Penang Property Talk

It gives you sleepless night thinking about the high interest you have to pay to the bank. Debts include property loans, credit card, personal loan, car loan and etc.

Miichael in his WAR OF DEBTS program will coach you the step by step approach in finishing all your debts in half the time.

WHY pay more if you can save all the interest paid to the banks.

Come and join Miichael’s seminar on WAR OF DEBTS workshop and learn

• strategies to finish your loan half the time
• savings in interest payable to the banks
• improve your credit rating for future borrowings from the bank

* Please note that this is not a marketing event but pure education.

Block your dates and register this event.

Date: 18th November 2017
Time: 2 pm to 6pm.

Venue:
MIEA Training Room,
Unit 9, 3rd Floor, Axis Complex,
No 35, Jalan Cantonment, 10350, Penang.

Seats are very limited and it’s on first come basis.

Early Bird: RM199
Original Price: RM399

The Penang state government has directed a developer to demolish a partly-complete apartment building and rebuild this for safety reasons, said Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

He said the state government was not satisfied with the safety standard of the building by JKP Sdn Bhd

“JKP has agreed to demolish it and this building will be demolished by the end of this month,” he told reporters when he visited the site in Kampung Pisang Awak in Jelutong this morning.

He said there were rumours being spread regarding the low-cost project, so he had to explain what was happening with the project.

The low cost flat was supposed to be a 17-storey building with 192 low-cost units and 192 medium-cost units.

Construction started in late 2015 and was suspended last December after JKP found issues with the materials used by the contractor.

“The materials used were not according to specifications and as a responsible developer, we feel that what’s most important is safety so we have decided to demolish this building by the end of this month,” said JKP chief executive officer Samrulzaman K.Mohideen who was also at the site.

He said it will take about four months for the building to be completely demolished.

The project, Mutiara Ria, had been scheduled for completion at the end of this year.

Lim said JKP also has another adjacent project that used the same materials, Mutiara Rini.

Mutiara Rini is an affordable housing project with 24 storeys and has a total 382 units. It is now partially constructed till the 15th floor, but construction was also suspended in December last year.

“We feel that the other block should also be demolished as the same materials were used for it,” Lim said.

Lim said this would give owners peace of mind.

Samrulzaman said they are still investigating Mutiara Rini to decide the next course of action.

“There is a possibility that we need to demolish it but this will depend on the conclusion of our investigations into the structure first,” he said.

Due to these issues, Samrulzaman said both projects costing a total of RM120 million will be delayed by about three years.

Source: Malay Mail Online

Malaysia’s central bank has a response to those saying it needs to do more to spur home loans: houses simply aren’t affordable.

Bank Negara Malaysia has created a website packed with data aimed at debunking the “myth” that access to financing was deterring home ownership, showing that loan approvals for key cities are near 70 percent or higher. The central bank has resisted calls to loosen mortgage lending, instead saying the property industry should boost efforts to cut costs and accelerate supply.

Rising home prices have added to the grievances of Malaysians grappling with the cost of living since a goods and services tax started two years ago, and as the government removes subsidies on daily items including petrol and sugar. That’s made affordable housing a key voter issue for Prime Minister Najib Razak ahead of a general election that must be held by mid-2018.

“It’s a tricky situation,” said Wan Saiful Wan Jan, chief executive officer of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs in Kuala Lumpur. “I don’t think it’s right to say that there’s no problem with financing. But lending rules have to be both strict and balanced at the same time, otherwise we’ll have more non-performing loans and that is not good for anyone in the country.”

The median house price in Malaysia was 4.4 times the median annual household income in latest available data, making the housing market “seriously unaffordable” compared to global standards, according to a 2015 report by state-run Khazanah Research Institute. The report classed an affordable market as one with a median multiple of 3 times.

That still makes Malaysia cheaper than many other markets, with affordable housing in key cities something of a rarity in the 21st century. In the latest Demographia study, Kuala Lumpur had the eighth best housing affordability out of 18 metropolitan regions around the globe, with Hong Kong homes costing 19 times income and Beijing 14.5 times.

Take a closer look at the forces shaping Malaysia’s economy, politics and markets

Malaysia’s central bank is seeking to strike a balance: its housing website aims to show transparency in the market while the lender also stands firm on stricter financing rules introduced since 2010 to curb speculation, as well as measures to promote responsible lending amid elevated consumer debt.

Household debt as a proportion of gross domestic product fell to 88.4 percent last year from 89.1 percent. It’s still one of the region’s highest and the nation needs to be careful of such levels, central bank Governor Muhammad Ibrahim said in July. The central bank has left borrowing costs unchanged at 3 percent since July last year.

Just 20 percent of new Malaysian housing launches in the first quarter were priced below 250,000 ringgit ($59,000), down from 33 percent between 2010 and 2014, according to the central bank’s “Housing Watch” website. The bulk of new homes cost between 250,000 ringgit and 500,000 ringgit. The median annual household income is estimated at around 63,000 ringgit.

“It is an issue of not having enough income and houses being too expensive,” Muhammad told a conference in August, reiterating that “the problem is not about access to credit” and the lender “must have the courage to say it loudly and clearly to the public.”

Only about half of people living in Kuala Lumpur own a home, while nationwide the number was 72.5 percent at the last census in 2010. Demand is set to rise: the median age of Malaysia’s 31.7 million people is 28 years and the nation’s urban population is growing at an average 4 percent a year, among the fastest pace in East Asia, according to the World Bank.

Najib has pledged to focus on boosting living standards when he tables next year’s spending plan in parliament this month. He may announce an increase in the number of affordable homes built by state-linked companies, tax relief for private developers and subsidies for affordable home buyers, RHB Research Institute Sdn. said last month.

Filling the Gap

Banks are being “prudent and responsible” in providing finance to buyers, an association of Malaysia commercial lenders said in a statement this week. It was seeking to refute claims by developers that house buyers are finding it harder to obtain a housing loan and that approval times are increasing.

Developers should instead be looking at their own industry, said Paul Selvaraj, secretary general of the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations.

“The focus should be on building houses which people can afford, not building expensive houses and then trying to push them, and then complaining that the banks are not giving loans,” he said. “The reason people are having problems getting loans is because the houses are not affordable. It’s beyond their repayment” ability, he said.

Some developers are slowly starting to fill the demand. Mah Sing Group Bhd., the nation’s third largest, is selling apartments within 5 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur’s center with prices starting from 328,000 ringgit for a 650 square foot unit. That’s within the maximum price a family on the city’s median income could afford.

The problem is set to become a bigger one over time. There is currently a shortage of 960,000 units of affordable housing in Malaysia, with the number projected to reach 1 million units by 2020, according to the central bank’s estimates.

Source: Bloomberg

M Vista @ Southbay, is an upcoming project by Mah Sing Group, part of the company’s Southbay township development at Batu Maung. It is located just a stone’s throw away from Free Trade Zone, less than 5 minutes drive to Penang Second Bridge.

Stay tuned for the launching of this 237-unit serviced residence in October, with an indicative price from RM345,000 onwards.

Find out more about M Vista @ Southbay, Batu Maung

Penang government will go ahead with its plan to build dormitories for foreign workers at five identified locations despite objection by the local residents.

State Housing, Town and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said the Penang government was going ahead with its plan to build dormitories for foreign workers to address the social problem involving foreigners.

He said the first foreign workers dormitories which were currently under construction in Bukit Minyak were expected to be completed by August next year.

“The current progress of the project in Bukit Minyak has reached 40% and I believe it will be completed by next year to combat rising social ills involving the foreigners,” he told reporters after attending prayers at Sri Ramar temple at Solok York here today.

It was reported previously that residents in Juru has been objecting the plan to build the foreign workers dormitories in their areas citing that the areas will be flooded with foreigners and it could contribute to the increase in social problems.

However, Jagdeep said the state had approved five applications to build foreign workers’ dormitories and among the first one to be completed was the 6,000 bedded block in Bukit Minyak.

Jagdeep said the other location of the planned foreign workers dormitories were Juru, Permatang Tinggi, Valdor Industrial areas and Permatang Damar Laut in Batu Maung.

“Apart from Juru which is currently at the planning stage, the rest of the foreign workers dormitories are progressing well,” he said.

He said the dormitories at these five places would be able to accommodate more than 25,000 workers while they were required to have facilities such as a multipurpose hall, canteen and sick bays.

“Penang has around 200,000 foreign workers. We are looking at catering up to 10% of the number,” he said.

Jagdeep said the purpose was to absorb workers currently staying at places such as flats.

He said there had been numerous complaints from the public of the big number of foreign workers staying at flats, sometimes occupying over half of such housing schemes.

Source: Bernama