A few days ago, I was talking to two attractive ladies, both growing in their careers. One is renting and another just bought her first property and was surprised when her loan was approved because she heard that many loans were rejected. Both of them said that every conversation they had with anyone is always pointing towards a bleak time. Property market is entering into a very bad period. In fact everything is negative today, right? I laughed and explained that ‘if it is really that negative, is it not time to be positive?’ It is always in times of crisis that opportunities present themselves, if we can see through the ‘haze.’
Indeed, a reminder of the 1997 financial crisis has been mentioned nearly every evening by the newscasters in a local TV channel. Ringgit falling and whatever other bad news become great topics to get people glued to the show. Well, truth is even for kopiandproperty.my, whenever I write about negative stuffs, the click rates are more than double that of good news. No idea why, perhaps we love bad news. On a more serious note though, I think everyone in the media should start reporting a more objective view and if possible less MASSAGING of ‘what if’ negative scenarios which these newscasters have no solution to. It’s easy to just say, ‘How low will the ringgit falls to,’ but it requires a lot more reading and expertise to provide some of the reasons how Ringgit can recover and how negative sentiments can also be balanced by some positive happenings.
One very real example. When Ringgit falls, the report is something like, ‘Ringgit falls further due to uncertainty.’ Nothing wrong except that ‘uncertainty’ is not explained well. When Ringgit rises however, the title is something like this, ‘Ringgit rises in tandem with other regional currencies.’ If the Ringgit is falling because of itself; fundamental. Then why when it rises, it is because of others? Haha. Be reminded, economic fundamental does not change within a few days lah. In other words, when we fall, it’s because we are not doing well. When we rise, it’s because others are doing well. With this kind of report everything negative report, we expect the first-time-buyer to be brave enough to buy their first property? Be reminded, property is likely to e the most expensive purchase everyone would have in their lives.
Negative sentiment is already prevailing and I am not sure if anyone including the local media companies or property developers or even the SMEs would benefit from a continuity of such sentiments in the future. Perhaps negative news sell much better. Thus, more viewers and more readers meant more potential advertising revenues. I have to agree on this one. As for advertising revenues, one friend told me the other day that some billboard locations are now on 50 percent discount. I hope even the media companies understand that when everyone falls, it is highly unlikely that they can be the only one left standing in the end.
Yes, I am just a tiny little nobody in Malaysia. However, I refuse to subscribe to the “all doom, all gloom” reports and prefers to see all whether bad or good and the silver linings. Will do my tiny little part in being objective and hopefully influence one or two more people to understand too. Happy reading yeah.
written on 3 Oct 2015
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