Author: Charles Tan
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Third best in the world to retire, Georgetown Penang. Why?
George Town, Malaysia has been ranked 3rd best place to retire overseas by Live and Invest Overseas in its 2014 Overseas Index. lI have never heard of this index before they rated Georgetown so high. Anyway, as long as they list us high, we should get to know them. The few key reasons stated: (from…
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How do you know? Let’s get to know.
How do you know if the property fair was poor but the organiser tries to cover up? Well, instead of telling you the overall number of visitors, they would tell you, ‘huge crowds were there’ or ‘many property buyers visited the show’. Instead of telling you the overall transaction which may number over RM50 million…
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Passing on the cost of building to buyers? I don’t think so.
Recently, Credit Suisse said that developers’ cost of doing business has risen 20% in the first half of 2014. Thus their margins are being compressed and this cost will be passed on to the buyers. It said property sales, especially in the affordable segment has slowed since the start of the year due to cooling…
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BANKNOTES from BNM. Understand from the expert on investing in one.
Today, in our Expert Series Q & A, we have Mr. Stephen Soon. He is Managing Director for MNP Auctioneers. Recently, MNP Auctioneers was appointed by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to conduct an auction which has never been done before in Malaysia. In fact, I think it may be the start of a whole new…
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Come on, give first time home buyers a break says REHDA Penang.
In a press conference for Mapex Penang 2014, Real Estate Housing Developers Association (REHDA) Penang asked the government to give first time home buyers more assistance and flexibility. It’s chairman, Datuk Jerry Chan said that Malaysia can look at Australia’s example whereby the buyers pay only interest for the first few years before starting their…
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Playing with ‘Borrowed’ risk. Are you one of them?
I read an article on how banks should keep themselves safe and not cause another financial crisis. It said that because banks lends out way too much of their money compared to their actual ‘capital’/equity’, it will become unstable quite easily should their loans they gave out or the investments they invested depreciated by just…
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Langkawi, Affordable homes and 3G Broadband
I think the people in Langkawi would love to hear that there would be 1,000 new affordable units being built under PR1MA in collaboration with Langkawi Development Authority (LADA). In fact the prices are said to be 20% cheaper than the market rate. Ok, now the question of market rate. Actually, there’s not much benchmark…
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Seven highways starting next year. Thats means, MORE TOLLS in future. 🙂
In a news report in an English medium newspaper, it was reported that SEVEN new highways would be starting work next year, 2015. These are only for Klang Valley. They are as follows: RM1.18bil Duta-Ulu Kelang Expressway (DUKE) extension, the RM5.04bil West Coast Expressway (WCE) from Banting to Taiping, the RM2.5bil Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex), the RM1.5bil…
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‘Affordability Upgraded’: Penang affordable homes for Penangites
Sorry, only open for Penangites. To those who qualify and would like an ‘upgrade’, read on. I said ‘affordability upgraded’ because many years ago, when we hear about affordable units, we think of uncut grasses within the compound, lifts which do not work every few weeks, corridors which are dark, small units without a good…