A very confident friend told me the other day that the POWER to CHANGE the government is firmly in our hands. We were talking about the property prices and he said that the new government must ensure property prices are affordable to Malaysians. Else, the new government can also be the ex-government too. Actually, he is not eligible for affordable homes anymore but I think he is hoping that if home prices are lower, he could buy a place which he likes but is currently too expensive for his liking. I just wanted to say that changing the government will not fix affordability issue IF…
#1 – If we are still spending unnecessarily. If we are still treating ourselves to expensive breakfasts, lunches and dinners. If we are still changing to the latest smartphone model because it has better cameras or even the latest handbag because the current one looks outdated…
#2 – If we are not spending our time wisely. How about stopping the Facebook browsing or YouTube watching and start reading books? A book a week is awesome, really because the ideas may inspire us to start something and even power our Entrepreneurship goal.
#3 – If we continue to think property prices for all areas will fall. The market has been slow in transaction numbers since 2013. It did not start this year. If there are areas which the demand far outstrips the supply, we can wait forever and the prices will still not be dropping anytime soon. (Except if there’s a crisis perhaps…)
#4 – If we believe the government can control property prices. In Singapore, the government basically controls over 80 percent of the total supply of properties in the market. Yet, applying for a HDB unit will take more than 1 year even if one qualifies. As for buying from the market… SGD1 million HDB flat?
Fortunately, this friend technically does not need much assistance from the government of the day, whoever that may be. However, his theory that the government can control property prices to make it affordable to all Malaysians is flawed. Remember the famous quote, “If it is to be, it is up to me?” It’s always true. Perhaps trying to earn a higher salary is much easier to make properties become affordable versus waiting or changing the government. Oh yeah, we can also choose based on WHY instead of just location too. Happy understanding.
written on 20 Dec 2018
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