So few cars on the road! Market is awesome!

I have been to Jakarta on numerous occasions, both for work and for vacation. Yes, I do think getting a property in Jakarta is an attractive proposition. Well, if only it’s friendlier to foreigners buying a property there. Here are some of the restrictions. The reason why I think so is simple. Did you know that the working day population and the night population in Jakarta differs by 4 million? In other words, every morning, 4 million people travel from smaller towns outside Jakarta into Jakarta to work and leaves Jakarta after work everyday. The reason? It’s too expensive to stay in Jakarta. Second reason? It’s hard to get a loan to buy a property. Here’s a short article.  Third reason? The number of properties being built (supply) is far smaller than the quantity needed. (demand). Here’s one concise article to understand more. In brief, the demand is going to be by far stronger than supply for many more years to come. Since houses could not become cheaper most of the time due to land, material and labour costs, buying earlier is better than buying later.
Coming back to Malaysia. I have been working in Kuala Lumpur for the past 5 years, after working in Penang for close to 15 years. Every year, I see the same situation during major holidays. Today is 14th February. (2 days before Chinese New Year) Yes, it’s Valentine’s Day but it’s also one day before the usual reunion meal for the Chinese before the New Year on the 16th February 2018. Due to the long holiday, many has left the city to go home, their real home since Kuala Lumpur is only their ‘working’ home. This morning, I was able to leave my home at 745am, sent my kids to the nursery, have breakfast with my wife and still arrive in office before 9am! Usually, I could only do one thing. Leave home at 745 and go straight to office and well, arrive at around 9am. 😛  Guys, Greater KL would continue to grow because of continuous migration of new working population. These people need a roof over their head. Some would build a family and they would need a bigger home. The cycle continues.
Greater KL is of course much smaller than Greater Jakarta, or also known as Jabodetabek. As per wiki, this word is a combination of Jakarta + Bogor + Tangerang + Bekasi cities (Kota) and Regencies (Kabupaten). Here’s a better reference. However, both shares the same direction. Ever more demand because both are capital cities. When we look at major developments, especially infrastructure wise, it often starts with the capital first. Even when we ask fresh graduates in Malaysia about their working location of choice after they have graduated from an institution in Malaysia, many would answer Kuala Lumpur. I would answer Ipoh or Penang but well, I was not able to start a job in Ipoh due to the limited number of career type of jobs and in Penang, due to my specialisation, Kuala Lumpur would be a better place to continue the corporate career climb. I am very happy when I see lesser cars on the road during holidays because it meant higher demand for properties. Cheers.
written on 14 Feb 2018
Next suggested article: Jakarta’s emergency law to attract real estate investments