Newly-appointed Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin pledged to deliver substantive improvements and ideas through the ministry.

The Ampang member of parliament said it would be an opportunity for her to delve into policies and implementations under the jurisdiction of the ministry.

“A balanced housing opportunities in urban areas for the Bumiputera, the minority rights, indigenous community and foreign nationals should be prioritised so that they live in comfortable homes.

“I would want to see an immediate reformation on safe and gender-friendly services to ensure town management and local council affairs are handled professionally.

“Community empowerment will also be given priority in line with the rapid change in the country. I’m grateful to be appointed as the cabinet minister,” said the PKR Wanita chief in a statement today.

Source: New Straits Times

by Anders Ong

Like usual every property investment book or stories will have a section named “Why Buy/Invest Property?” There are FIVE main reason WHY:-

1) Roof Over Your Head

First and foremost, the main reason of one purchasing a property in the past is always for own stay. This is to make sure there is a house for family to stay under a roof and feel safe. But from time to time it became a form of investment because a home is always a necessities instead of a needs. No one will be willing to let their loved one stay outside without a place to sleep.

2) Capital Appreciation

Capital appreciation are one of the easiest way to earn money from properties. It is simply the increment of property price from time to time due to market sentiment and economy. Once the property price increase to a certain price we can sold it off to gain from the differences of selling price and purchase price. For instance, there is a condominium in Penang Island, the standard unit of 1,000 square feet was sold for around RM280K on the year of 2010 and once it is completed on the year 2013 the price valued at RM600K. So the property value had gone up and if you sold it off you will earn around RM320K gross. It’s a generous lump sum gain for those investors in terms of capital appreciation.

3) Cash Flow

Cash flow refers to the inflow of cash time to time from the holding and management of properties. It is a very simple practice of letting properties for monthly rental return or daily return, if you bought a 950 SQ FT property in Georgetown the average monthly rental return is around RM2, 000.00 per month with partial furnishing up to RM3, 500.00 for fully furnish. If you have 10 properties rented out it will be around RM20, 000.00 per month.

4) Property Equity Building

In the past people keep thinking of saving money to build their asset and have cash to go through bad times. If we were taking mortgage loan for our house and we made monthly instalment to the bank, slowly and surely the loan will be paid off and the house will be completely loan free. It is building equity in properties or more like saving slowly in bank but we can get the house in the end. Not to forget that the price will increase due to capital appreciation and we can get cash flow for renting out as well.

5) Limited Supply of Land

In the fast moving era as of today everything could be produced in a short time and even the construction of properties become faster and easier with technology advancement. But, there is one thing that could not be produced at the moment, which is earth or lands. Thus, once the land had been fully utilized in the future it will become a scarcity and demand will be higher than supply and price will increase.

Anders Ong, an avid property investor working in property industry. 

The National House Buyers Association (HBA) has urged the federal government to address the issue of abandoned housing projects in its plans for the housing sector in Malaysia.

Speaking to FMT, HBA secretary-general Chang Kim Loong said the best way to do this was to implement the system of build-then-sell 10:90 (BTS 10:90), which it had proposed to the previous administration for several years.

Under the BTS 10:90 system, house buyers only pay the initial downpayment of 10% when booking a house and make no further payments until vacant possession of the property is delivered to them.

“Aside from being an eyesore, abandoned projects cause hardship to house buyers who need to continue with their monthly bank instalments for housing loans.

“The BTS 10:90 is a far safer mode of home delivery system and the new federal government should implement it without further delay.

“Compel the housing industry to adopt the system as we believe it will drastically, if not totally, eliminate cases of housing projects being abandoned,” he said.

Last November, then-urban wellbeing, housing and local government minister Noh Omar revealed that 253 abandoned private housing projects had been registered in Peninsular Malaysia since 2009.

This, he said, involved 64,290 residential units, of which 43,537 units had been sold.

Chang said HBA was hopeful and excited about the future, as PH’s election manifesto contained many promises which would benefit the public and house buyers.

He said these included pledges to build one million affordable homes across two terms, tax incentives for companies which focused on affordable housing, widening rent-to-own schemes and the setting up of a National Affordable Housing Council, chaired by the prime minister, to bring together various agencies and coordinate matters related to affordable housing.

“HBA also fully supports any measures to reform the 1Malaysia People’s Housing Scheme (PR1MA) as it has deviated from its original and noble aspirations to provide affordable housing.”

He said under PR1MA’s present partnership with private developers, only 50% of the allocated land area was reserved for affordable homes. The balance was reserved for commercial and lifestyle properties.

Source: Free Malaysia Today 

On the night of 9 May 2018, a new Malaysia was born. Automatically, one very critical thought transpired in my mind. The property market in Penang will most likely have its reformation and almost guaranteed to have a facelift.

For almost a decade, Penang has been aiming high, with many creative and innovative plans focusing to upgrade various sectors and its infrastructure to the next level. However, many plans hit roadblocks and some developments struggled to move on. Many ideas were either on hold or took longer time to proceed.

Instead of a dark, vague and a future that’s full of uncertainties, the future of Penang has suddenly transformed, turned so bright that we can now see “a light at the end of the tunnel”. Penang had always been independent working on developments with minimum support from federal government. Yet, Penang is able to prosper and is named as one of the richest states in Malaysia. What more, now with the new Malaysia, equitable support is expected from federal government!

Penang Transport Master Plan, which comprises LRT, undersea tunnel and highways were some of the state development projects which Penangites have doubts with. We often wonder if these plans will ever materialize as there were just one roadblock arising after another. May 9th marked the day where Penang will have a new chapter in urbanization and it will only promise a better future in the Penang property market.

Getting approval for advertising permits and developer licenses (APDL) from federal government has always been one area that slows down the property development in Penang. Some affordable housing projects in Penang were affected. Moving forward, the APDL approval process for projects in Penang is expected to improve and the biggest benefit will route to the developers and home buyers as the transaction can be sealed within reasonable timeframe.

Affordable housing to remain as one of the key focus in Penang. Now with assistance from Federal Government, coupled with several improvement plan in the pipeline that involves construction process, financing, simplifying administrative processes, incentives, and introducing rent-to-own schemes. The aim is to keep homes within the reach of the majority of first time home buyers, making home ownership easier and more affordable for Penangites.

With new Malaysia, property in Penang is guaranteed for a better and brighter future. Penang will now open a new chapter! New Penang is coming soon! Thank you to the new Malaysia!

– Ken Lim
(Founder, PenangPropertyTalk.com)

* Article by Freemen *

The property market hit a low point last year where prices were dropping and transaction volume was low. While transaction volume fell, the value of the property did not; thus contributing to a market slowdown.

Businessmen and investors are holding back in their investments as well because of this.

But why?

There is not much certainty in the market and many are holding out in hope that things will take a firmer direction once the elections outcome is determined.

Despite whoever party wins the election, certain policies will undoubtly change. Therefore, they don’t want to invest with the risk that policies will change to those that are not beneficial to them throw their money into the river- The same goes for investors.

There are many factors that contribute to it. For one, loan approval rate is very low.

Data from a study done by the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (Rehda), found that more than 50 per cent of affordable housing loan applications had been rejected by banks – leading to the sluggish property markets we’ve been experiencing in recent years.

Many buyers that have already bought property are struggling to gear it positively. And these are mostly seasoned investors, people that have invested once or twice in their portfolio.

It helps to provide a full financial statement as required by the bank- a 3-6 months payslip, list of assets and liabilities, two years of income tax forms, etc. However, as different banks have their own way to calculate risk and quota differently, there’s still a chance your loan will not be approved.

Nowadays, people can’t afford RM3,000 rental every month. Houses should be priced within RM150,000 and RM350,000 to be considered under the affordable housing segment.

According to the National Property Information Centre (Napic), less than 30% of new housing developments were priced below RM250,000 in 2015 and 2016.

So how to solve the issue?

Of course, we all hope that the elections will bring a conclusion to this property bubble and make up for the slow pace we’ve had last year.

But to achieve this, we need your cooperation too.

The market can’t take off if both buyers and developers don’t do their part to stay on top on things and take action.

Therefore, we’re offering you an opportunity to attend Property Investment Masterclass to help you know when to make your move post-elections and still profit all the same!

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Time: 9am to 6pm
Date: 19^th May 2018
Location: The Northam Hotel

But wait, there’s more- We’re offering a Buy 1 Free 1 promotion for the FIRST 15 PEOPLE who sign up for the workshop!

If you are voting, you know how important it is to stay updated on the state of the country, especially during this time of change. So wait no longer and sign up now!

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– Michael Tan

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