Oh dear, I missed the GST deadline to buy property.

A good friend dropped by my office to pick me out for lunch. He told me that he is viewing many different properties in many different places. He has yet to decide but he said he missed out on buying a cheaper property because if he had bought earlier, he could have beat the GST deadline. I laughed and asked whether after GST has the prices informed to him thus far been increased? Surely if it has increased, the agents would call him and tell him that due to GST, whatever price informed earlier has now been increased. He laughed and said no but he still felt bad that he missed the GST deadline.
Honestly, has any property you viewed before GST showed a different price after GST? Please share if any. Thus far I have not seen any property developer telling the world that due to GST, this is my new price. Seriously, I might have missed all these but I have yet to see any. I did however come to learn that those who bought lots of toilet papers before GST have been fooled because when I go to the supermarkets, I still see ‘best buy’ items which includes toilet papers of certain brands. I could also see many shops advertising that they were absorbing the GST. Of course, they can still try to fool people by increasing the price first before claiming they are absorbing but if they do that, they better be very sure the customer has never seen their pricing before.
Today is 20th, it’s been nearly 20 days after GST. Is the sentiment getting negative? I have not actually felt it because today I learnt that Apple is increasing the prices of its iPhone 6 and 6s. Is it because of GST or is it because they would like to maintain its margin due to the Ringgit’s drop? Have you ever googled and know how profitable is Apple as a company? Read a bit here: Apple and it’s HUGE cash reserves Yeah, of course they deserve it because they produced a product which their supporters enjoy so much. I had lunch at a local cafe today which is already including GST. The place was pretty full, still. I bought Starbucks a few days ago and there were still queues.
Perhaps statistically, everything has actually slowed down. We would have to wait for the actual numbers few months down the road. If you have time, try visiting those established property fairs and do a survey of all the prices. If it should increase, it should have increased. If it did not increase, the developers have chosen to absorb the tiny change. If it increases in the future, the reason stated is not likely to be GST, it would be something else. Higher material costs, higher construction costs, higher salaries and everything else included. By then, you would note that the property market is in a ‘concert’ again. Funny how when market is slow, prices become sensible and when market is fast moving, prices go up. Yes, do focus on saving more to counter the GST but better still, perhaps earn more….
written on 20 Apr 2015
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