“Ringgit Malaysia is really not good,” a friend was lamenting many weeks back. The major reason? That smartphone model is now launched at EVER higher price than the price for its previous model last year. “Property prices are beyond the reach of most Malaysians,” many friends continue to give this comment every now and then. Needless to say, most of them have yet to have any property to their name. We love to blame, we love to criticise and we love to justify everything negative which has happened with everything else, except us.
Most of the time, we give up and refuse to find a solution to it. Okay, now back to the topic of Malaysian properties under the “severely unaffordable” category. By the way, I have been sharing this since last year and well, things have not really changed then. Those properties everyone wants are STILL grossly expensive. Those properties which are NOT popular has remained unpopular and prices remain stagnant or moved lower a little. Latest news as below.
Article in themalaysianreserve.com World Bank Group said that housing affordability in Malaysia has worsened over the years to a level of “severely unaffordable” in severel states. Meanwhile government housing policies such as Residensi Wilayah and Rumah Selangorku are having adverse effects on housing supply and affordability.
World Bank senior economist Kenneth Simler said these two housing schemes — out of the total 16 — in part drove developers to build new housing at different price points in response to these policies. He said, “This resulted in the increasing number of high-end units compared to lower-priced units in 2019, as developers overcompensated by building high-end units first to subsidise the subsequent construction of lower-end units in the Petaling market.”
The group lead economist Dr Richard Record said, “Finally, wages have not increased as rapidly as housing costs have. While the cumulative salaries and wages increased by 59% from 2010 to 2018, the cumulative house prices increased by 87%.” For more details please refer Article in themalaysianreserve.com
Guys, please understand that this is Malaysia. We are not such an unique country versus the world. Based on the model developed by Demographia, there are MANY advanced countries where the people earn HIGHER salaries based on even currency exchange but that “Severely unaffordable” tag is also related to them and their numbers may be even higher!
However, this is not even the main point. The main point is that do we sit around and wait for something to happen? Or do we start understanding that affordability is also based on duration, distance and size? Buy further for bigger sized homes. Change the lifestyle. Buy nearer and accept smaller sizes so that prices will be something we could afford. If we continue to spend a lot more money than we could and continue reading all these negative news from researchers, the one who will be impacted the most is us… Happy understanding that the world continues to move and changing ourselves are usually easier.
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Next suggested article: Best property investment advice. Buy low and sell high.
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