no one could spend money and most businesses were shut. So, yes, this meant that many did not get to spend their money and many businesses were shut which meant that more people lost their income and the spending goes lower as a result. This has been recovering and perhaps this is why the projection for a higher spending in 2021 by Fitch Solutions.

Article in themalaysianreserve.com
  FITCH Solutions Group Ltd has forecasted the Malaysian household spending to grow in 2021 after a contraction in 2020. It said one reason is because of the government stimulus measures which will support the economy.

It said, “We forecast real growth in household spending to bounce back over the year, growing by a real rate of 9.2% year-on-year (YoY).”

“This is a significant improvement from the -1.6% YoY contraction we projected for household spending during 2020 and an improvement on the 7.7% YoY growth we estimate from a pre-Covid-19 environment in 2019.”

“The dynamics behind our improving forecast outlook for consumer spending in Malaysia in 2021 are in line with our country risk team’s forecasts that the Malaysian economy will grow by a real rate of 6.3% YoY over 2021, a recovery on the -4.6% contraction over 2020.”

“This will help reduce the unemployment rate in the country, which rose to 5% of the labour force as a result of the economic impact of Covid-19.” It’s a long and comprehensive article, please read it here:
Article in themalaysianreserve.com

Yesterday, I was chatting with some good friends and we were suddenly reminded that 2020 is coming to an end in less than 3 months. COVID-19 has taken away a lot of our time, a lot of potential opportunities too.  Time to move forward in the very near future. Yea, perhaps 2021 will be a year for us to make things amazing again. (nope, don’t say make things great again…)

Will you be spending more in 2021? I hope all kopiandproperty.com readers would earn more, spend more and enjoy more in 2021. Keep connecting and learning.

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Malaysians have the most debt? Well, proportionately YES.

According to the latest Manulife Investor Sentiment Index (MISI) which was published in many medias across the region, Malaysian investors rank the highest in Asia in terms of indebtedness. 68 percent of Malaysians currently have debts. This is the HIGHEST PROPORTION of all the eight markets surveyed in Asia. Please note that highest proportion and the highest debt amount are two different things. This indebtedness excludes mortgages. The same survey showed that Malaysians do have some financial awareness because they rank savings for retirement a top financial priority. As for actually doing it, most lack sufficient financial planning.

When I look around me, I think this 68 percent should be even higher. Latest smart-phone, dinner at nice places and posting the photos in their Facebook and the worst case is purchasing a brand new Segment B Japanese car despite struggling with the repayment every month or pushing the repayment period to the maximum. When asked why, some would answer that the particular model saves fuel. Sigh….. Some would spend so much on renovation that they would spend the next few years paying for it. Is it truly necessary? Well, it is, when we have way too much money.

Oh yeah, as per the survey, the average debt per investor is RM56,000 which is nearly 10 times average monthly personal income. The most major reason is due to daily living expenses (60 percent), with rental payments (44 percent) and children’s education (37 percent) the other main causes. Even more alarming, 44 percent of investors spend 70 percent or more of their income every month. This meant these people would have nothing to fall back on if they suddenly lose their job. There are just no savings for rainy days. Need to read more? Here:
malaysians-most-indebted-asia

Dear fellow Malaysians, this survey does not reveal anything unique about our typical spending habits. However, it should serve as a notice to all of us that financial awareness is of little use if we are just not discipline enough to take appropriate actions. Last but not least, Manulife Holdings Bhd group CEO Mark O’ Dell said: “Without effective debt management, Malaysians are less likely to achieve their long term savings goals, which could jeopardize their future financial security.” Oh yeah, rental should only be an option for a while. Save quickly, buy something and after a few years, upgrade. The first purchase need not be the best, it’s not going to be anyway. Happy saving and investing.

written on 3 Mar 2016

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Malaysian passport is NOT the most powerful in the world. Where are we?

Malaysian passport is not the most powerful in the world. Where are we?

My upcoming trip to Bahamas with my Malaysian passport

As the District Director for Term 2023 – 2024 for District 51 Toastmasters International, I will be joining the District Leader Training and also the Annual Convention in The Bahamas. (yes, it’s The Bahamas because it’s a nation of many islands, just like The Philippines). I thought The Bahamas iswithin the U.S. and thus I do not need to apply for a visa because I already have the US visa. Then, when I searched, I realise The Bahamas is an independent country and my US visa does not apply. Then, when I checked further, I found that Malaysian passport holders do not need to apply for a visa. I am happy. I am ready to go.

However, my fellow District Directors from Indonesia and Thailand informed me that their visa application is taking some time and one only got the approval 1.5 months after her application! Yes, my Malaysian passport is really powerful! Now, how do we compare versus the world then? Read on.

Is the glass half-full or half-empty?

According to Worldometer – There are 195 countries
 in the world today. This total comprises 193 countries that are member states of the United Nations and 2 countries that are non-member observer states: the Holy See and the State of Palestine.

However, the Global Passport Ranking 2023 says that it covers 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations. IT says that when it meant by visa-free is this:  *Visa-free = no visa required/ can obtain a visa on arrival, a visitor’s permit, or an electronic travel authority (ETA) when entering the destination. Condition: No pre-departure government approval needed for visa on entry.
Here’s that article in themalaymail.com

Using my passport as a Malaysian, I could go to 180 countries VISA-FREE. It means I could just buy a flight ticket and fly and arrive there and start walking on the streets of that country.

Yeah, in ASEAN, only one country is more powerful when it comes to visa-free travel

We can see clearly in the image above yeah. Meanwhile the closest to us would be Brunei at 21st position and as for the other ASEAN members, Thailand and Indonesia were at 64th and 69th spot, respectively. The Philippines is at 75th and Vietnam is at 83rd. Laos and Myanmar at 88th and 90th respectively.

Now the only issue with visa-free to 180 countries is this…

We do need to work harder and earn more money. Haha. Please do not mention the ringgit’s declining strength versus some currencies. Surely out of the 180 countries there are many which are still considered affordable. 🙂  Alternatively, become a successful Tik Toker or a You Tuber and it will help tremendously too.  Happy visiting the visa-free 180 countries.

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Malaysian professionals: 77% expects a bonus, 74 pct awaits pay hike

How many of us are getting more than 6 months bonus for 2016 performance? Just kidding, what about 2 months? I can see quite a number smiling now I think. My staff told that her friend hates her office nearby KLCC. It’s way too jammed and when it rains, she would have to wait at least half an hour after the rain stops before she could leave. Else, she would just be jammed for the next half an hour trying to get out of her parking. Crazy? Not really, her friend is still working at the same company, same office for the past 13 years. Major reason? Bonuses are seldom less than 2 months. It’s sad to leave for another job only to suffer the potential of not having any bonus the next year right. Speaking of bonus for 2016, one report has emerged which has painted a rosy year for Malaysian professionals. Rosy as in when compared to the world.

Malaysian professionals. 77 percent of them expects a bonus and 74 percent of them awaits a pay hike. This is as per the latest global Randstad Workmonitor report. in the world, only 49 percent of the global respondents expect a bonus while 54 percent expects a salary increment. (Now you know why I really hate it when people keep saying Malaysia is about to go bankrupt?)  Anyway, it’s either the negative view of Malaysia about to go bankrupt coming true and thus all these expectations of a bonus and increment are all just a dream…. Else, if 74 percent of all professionals are getting a bonus, then what is really happening? Oh yeah, full report in
thestar here.
 We are higher than even Singapore. 68 percent of them expected year-end bonuses while 58 percent anticipated pay raises. Randstad Singapore managing director for Randstad Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, Michael Smith says: “Research has shown the cost of replacing an employee can surpass the cost of a raise and bonus by many multiples.”

I agree. In fact the loss of any good employee for a few months before a replacement comes in would mean huge losses for the company and not just the salary of the person. Now do you know why companies are willing to pay so much to recruitment agencies to fasten the hiring process? Assuming a manager with RM10,000 salary, the billing for a successful hire by the recruitment agency can be easily RM30,000 or higher.  Well, assuming all these professionals really do get their bonuses, what does it mean for the Malaysian market? Well, perhaps Q1 will be a good quarter since many people would have more to spend. It does not include me though as my company’s financial year is July – June. Haha. So, anyone expecting angpow from me, please expect a small one yeah. Happy spending your bonus! (Oh yeah, save a bit for property…)

written on 12 Dec 2016

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Malaysian Properties @ Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.

Friends in Singapore who’s a Malaysian who wants to buy Malaysian properties but it is somehow a little crazy to fly to Penang, look at a few properties and fly back and then fly to Klang Valley and then fly back, there’s a nice show for you. Do drop by PropertyGuru’s show in Marina Sands Begonia room. According to the EDM sent out earlier, there’s over 20 projects for your viewing over there and rest assured, they will be giving to you enough information for you to consider or make a decision. There are also talks by many prominent speakers, some I know, some I do not. Just learn from all of them.

For Penangites who think they want to shake the hand of the Penang Chief Minister, well he’s also delivering a speech there. I think for an event, you can’t get any bigger than this for having the Chief Minister dropping by an event so far away from his home state and deliver a speech. Listen to his speech about the potential of Penang, especially to genuine investors who are looking at long term. His speech is expected on Sunday from 10am onwards. Thus, do drop by after your breakfast. Nothing to lose and everything to gain. For full details, you may refer here:
http://www.propertyguru.com.sg/mpsjune

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Malaysian properties getting too expensive?

Every time someone tells me that property prices are spiralling out of control, I would just smile. It’s hard to debate with someone who has a totally different idea about property prices and affordability. Reminder. Property prices can only keep increasing when people could afford it. Here’s one earlier article.
Key driver for property demand will always be affordability
 If people could not afford it at all, the property bubble will burst to make the property prices affordable again OR… people buy a little further for cheaper properties OR… developers build smaller units to manage the prices. Between these three situations, one is actually within our control. The world can be unfair to us but we could not change the world, we could only change ourselves.

Let’s refer to
Brickz.my
 for the median prices for all major towns in Malaysia. At least it will show that prices are not spiralling out of control. This is also the site which I refer to nearly daily because it’s important to verify whatever people are saying. For example, your friend could tell you that last year he sold his property for RM500,000. If you know the address of his property, you could check it out and verify if he’s telling the truth! 😛

Source:
brickz.my

We can see that among major towns / cities here in Malaysia, that little place which is most expensive is KL city centre (Think KLCC and surroundings). The median price is RM940 per sq ft and RM1,000,000.  In other words, RM1,000,000 will buy us a unit slightly bigger than 1,000 sq ft. I think my good friend will be happy to see this. She is only 32 this year but already own two units within KLCC surroundings. It’s important to have KLCC at the top of the list because this will be the main driver for price growth in areas surrounding it and further away. Remember, if KLCC is still RM500 per sq ft today, there’s no chance for further away areas to reach RM500 per sq ft.

The last in the list is Ipoh, my hometown. When it comes to median, it’s only RM196 per sq ft and the price is RM204,750. If everyone thinks this is the typical property price, then I can safely tell you that it is not true. It’s just that for many of the established areas, it’s already a mature neighbourhood and not many transactions come from these areas. With more homes being built further away, it becomes more affordable and this is why the transactions are also showing this trend as well. Happy referring to all the rest and please feel free to comment as well. Happy understanding.

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written on 26 Jan 2019

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Press Release: Malaysian Property Market 2019 and other reports

MALAYSIAN PROPERTY MARKET 2019 AND OTHER REPORTS, JPPH Malaysia 2019

Jabatan Penilaian dan Perkhidmatan Harta Malaysia (JPPH Malaysia) launch nine reports today. These are Property Market Report 2019 (PMR 2019), Property Stock Report 2019, Property Market Status Report 2019, Malaysian House Price Index 2019, Commercial Space Availability Report 2019, Purpose-Built Office Rental Index (PBO-RI) Klang Valley, Johor Bahru & George Town 2019, Residential Prices Quarterly/ Yearly Update 2019, RM10 Million Transaction Property Deals Volume 16 and Estate Land Sales Report Volume 26.

The printed version of Property Market Report will no longer be published for distribution or sale. In embracing and fostering user-friendly data sharing practice, PMR 2019 earmarks the first annual report available for free download and data tables in the report are in Excel format. Unlike before, data tables for other reports, namely Property Stock Report, Property Market Status Reports, Residential Prices Quarterly Update, and RM10 Million Deals are all downloadable in Excel format for ease of users.

Property Market 2019

Property market recorded a marginal improvement. A total of 328,647 transactions worth RM141.40 billion were recorded, showing an increase of 4.8% in volume and 0.8% in value compared to 2018, which recorded 313,710 transactions worth RM140.33 billion. Sectoral market activity performance improved marginally – residential (6.0%), commercial (7.2%), industrial (3.8%) and agricultural (2.0%) with the exception of development land sub-sector, which declined slightly by 1.2%. The residential sub-sector led the overall property market, with 63.7% contribution.

Residential Property

There were 209,295 transactions worth RM72.42 billion recorded in the review period, increased by 6.0% in volume and 5.3% in value as compared with 2018 (197,385 transactions worth RM68.75 billion). Performance across the states improved in the review period. By price range, demand continued to focus on RM300,000 and below, accounting for 61.7% of the residential transaction, followed by RM300,000 to RM500,000 (21.3%), RM500,000 – RM1,000,000 (13.3%) and more than RM1,000,000 RM1 Million (3.7%).

The overhang and unsold situation took an upturn. There were 30,664 overhang units worth RM18.82 billion, decreased by 5.1% in volume and 5.2% in value against 2018 (32,313 units worth RM19.86 billion). Similarly, the unsold under construction and not constructed improved as the number dropped to 72,692 units and 16,774 units, down by 10.2% and 15.6% respectively.

Johor retained the highest number and value of overhang in the country with 5,627 units worth RM4.7 billion, accounting to 18.4% and 25.0% respectively of the national total. Perak came second with 5,024 units worth RM1.52 billion, followed by Selangor (4,687 units worth RM3.75 billion) and Pulau Pinang (3,353 units worth RM2.59 billion). By price range, those priced RM300,000 to RM500,000 (7,883 units) formed 25.7% while more than RM500,000 (12,528 units) formed 40.9% of the total residential overhang.

Construction activities remained on a low tone as completion, starts and new planned supply declined.

On the price trend, Malaysian House Price Index (MHPI) continued to increase at a moderating rate. MHPI stood at 197.5 points (at base year 2010), increased by 1.9% (3.8 points) on annual basis (2018: 193.7 points).

Service Apartment

Unlike the residential overhang situation, serviced apartment overhang continued to increase and formed the bulk of the property overhang. There was a total of 17,142 overhang units with a value of RM15.04 billion, up by nearly 51% in volume and 65% in value against 2018. On the contrary, the unsold under construction and not constructed improved with volume declined to 33,827 units and 7,659 units, down by 9.3% and 40.5% respectively.

By state, Johor recorded the highest serviced apartment overhang with 71.2% share in volume (12,207 units) and 76.9% share in value (RM11.56 billion). Majority of these overhang units is in Johor Bahru district, accounting for 99.2% of the state’s overhang (12,105 units worth RM11.5 billion). The state also held 34.0% share (11,490 units) of the country’s unsold under construction.

By price, units above RM1 million formed 37.4% of the total overhang, 20.3% of the total unsold under construction and 19.5% of the total unsold not constructed. For unsold not constructed, units in the price range of RM300,000 – RM400,000 formed 33.0% of the total.

Shopping Complex

The retail sub-sector recorded a stable performance, recording an overall occupancy rate of 79.2%, attributed to decreased slightly from 79.3% recorded in 2018. Kuala Lumpur recorded an encouraging performance, securing more than 83.0% occupancy rate whereas Selangor slightly dropped to 82%. Johor and Pulau Pinang managed to secure an average occupancy of 75.3% and 73.8% respectively.

Purpose-Built Office

The overall performance of office sub-sector was less promising as the overall occupancy rate declined to 80.6% in 2019, down from 82.4% in 2018. The private office buildings recorded average occupancy rate at 74.8%; WPKL and Penang secured higher occupancy rate at 76.9% and 76.5% respectively; whereas Selangor and Johor lower than national level at 70.0% and 65.7% respectively. Private office buildings in Putrajaya recorded the lowest occupancy rate at 37.6%.

2020 Outlook

There may be high near-term downside risks resulting from the unforeseeable outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) worldwide. This may dampen the anticipated economic growth, particularly for the first half year of 2020. The globally-affected outbreak is expected to take its toll on the world economies and the Malaysian economy, in particular tourism-related sectors such as airlines, retail, food and beverage and hospitality; as well as the manufacturing and selected services sector. The magnitude of the impact on the Malaysian economy would depend on the duration and spread of the outbreak not only in Malaysia but also in other countries, especially those that are Malaysia’s major trading partners.

Many incentives are given by the government in the effort to cushion-off the impact on the property market. However, given the challenging market coupled with the downside in consumers and business community confidence, market activity and market absorption are likely to be slow.

Despite the economic headwinds, Malaysian property market is expected to remain resilient in the coming year. Affordable housing and finding the right solutions to the property overhang will continue to be the main agenda of the government. The close monitoring on the implementation of programmes under the National Housing Policy 2.0 (2018 – 2025) and various incentives introduced to promote home ownership among Malaysians, are expected to contain the overhang situation in the coming year.

As Bank Negara Malaysia expects the Malaysian economy to rebound in 2021, in tandem with projected global recovery, the property market is anticipated to move in similar trajectory. JPPH Malaysia will continue to monitor and evaluate the expected impact of the pandemic on the Malaysian property market and provide advisory to the government in ensuring that the market remain sustainable.

— End of Press Release —

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Quarterly Malaysian Property Market Review. Comprehensive Overview here

We have this Quarterly Malaysian Property Market Review for everyone’s benefit yeah.

kopiandproperty.com is just a property blog yeah. Haha. So, all these reports with lots of information has to come from a company with enough researchers and analysts and even full-time writers yeah.

Here, we have the Quarterly Malaysian Property Market Review from
CCO & Associates.
This is how they introduce themselves, “CCO & Associates is a firm of Chartered Valuation Surveyors, Registered Valuers, Estate Agents, Property Managers and Auctioneer. It was first established in 1987 in Johor Bahru, State of Johor and has since expanded to Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Perak.”  You may read the full report here:
Download the full report here.
 Else, here are some interesting news which I have cut and paste for everyone yeah.

Photo by Anna Shvets on
Pexels.com

Unemployment Malaysia.
 I shared this recently when I was invited by PropertyQueen. Malaysia’s unemployment rate did NOT rise to 5% from 0%… It rose from 3-3.5% to 5%… Now, it has dropped. We need to understand that the 700 thousand plus Malaysians who are unemployed did NOT start from zero… It started from 600 thousand.. or thereabouts.  For actual numbers from CCO & Associates, do refer below:

Unemployment Numbers
(Unemployment rates)
2020 March: 610.5 thousand (3.9%)
2020 April: 778.8 thousand (5.0%)
2020 May: 826.1 thousand (5.3%)
2020 June: 773.2 thousand (4.9%)
2020 July: 745.1 thousand (4.7%)
2020 August: 741.6 thousand (4.7%)
2020 September: 737.5 thousand (4.6%)

Office space and that view that work from home will be the norm. By the way, I disagree yeah. As for CCO’s actual report, this was what was reported.

— start —

Purpose built offices
Based on the latest report by National Property Information Centre (NAPIC), during
the third quarter of 2020, occupancy rate of purpose-built offices reduced marginally
from 74.3% in second quarter 2020 to 74.0% in third quarter of 2020. The occupied
office spaces increased marginally to 12.744 million square meters from 13.695
million square meters in second quarter 2020.

— end —

Hope everyone is now clear that the occupancy is still at 74% and this has only reduced marginally. In fact, the occupied office space showed an increasing trend yeah versus the quarter before. As for that article about my view about working from home, click here:
New norm is not about abandoning office and working from home

Readers of kopiandproperty.com would also know that I have reiterated many times that our property market is NOT on the verge of collapsing. In fact, people continue to buy and just within H1 2020, we have over 75,000
 transactions yeah. (click here to view the charts).
This was what the CCO report says:

— start —

Residential property market
Generally, the residential property sector continued to record commendable
performances during the third quarter of 2020. Developers have launched new
residential projects capitalizing on the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) and the low
interest rates to drive sales of the projects.

During the third quarter 2020, many public listed property development companies
have reported positive financial results. Most development companies have also
expressed confidence in achieving their sales targets for their financial years despitethe COVID-19 outbreak.

— end —

Note the word “commendable” yeah. Note the word “reported positive financial result” yeah. Hope this clears the doubts. We are nowhere near “awesome” definitely but we are definitely nowhere near “depressed” as well yeah.

Revenge travelling… I shared that 2021 will definitely be a good year versus 2020 because everything which people did not get to do including travelling… will all be done in 2021. This was what was reported by CCO yeah.

— start —

Hospitality sector
With the lifting of the interstate traveling during the RMCO, staycation or local
holidays (or better known as Cuti-Cuti Malaysia) have improved the demand for
hospitality properties. Generally, occupancy rates for hotels have improved to over
30% in third quarter 2020 as compared to between 8% to 9% occupancy rates
recorded during the second quarter 2020.

— end —

If you have half an hour, you may read the full report here:
Download the full report here.

I am happy to note that my sharing in kopiandproperty.com is quite reflective in this report by CCO & Associates. At least now I know what I share is really reflective of what’s really happening in theproperty market.

Till the next quarter, thank you
CCO & Associates.
I love your quarterly overview. Practically all that I have read and many which I did not have appeared in your 31 page report yeah. Really good work. Keep up the good work in the realestate industry.

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Malaysian Property Press Awards 2018 – Winners

Alan Poon, winner of Outstanding Individual Award for Most Media Coverage given to a Property Speaker

From PRNewswire: —
 The ninth edition of the Malaysian Property Press Awards (MPPA) saw 13 accolades presented to property developers and industry associates this evening at the Istana Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Amongst the winners this year are renowned names such as Peter Chan CEO of The Haven Sdn Bhd, ASM Development KL, Santuari Park Pantai by Gasing Meridian, SDK Security Management Services, Trinity Group Sdn Bhd, Hyatt House Mont’Kiara, UMLand Seri Austin, REI Group of Companies, BRDB Developments Sdn Bhd (BRDB), Setia Haruman Sdn Bhd and Alan Poon.

The MPPA, an initiative by strategic property content provider Emjay Communications, Property360Digest and the Malaysian Global Business Forum, is an annual awards ceremony that recognises the outstanding achievements of participants within the property industry via a unique format — it is the only property awards ceremony that is adjudicated exclusively by senior members of the press.

The Awards utilise a comprehensive selection process that takes into account the positive market impact; performance; quality of products; calibre of services; and the scope of corporate social responsibility activity that candidates have exhibited.

These have been tracked and identified via media stories throughout the course of the year, and ultimately shortlisted for awards purposes. Importantly, the judges also took into account the positive feedback these various projects and corporations have received from their publications’ valued readers. This unique concept and outlook is born from the belief that a respected property print platform and its editorial team are often regarded as the voice of the people, and — by extension — represents the collective conscience of the nation. Through the printed stories and articles, these publications are able to raise important issues for discussion, highlight matters that have impacted our everyday lives and provide a crucial forum for the opinions and viewpoints of consumers.

“Society becomes all the richer when its people are exposed to issues that have depth of analysis and range of thought. Very often the people behind the thought-provoking issues and opinion pieces are the print editors, whose conscience for what is right and fair drives them to address issues that would otherwise be overlooked,” said MPPA chairman
Gunaprasath Bupalan
, who is also the managing director of Emjay Communications and managing editor of Property360Digest.

In his speech, Deputy Minister of Housing and Local Government Datuk Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad lauded the awards and the recipient, saying: “The Malaysian Property Press Awards had been showcasing the many creative initiatives brought forth by property developers and the supporting industry players to help home buyers find their dream homes. We hope that this would open up possibilities, and hopefully this will trigger fresh perspectives and mind-sets to address the issues.”

This year, the Malaysian Property Press Awards has taken a step closer to its goal to be an authentic property press awards by inviting superstars from various media and industries to sit on the valuation team as VIP judges. These individuals include
Datuk Seri Abdul Jalil Abdul Hamid
 (CEO of the New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad);
Datuk Wong Sai Wan
 (Editor-in-Chief of Malay Mail and COO for the media business of Ancom Bhd);
Datuk Seri Dr Vincent Tiew
 (Senior Vice President of Aladdin Group);
Dato’ Seri Jackie Tee
 (a renowned consultant);
Previn Singhe
 (CEO of Zerin Properties);
Ishmael Ho
 (CEO of Ho Chin Soon Research);
Ar Ezumi Harzani Ismail
 (President of Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia);
Nordin Abdullah
 (Founding Chairman of the Malaysia Global Business Forum); and
Gunaprasath Bupalan
.

— end of press release —

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iProperty.com Property Agents Advertising Awards. Oh What a night.

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Malaysians are under-insuring. Are you part of the stats?

Savings is not longer a virtue these days. Fortunately, the older generations saved a lot and this has helped the younger generations of today. Before we start saying how “bad” Malaysians have become, it’s actually a global phenomenon. Materialism is real in all countries, well perhaps except Bhutan. My friend just went and said the people there are just so real, so sincere. However, beyond savings,
there’s investment

and in-tandem with investments would be protection for our wealth.This is where insurance comes into play and this is also where many Malaysians do not do enough.

Reported in NST. According to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) assistant governor Jessica Chew Cheng Lian, the Malaysian insurance industry will be having a significant transformation over the next 5 – 10 years as it addresses the extend of underinsurance in the country currently. It is extremely important to address this protection gap and this will then promote a
resilient economy
 and the well-being of the society. Million of individuals, families and businesses across the country remain ill-prepared for losses arising from unforeseen events. Jessica shared that the general insurance penetration level in Malaysia measured in terms of premiums as a share of GDP stands at 1.68 per cent as at end 2015. This is only about half of those in developed markets, currently at between 3 to 4 percent. She quoted one real example, “During the December 2014 flooding in the east coast of Malaysia, total economic losses were RM2.6 billion while insured losses paid as at end-2015 were only a fraction of that at about RM100.0 million.”

Fellow readers. Savings remain a foundation. Investments would be building blocks to a comfortable retirement. However, unforeseen circumstances may force us to lose a lot of what we build if we did not subscribe adequate protection for what we have. Perhaps the mentality of “nothing bad will happen to me” should change to “I love what I have and I will protect it.” I do not have any recommendations for KL but if you are from Penang, I can recommend my very
helpful insurance agent
 for you. Just email to me and ask for her contact. Happy protecting what we have so that we can really enjoy it when we need it.

written on 5 Aug 2016

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Malaysians are happier than some and less than others. Are you happy today?

I love to visualcapitalist.com
They always have big things presented in a very simple manner. Recently, they have published the Global Happiness Levels 2022. If you like to know how Malaysians are thinking, it’s right below. To measure this, a survey of thousand of respondents from every country was done and everyone was asked to rate their subjective well-being (happiness score) using the Cantril life ladder question. For more details, it’s
here: visualcapitalist.com

The report also does a regression analysis to look at how happiness scores could be explained, by looking at tangible and intangible factors that could factor in:

Social support
Life expectancy
Freedom to make life choices
Generosity
GDP per capita
Perceptions of corruption
Positive and negative affects

Similar to last year, the report takes special considerations to track how COVID-19 has impacted aspects of our daily lives, and how it’s affected global happiness levels.

Here is where Malaysia is… middle (above average)

We are grouped under the East Asia and Oceania and here, we are behind the following countries who are ‘happier’ than us. They are Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Mongolia. Yeah, that’s where the overall happiness score shows. We are slightly above average in this case yeah.  What’s more important is how are you feeling today dear kopiandproperty.com readers?

Source: visualcapitalist.com

What about the Europe then?

The Scandinavian countries are usually happiest in all the indexes I have seen for many years. Finland leads followed by Iceland. UK is in the middle. Perhaps slightly above average. It’s behind Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Ireland, Austria and Germany. No prizes to guess which are the countries where the people are feeling less happier than the world average yeah. Two of them is next to one another and is in a war now.

 Source: visualcapitalist.com

North America including Central America and the Caribbeans

In this part of the world, U.S. and Canada leads as the happiest countries. They are not as happy as many European countries but their score of 7.0 is considered high versus many other parts of the world. I have never been to both countries. Must plan one trip in the near future. U.S. should be a possible trip as I do get to travel to the annual International Conference for Toastmasters as a senior district officer here in Malaysia. If situations allow.

 Source: visualcapitalist.com

Great reference but do our best for ourselves

In every country, there are people who are doing better than most people. Strive towards becoming one. Learn new skills so that we are always competitive. Take up a new qualification so that we are always ahead of the pack in the corporate world. Invest our money properly so that our wealth would grow faster versus leaving it idle and without any return on what we have.

Could we as an individual be happier than many in the countries ranked above us as a country? Yes. All the best and stay happy always.

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Malaysians can travel overseas anytime. Must fulfill these 3 things.11th October 2021. My TravelPass will be abolished from tomorrow.

Of course, need to fulfill 3 important things too.

Just announced yeah.  Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that the MyTravelPass will be abolished starting tomorrow. Therefore, fully vaccinated Malaysians and those residing in the country can travel abroad following the government’s decision.  Plus this latest news too:
Inter-state travel starts 11th October 2021

#1 Need to be fully vaccinated.

Fully vaccinated is not just having the two jabs yeah. It means two jabs from any of the approved vaccinates (AZ, Pfizer, Sinovac) plus either 14 days or 28 days for Cansino. This should be easy because on average over 90% of Malaysians have been vaccinated. This should be the number tomorrow 11th October 2021 yeah since we were extremely close to 90% yesterday (10th October 2021).

#2 That country we want to travel to accepts you lah

As usual, we can only travel to that country is that country does not blacklist our country currently lah. As stated, there are countries which does not allow international travellers. There are also countries which has a list of countries which they do not allow. So, whether we can travel or not also depends on whether that country feels Malaysia has done enough to keep the Covid-19 under control.

#3 Need money lah…

Third one is a basic one. We still need to ensure we could pay for the flight tickets. This is likely to be high because not all flights are back yet and thus choices are definitely more limited than previously. The plus point is maybe the hotels in that country would welcome us, so the room rates may be better than before Covid-19 arrived lah. So, as long as we are ready with the money, go ahead and travel starting tomorrow.

Happy travelling and do REMEMBER that when you are back, quarantine is needed and usually quarantine is needed when we arrive in that country too.

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75% Malaysians in cities and 17% using public transport

Would you take the MRT if the duration is the same versus you driving? Assuming the cost of MRT is 50% that of your usual petrol and parking fees. I think majority of Malaysians living in KL today who is driving would say NO. What about if the cost of MRT is just 10% of your current transportation costs and duration is almost the same? Perhaps it will appeal to more people now. How about if the MRT costs even lower? For the majority who’s driving some cars which they are proud to show off to their friends and colleagues, the answer remains a firm No.

According to THEEDGE, nearly 75% of Malaysians now live in cities. Only 17% of commuters in KL are taking the public transport versus 62% in Singapore and 89% in Hong Kong. Frankly, have we ever wondered why? Is it only because they have the MRTs which are totally so well connected and is connected to everywhere that everyone would want to go? Or are the MRT stations near to every single housing development and thus it is just so convenient to take the public transport instead of driving? OR is it because the costs associated with driving was made way too high to ensure that the cities are not congested like crazy? There’s no need to answer me. Just go check out the costs of PARKING in Hong Kong and the total costs of buying one car in Singapore plus all the tolls etc.

MRT Malaysia will not be successful without a gentle push for some to go towards it. Every morning, when I drive and look around, majority of all cars have just one person; the driver. Majority of everyone would most probably work in an office and when it is within the KL city centre, it would almost certainly be connected by some form of public transport BUT one may have to walk a bit. Time to be healthier like the Singaporeans or the Hong Kongers. Perhaps just follow the Singapore way, you want to drive into the CBD area on weekdays? You PAY. Otherwise, that 17% who uses public transport today may just double when MRT comes. Reaching levels close to Singapore or Hong Kong would remain just a distant dream. Yes, I am waiting for the MRT station near my place and would do best to take it by riding my bike. Hopefully it has space for my foldable bike. I promise, I will use the MRT when it comes. Cheers.

written on 23 June 2015

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Malaysians in debt. Red alert. Serious action please.

Malaysians in debt is an issue which is becoming very serious. A long time ago, bankruptcy cases used to be about businesses ventures which failed.

These days, majority of everyone who’s working and could qualify for a credit card would have a credit card. A credit card could be a status symbol (e.g, classic, gold, platinum, visa infinite etc) and it could be a convenience (even if this is eroded by the many e-wallet we have these days) but a credit card may also be that door into a never-ending spiral of unpaid debts months after months until in the end, we may just become a bankrupt.

How serious is this Malaysians in debt issue in numbers? Let’s look at some numbers.

Article in nst.com.my
.
  84,805 Malaysians declared bankrupt between 2015 – 2019. (That’s close to 17,000 per year or 46 persons per day)  26 percent of all these cases were from people age of 34 and below.  In 2018, it was revealed by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) that 47 per cent of Malaysian youth have high credit card debt. The reasons for bankruptcy include inability to sustain debt made of instalment purchases, personal loans, and credit card debt.

Financial literacy is super important so that one could manage their financial resources especially the youth. Two things come to mine and they are budgeting and balancing. Budgeting is basically identifying how much money is coming in every month (income) and how much is going out every month (expenses).  Balancing is making sure total expenses shall not exceed the amount of income every month. Feel free to read the long and comprehensive article here:
Article in nst.com.my
.

Photo by Kristina Paukshtite on
Pexels.com

Earning more does not help if we spend even more

There has been many arguments that one major reason Malaysians are financially in trouble is because we earn too little. Actually, that’s only half true because when we earn more, we may think we deserve to spend more and when we spend more, we actually spend way more than what we actually earn. When this increases and accumulates for many months, the salary we earn will not be enough to even cover the interest payments. That is when we become part of the statistics in an article like this one.

Budgeting is all about spending within our means

There are running shoes which could cost us RM400 and there are those which we could buy for
RM49.90 (Go take a look at Decathlon for example)
. Truth is, unless we are really competing in some marathons, there is no big difference in speed. Maybe less comfortable, maybe heavier by 50gm but generally acceptable. Assuming the RM49.90 shoe could last us just 2 years and the RM400 could last us 5 years (RM80 per year), it is still way better to get the RM49.90 shoes yeah. This is what we call budgeting… and in
Malaysia we are fortunate because we have choices.

It starts with budgeting and balancing but…

Once we could budget and we could balance, we would need to start learning about investments. Long time ago, Fixed Deposit is considered a form of investment. Those were the time when the FD rates could be as high as 5% or higher. Remember? Today, Fixed Deposit rates will start to provide negative returns when we take into account the potential inflation. Thus, we need to make our money work harder and just saving alone does not cut it anymore. Just remember that investing is long term and not some kind of get-rich-quick scheme.

Conclusion

We need to get our acts together because the future is a long one. We live longer, thus will need money to last way longer than yesterday. What we do today affects our tomorrow and while we may not feel it immediately, very soon it will come back to haunt us. Climbing out of a debt hole will be a tough journey. Malaysians in debt is not an easy time. Let’s focus on building a mountain of wealth instead yeah. Happy understanding.

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Malaysians’ overseas preference: Australia, Singapore,Indonesia and the UK

If I am forced to choose a country to migrate to, my choice would be the UK and not Australia. There are multiple reasons but let’s just put it as personal preference. According to a survey by PropertyGuru reported by Bernama, in terms of Malaysians thinking about investing in overseas properties, their preference would be Australia, Singapore, Indonesia and the United Kingdom. Perhaps I have yet to attain that stage, that’s why I did not choose Australia yet. Sorry, Singapore is definitely out. I need big space, not just ever taller buildings built close to one another.

Why do they love to invest in overseas? The factors include better rental yields (56 per cent), strong capital appreciation (55 per cent) and “better environment” as well as retirement (both at 46 per cent). These factors are then followed by children’s education at 36 percent. The survey was done in collaboration with Added Value-Saffron Hill, a Singapore-based independent professional research agency. The survey aims to help consumers and property agents understand the local property market to make better business and buying decisions.

I disagree with some of the results from the survey because rental yields for Malaysian properties is definitely not lower than many of the countries stated. The reason is because property prices in many of these countries have increased more than Malaysia. Of course due to the cooling measures, the prices have come down. This is perhaps one reason they the investors believe that the strong capital appreciation would continue. Retirement is however a very good reason, I find it tough to walk outside the office these days because of the heat. Surely Australia or the UK would provide me with a better alternative.

Oh yeah, if I were to send my children to further their studies, the choice is clear. Haha. Sorry for being ‘unfair.’ I prefer British universities. Thus, if I could afford a unit overseas, it would be in the UK. Perhaps not necessarily be London. Why not Bristol instead? Happy reading and understanding these surveys but do remember, our property investment should be determined by ourselves. Following exactly what a survey says may not be the best actions possible. Have a nice day.

written on 5 Apr 2016

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Greater London, severely unaffordable. Start thinking of Greater KL

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Malaysians should retire at 60. Do you agree?

Life Expectancy is now very different from the 80s

Malaysians used to retire at 55. These days, if we retire at 55, it’s considered early retirement. Based on today’s life expectancy of roughly 77 years old, 55 is indeed too far away. 77 minus 55 is 22 years! Erm… how many were able to work for 30 years and saved enough money to last 22 years? Now, the retirement age is 60. It means one has to have enough funds to last 17 years. 77 minus 60 = 17 years.

How much do we really need?

We assume we need just RM2,000 per month for a super simple lifestyle. That’s RM2,000 x 12 = RM24,000 per year or RM24,000 x 17 years = RM408,000. This is assuming everything stays exactly the same and there are no unforeseen circumstances. It assumes that the lifestyle will not involve any vacations and certainly not overseas holidays as well. This is why people worry as soon as their income stops.

This is also why there’s a suggestion to increase the retirement age from 60 to a higher number. Probably 65? Here’s a recent article which a debate has been reignited.

Article in thestar.com.my
   Cuepacs president Datuk Adnan Mat said they oppose any proposal to increase the retirement age from 60. He said, “This provides better job opportunities for aspiring candidates alongside better career progression among existing employees.”

He also shared that new talents could also bring a fresh perspective which could steer the nation forward. He said, “The introduction of these talents could also be a measure towards creating a new image for civil servants and a new landscape in public organisation.”

Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) president Datuk Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman said, “Now is not the right time for Malaysia to implement a blanket increase in the statutory retirement age, especially since the unemployment rate was at 4.2% at the end of 2021 and 11% for youths aged between 15 and 24 amid Covid-19 and economic uncertainties.”
Article in thestar.com.my

Any decision will have to be dependent on the retirement funds

A close friend just typed this in whatsapp to me this evening.
“Who can not afford to retire are those who love their job. Maybe is you and my husband 😂
”  Actually, what she wanted to say is that retirement does not just depend on how much funds one has but depends on how much one needs to spent from their funds. Someone spending lesser can afford to retire even with the same amount of funds as someone who spends much more.

If it’s for policy, I think we need to look into whether these older folks actually have enough to spend on versus deciding just based on age. It’s a social issue if it’s proven statistically that this growing group of elderly folks may not enough funds to retire at 60. I seriously do think that if one could still contribute and the company thinks the same, they will definitely be offering a contract to the employee.

Else, it’s better for the company to offer the role to a younger employee who may be paid lower versus the senior due to the increments. Let’s just focus on higher productivity and not just seniority. We are competing against the world, not among the older and the younger Malaysians. Thanks.

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Malaysians, we will have salary increments in 2020. Erm… how high? (or low?)

Even when we do the same thing, year after year, most of the time we will continue to have salary increments. Thats good even if very dangerous since productivity did not increase but  we are paid higher. Somehow, when some countries could do what we do for lower pay, we will lose the job to them yeah. This is why relying on just salary alone will be very dangerous because the world is changing extremely fast and many jobs will disappear even as more new ones are created.

So, inflation for 2019 has been pretty low thus far. Yes, officially, we should end the
year at below 1%! (read here for the report)
As usual, many do not believe the government inflation number right? I thought we have a new government? Anyway, with a low inflation number, does that mean the salary increment should also be low? Since it does not have to help us to fight against inflation for 2019? Just think, even if they give us an increment of 3%, that’s still 2% above inflation!

Article in thesundaily.my
 The Korn Ferry 2020 Salary Forecast report estimates that salaries in Malaysia are expected to increase by 5% in 2020.  Korn Ferry Asia Pacific leader for rewards and benefits practice Mary Chua said, “There has been a lot of discussion that the inflation rate is not reflective of the rising cost of living in Malaysia and the government is working on developing a new index that can provide better accuracy on the cost of living.

“The new index can be used alongside the inflation rate to shore up efforts in addressing the rising cost of living and the diminishing real wage increase.”

“Wage growth needs to be in tandem with productivity increases, if not these costs will eventually be passed on to consumers and perpetuate the rising cost of living.”

As per Korn Ferry report, Indonesia is forecast to have the highest real-wage growth at 5.1%, after accounting for an inflation rate of 3%. Meanwhile for Singapore, despite the salary growth forecasted at 4%, it is considered positive because of low inflation rate of just 0.4%. Please do read the full
Article in thesundaily.my

Happy with the forecasted 5% for 2020? Well, let’s look at some simple calculation. If one has a RM5,000 salary? At 5% increment, that’s an increment of RM250 per month. it is RM3,000 extra per year. Actually not a lot but still worth saving and investing it yeah. Earlier article here:
Are we saving, earning, investing and preserving?
  I wish that the 5% is a typical number but that the ones earning lower pay should get higher % of increment.

As for the CEOs (especially those who are already earning many millions every year), how about taking slightly lower increments for a year? 🙂 It will help the lower salaried staffs tremendously actually. As they say, when the lower salaried people gets the money, they will spend and this will help the economy. As for the rich, well, they may not even be spending it within Malaysia. Happy enjoying the increment and may the bonus be a lot yeah.

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Malaysia’s credit profile: Diversified, Competitive, Strong Medium-Term Growth Prospects

Please always remember that the property market MUST NOT be vibrant if the economy is in the doldrums.  No matter how convincing the property speaker may be, ask them for their thoughts about the economy.  If their answer is that they knew nothing about the economy or that economy does not matter, then they are LYING. Very briefly, a growing economy supports jobs growth and jobs growth supports demand for goods and services and this will include demand for property. It will never be the other way round.

Same question applies to other experts outside real estate

Oh yeah, remember to ask the same question to any personal finance experts too. Skip them if they have zero answers to give you about the economy. Worse still, if they say you should invest because the economy is dying, then… Think really objectively yeah. If economy is dying, what are you investing? Into some other countries stocks and shares or properties? I would wish you all the best yeah. Now coming to what Moody’s Investors Service said about Malaysia’s sovereign rating.

Article in thestar.com.my
  Moody’s Investors Service says Malaysia’s (A3 stable) credit profile is underpinned by its diversified, competitive and moderately large economy, ample natural resources and strong medium-term growth prospects.

It also said, “Credit challenges include the government’s narrow revenue base, which limits fiscal flexibility in response to shocks such as the coronavirus pandemic, as well as political noise that may distract from policy priorities.”
(My thoughts since very beginning for those who read kopiandproperty. Please understand that GST is way better than SST. We should stop politicizing and go back to the best way. Period.)

Moody’s Investors Service
 also said the following: We do not expect the coronavirus pandemic to have a sustained negative impact on Malaysia’s economic model; as such, the current and any subsequent waves of infections will delay, but not materially hinder the economy’s eventual return to high growth rates. Please do read the full article yeah. Very comprehensive.
Article in thestar.com.my

For now until medium term, your investment should be fine

That’s what Moody’s said yeah. It’s based on their study. If you have no confidence with their study, then please read Fitch Rating’s study when it is out or even S&P.  I really do not understand how people can kept saying that the economy is ‘dying’ and that everyone is losing their jobs and all will become jobless very soon but at the same time tells everyone that their investment will give great returns. Seriously, GDP comes from demand for goods and services. Businesses prosper and expand when there’s an increase in demand for goods and services. Then they hire more people. if everyone is losing jobs, that means businesses are all shutting. If all businesses are shutting, what we are we investing into? Hmm…

Happy understanding. Yes, as usual, kopiandproperty.com has no links after this article for you to buy property (which we could get commisison…), or runs any courses to help you earn more money (coz the founder himself is trying his best to earn more, no time to teach and not qualified to teach as well) and we do not share negative news to get higher clicks. We feel there’s already too many negative news floating around. We will let those sites get higher clicks instead.  We know, that’s why our clicks do not increase tremendously. We are okay with that.  Cheers.

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Malaysia’s economy in 2050? Here’s what PWC’s analysis says

You know, sometimes it’s tiring to explain to people who keep saying that Malaysia is rotten to the core simply because they hate some politicians. They should remember that there are so many good people and great Malaysians who continue to work hard. This is why Malaysia is still growing. Anyway, the below is NOT from me. It’s from a huge brand with lots of good people; PWC. Full report is here:
World in 2050 by PWC
 Some comments about Malaysia are inside but there’s one whole commentary box dedicated to some fast growing economies. The below is for Malaysia.  If you would like to read about other countries, do click here:
World in 2050 by PWC
   For example, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia…
they are all within ASEAN. 🙂

— start of PWC commentary —

We retain our view from the January 2013 edition of this report that Malaysia’s growth rate has the potential to perform even better than the model results, which already show relatively healthy average real GDP growth of around 5% per annum up to 2020 and around 4.2% average annual real growth over the whole period to 2050.

Our view has been strengthened by a few key developments since the January 2013 edition.

First, the Malaysian government has taken concrete steps to strengthen the public finances, which is important for long-term sustainable growth.

Specifically, in the most recent Budget 2015, the government reaffirmed its commitment to fiscal consolidation and reform. The Budget confirms the introduction of GST which, combined with subsidy rationalisation, is expected to raise the government’s operating budget surplus. This creates a broader tax base to support the government’s growth agenda.

Second, the implementation of initiatives to overcome key growth constraints is progressing successfully. These initiatives range from infrastructure investment to human capital development.

The Klang Valley MRT project is progressing well and, when operational, should deliver significant economic benefits through traffic congestion alleviation. Increasing the ability of workers and residents to move around the capital city more efficiently results in greater connectivity, creating deeper markets for people and ideas and thereby enhancing productivity.

Budget 2015 also signalled a strong commitment to developing human capital and entrepreneurship. Malaysia has great potential to benefit from the demographic dividend and recent measures demonstrate that it is on the right track to realise this potential through investment in job creation, improving education, enhancing the quality of labour, encouraging savings and developing a more inclusive economy. Our initial analysis suggests that this demographic dividend can last up to two decades.

Third, the reform agenda to create a better business environment continues apace.

The World Bank in its latest report confirmed that the government’s efforts and commitment to enhancing Malaysia’s business environment is on the right track. Malaysia has improved its ranking from 20th in 2013 to 18th in 2014. The latest study finds Malaysia as the second highest ranked ASEAN country in the index. Our own 2014 Escape Index also shows Malaysia as one of the best performing emerging economies on a range of economic, social, political, technological and environmental indicators18.

Last but not least, greater ASEAN integration and proposed trade deals with China and other Asia-Pacific trade partners will enhance Malaysia’s ability to benefit from these global growth engines.

Malaysia is favourably located in the middle of a $2 trillion+, 600 million+ person ASEAN market and in between China and India, the two most significant drivers of future global economic growth. Malaysia’s goods exports to BRIC countries have increased at an average rate of around 15% per annum over the 2000-13 period, much faster than the average for exporters to these countries. Following the greater ASEAN economic integration that is expected by 2016, Malaysia is poised to benefit further from its geographical position as well as its highly developed logistics and trade infrastructure.

This is recognised by global investors, who (aside from a sharp dip in 2009 due to the global financial crisis) have steadily increased their capital inflows to Malaysia over time as the chart below shows.

Chart by PWC

— end —

Thanks for reading and understanding. Anything that you disagree, feel free to write to PWC yeah.

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MALAYSIA’s equity market was number 1 in IPO proceeds raised in Q1 2022

Initial Public Offering (IPO) happens when companies wanted to expand and they opted to go to the public to sell their shares and thus use the proceeds to fund their expansion or their business growth. Public gets to participate in these growth stories and some companies offer great returns. Many may even become a bluechip counter in the future too.

Here is the good news for Malaysia’s equity market. Malaysia’s equity market topped other Asean markets in the amount of IPO proceeds raised during the first quarter of 2022 (1Q22).

Article in themalaysianreserve.com
  Even though Malaysia was top in IPO proceed, ASEAN exchanges experienced a 57 percent decline in proceeds raised in Q1 2022 versus Q1 2021.

Ernst & Young Global Ltd (EY) said that number of deals in Q1 2022 was higher, with 29 IPOs versus 22 IPOs in Q1 2021.

It said, “During the quarter, Indonesia’s stock exchanges were the most active by deal numbers (12 IPOs raising US$219 million), while Malaysia’s exchange led by proceeds (US$362 million via five IPOs).”

Meanwhile Thailand’s exchanges saw five IPOs raising US$228 million, the Philippine Stock Exchange had four IPOs raising US$201 million, while Singapore’s Catalist welcomed three IPOs raising US$17 million. Please do read here for more details of IPOs here in ASEAN and the world.
Article in themalaysianreserve.com

Why do IPOs happen?

When markets are not good, many companies would choose not to go public. The reason is a simple one. The appetite to buy stocks, especially in new companies will not be there when the economy is not doing well. However, when the markets start to be vibrant again, many companies would go back to their plans to get more public funding for their expansion via the equity market. Briefly, IPOs are also a reflection of the vibrancy of the market too. Let’s hope that it’s not just for Q1 yeah.

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Press Release: Malaysia’s Home Ownership Campaign is Successfully Boosting First-time and Bumiputera Buyers

KUALA LUMPUR, 15 December 2020
— New data from Juwai IQI reveals that Malaysia’s renewed Home Ownership Campaign (“HOC”) is successfully boosting first-time and Bumiputera buyers, with 91.4% of real estate agents surveyed in agreement. Just 2% of agents surveyed believe the campaign is reducing first-time buyer activity. Only 6.5% of agents believe the homeownership campaign has no impact either way on first-time buyer activity.

Juwai IQI Group Co-Founder and CEO Kashif Ansari said:
“Because of the pandemic and the related economic slump, the government has reactivated the Home Ownership Campaign. It exempts buyers from stamp duty on the instruments of transfer and loan agreement when they buy a home worth from RM300,000 and RM2.5 million. Developers who list properties under the HOC scheme also must discount the listing price by at least 10%, so the buyer is getting a good deal. Today’s extremely low interest rates are compounding the benefits of the program by further reducing your monthly mortgage payments.

“If you are buying a RM400,000 home, your closing costs without HOC would be just over RM 50,000. With HOC, you only need to pay RM37,339 at closing. HOC reduces, your down payment, your stamp on the loan and the MOT would be zero, and your monthly loan repayment could be about 10% cheaper — depending on your interest rate and the amount you borrow.

“The HOC is of great benefit to buyers, but we wanted to find out if it was having an impact on them by encouraging them to purchase before it expires. We asked real estate agents from across the country how the HOC campaign is affecting first-time buyers, the most critical buyer group to support. One’s home is often the single largest investment of your lifetime. The earlier you can buy your first home, the longer you can benefit from the value that real estate gains over time.

“By far, the overwhelming majority of the industry representatives that we surveyed believe the policy is a significant success. HOC is an elevator that makes it easier for first-time buyers to raise themselves into homeownership, and many of them are riding this elevator.

“Juwai IQI surveyed Malaysian real estate agent panelists online. We asked, ‘What is the impact of extending the Home Ownership Campaign to 31st May 2021 on the number of first-time buyer enquiries?’

“The industry is overwhelmingly positive about the Home Ownership Campaign (“HOC”). Only minimal numbers of agents are sceptical about its ability to drive up first-time buyer purchasing enquiries and transactions.

“91.4 % of real estate agents nationwide believe the extension of the homeownership campaign will encourage first-time buyers to make more purchasing enquiries, and subsequently to make more purchases. 29.4% of all real estate agents surveyed believe the HOC extension is causing a “moderate increase’ in first-time buyer enquiries. 28.6% of all agents surveyed believe the HOC extension is generating ‘significantly more’ first-time buyer enquiries and purchases. 14.3% of all agents surveyed report that the HOC extension is causing first-time buyer enquiries to surge in a ‘very significant increase.’

Muhazrol Muhamad, Head of Bumiputera Segment at Juwai IQI’s subsidiary, IQI, said:
“I believe that Bumiputera buyers are benefitting most from the HOC, simply because they account for more than two-thirds of the population. I estimate that the extension of HOC will contribute to a higher number of enquiries and transaction from the Bumiputera market in the first quarter of 2021.

“After the introduction of HOC, the volume of property transactions reversed its previous trajectory and climbed upwards. NAPIC reports that transaction volume went up 6.8% between the first half of 2018 and the first half of 2019. Half-one sales in 2020 only dropped by 27.9%, and that is despite the fact that Malaysians had been kept at home for almost three months due to the MCO. One would have expected a much worse decline.”

— End Of Press Release —

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Malaysia’s modest GDP growth for 2017

Remember the news about Malaysia going into a recession in 2018? Read here:
Recession in 2018 for Malaysia, most sectors down

Well, that’s 2018’s prediction. What about 2017? In an article in
themalaymailonline.com
, the gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2017 is in the positive territory. ,This is what World Bank Senior Economist for Malaysia Rafael Munoz Monero said, “The government has also been pushing for infrastructural projects, which counter-balance the declining private investments.” In brief it meant that growth is continuing through the government’s infrastructure push. (MRTs, LRTs and more) Economists are predicting that Malaysia will record a modest growth of between 4.2 per cent and 4.3 per cent for 2017. This growth will be driven by domestic demand and infrastructural projects. Monero added that the improving commodity prices is also a boon forMalaysia.

This afternoon, one colleague was telling another colleague that times are bad. There are so many leftover mandarin oranges unsold. It’s price throwing currently. Another colleague concurred and said, ‘Yes, even the dried meat also the same. So many stalls still have so much stock. Usually just before Chinese New Year, all would be sold out.’ In the evening, I read the news that the orders for flowers on Valentine’s day is extremely strong and it has even exceeded the orders from walk-in customers. I think there are today way too many malls and way too many supermarkets, all have mandarin orange stocks. This may explain why there are still so many left unsold currently. I have no answers for dried meat but I know one thing’s for sure, the prices are still going up. If I own a dried meat stall, I would prefer to sell cheaper and quickly sell rather than sell high and having lots of leftovers later on.

I do hope everyone note that property market cannot be running if the economy is stalling. Thus, regardless of what any property expert or guru tells you about undervalued properties, always understand where the economy is heading first. During a real recession, the buyers would not be looking at buying property as their first priority. By the way, the unemployment rate for Malaysia has also gone up very marginally. From 3.4 percent end November, it is now 3.5 percent as at end December. Yes, this is considered a very low number but this is the first sign that we must be aware off as it triggers a lot of things. Without a job, one cannot pay his loans. When many people could not pay their loans, the Non-Performing Loans for banks would increase. When this increases, bank becomes even more careful in lending. The vicious cycle would then grow bigger. As of now however, everything seemed fine. Happy following.

written on 14 Feb 2017

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Malaysia’s property market in one word? Resilient.

Media release by FIABCI Malaysia:

”Property sector to remain resilient due to government’s economic stimulus package”

FIABCI Malaysia believes the property sector in Malaysia will remain resilient with a projected soft landing this year due to the various measures introduced in the government’s economic stimulus package.

FIABCI, the international real estate federation, Malaysian Chapter President Sr Michael Geh said the Malaysian property sector was buoyant and healthy in 2019 by recording an estimated transactions of 330,703 units valued at an estimated RM139.33 billion.

He said the total transactions for residential properties in Malaysia for the whole of 2019 is estimated at 204,840 units valued at RM71.03 billion, which is better than 2018 which recorded transactions of 197,385 units worth RM68.75 billion.

He attributed the better performance in the residential property market to the successful Home Ownership Campaign last year. “This year, the capital value and rental value of some property sectors could soften but this does not herald a property market crash as feared,” he said.
He said the hospitality & F&B sector will bear the brunt of this current economic downturn due to the pandemic for the short term.

“The capital and rental value of office lots, shopping mall lots and commercial lots will also soften as there was already existing overhang of these lots from last year,” he said.
However, he said malls, retail and commercial lots located in prime areas or next to an MRT station will still continue to do well.

“Properties in prime areas will continue to command good capital and rental value,” he said.
In terms of residential properties, he is certain the capital value of terrace houses and residential properties valued less than RM500,000 will be maintained.

“High end residential properties in desirable locations will have to sit in for this six months,” he said.

The sectors that are thriving now will be the warehousing and logistics sectors due to an increase in online shopping. “They will be in demand,” he said.

Geh noted that there are still a lot of overhang properties including for properties priced below RM500,000.

“I find that most of these overhang properties are located in undesirable locations such as in places without public transportation or connectivity and far from other amenities and work places,” he said.

He said these are the same overhang properties from last year that were located in secluded places lacked connectivity and amenities. He said the property market comprises two main things; market sentiments and the actual performance of the sector.

“Currently, the concern of the people have turned to economic livelihood and I would like to congratulate the government for addressing this with its timely economic stimulus package,” he said.  Geh said the economic stimulus package by the government that included a six-month moratorium on housing and car financing was a good move to help the rakyat.

“Our government’s very decisive package especially the moratorium is one of the best stimulus packages introduced in Asia that will help the people to weather through this period,”
“Some people have lost their income and jobs so this moratorium will make sure they won’t lose their homes too if they were unable to service their home loans for the next six months,” he said.

He said the moratorium impacts the property market as there will not be property foreclosures during this period.  “The property market will soften because of this but it will not crash,” he said. He said the additional stimulus package announced by the government for the SMEs is another welcomed move that will help people to retain their jobs and SMEs to survive during this pandemic.

He said this will help SMEs to stay afloat and also help the people to retain their jobs and livelihood. “This is good for the country’s economy post-Covid-19,” he said.

He welcomed the government’s decision to continue the implementation of all projects allocated under Budget 2020 including the ECRL, MRT2 and the National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP).

“I believe these infrastructure works will be a stimulus for the construction industry and also for the housing industry as it will create new hotspots for housing,” he said. He lauded the decision as he believed these projects will also stimulate the country’s economy.

“Post Covid-19, I foresee the property market will have just a soft landing because of the economic stimulus measures by the government,” he said.

— end of media release —

Actually, I have been asked many times if the property price will be coming down because of the Movement Control Order (MCO) or the COVID-19 pandemic. My answer has remained consistent. If we are ready with spare cash or could qualify for another home loan easily and we found a property (which meets all our expectations) and it’s priced 20-30% below the median property transacted price, then please do go ahead. There are unlikely to be too many of these properties lying around.

The reason? Supply of such units in a popular location is likely to be very small while demand from Malaysians who could still get their loans approved will always be far higher. So, if the opportunity comes, please grab it immediately and just remember that property investment is a long term decision. Happy investing and good to take note that FIABCI Malaysia’s view is that the Malaysian property market remains resilient.

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