Am I Eligible for Affordable Housing?

For those who wanted to look for cheaper houses and are first time buyers, there is no pain in trying this scheme offered by the government.

[ Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia was established under the PR1MA Act 2012 to plan, develop, construct and maintain high-quality housing with lifestyle concepts for middle-income households in key urban centres.

Priced between RM100, 000 to RM400,000, PR1MA homes come in various types and sizes within an integrated community; sensibly designed to suit different household needs. PR1MA is earmarked for development in key strategic urban areas nationwide and is open to all eligible Malaysians. ]

Just go through the balloting process and hope for the best.
Some may think that usually those kind of program would only offer for locations in some "kampung" or "ulu-ulu" place where the property prices can hardly rise. 

Truth is, most of the PR1MA houses are actually part of the selling houses by developers. 
Developers can build 3 blocks of building and allocate one block specially for PR1MA houses.
Can you imagine your neighbour opposite the blocks bought the same type of house with you but maybe few hundred thousands pricier than what you paid for?

Here are some basic requirements to become homeowner PR1MA:
- must be a Malaysian citizen;
- single or married, aged 21 and above;
- individual or combined household income (husband and wife) between RM2, 500 to RM7, 500; and
- possesses no more than 1 property (either applicant or the spouse), if any.

Furthermore, the banks have also cooperated with government to ease the homebuyers in loan-financing issue. They introduced a new loan scheme specially for those having difficulties of paying their houses.

PR1MA Skim Pembiayaan Fleksibel (SPEF) 

 An exclusive scheme for PR1MA homebuyers only. 

The difference between this scheme and conventional bank loan scheme is that homebuyers are eligible to obtain higher end-financing amount with lower monthly instalments through "Stepped-up" financing, where monthly installments are reduced to a lower amount for the first 5 years and will increase to a higher amount for the consecutive years until expiration of the loan.

First 5 years: Interest only

Subsequent years: Interest and principal

Not to mention that it also allows you to pay the mortgage using your EPF second account.

Application for PR1MA houses in different locations have their own application date.

You can check them [Here]

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Service condo with Hotel concept?

In 2017, the housing market is expected to continue slow growth, due to concerns about the slowing economy and the ringgit's weak performance, among others. To fight with this phenomena, property developer has been trying their best to introduce better and more creative way to attract buyers and investors. Following is currently a new trend in the property market in Malaysia. Service Condo with Hotel Management system.

First ever in Jelutong, Penang. Price from RM3xxK onwards with 6 stars facilities.

The developer [Aspen Vintage] introduced a new concept for investors/buyers for this project with the theme of "luxurious hotel" , there will be a lobby on the ground floor and it is able to help owners to manage their house for Airbnb purposes (including cleaning, micro-managing the tenants and stuff , with some charging fee of course. But you can still choose to do it yourself. )

Its like you own a hotel room in one big hotel and you get paid every time someone chose to stay in it. Price is per day basis of course. Can you rent out your property as efficient as a hotel rent out its room? Give them a petty charging fee and you will be worry-free about looking for renters.

More benefits of the hotel management styled condo I mentioned?

Future LRT station is within walking distance , great news for tourist looking for homestay location.
Not to mention the Jelutong wet market nearby that would be a heaven for the tourists (homestay people like to cook their own foods)

More attraction points!
- 10% rebate for the total unit price ( which saves you ~40k if you opt for a 400k unit!)
- 6% GST absorbed by the developer = another saving of ~12k
- Free legal fee on loans,stamp duty and SPA signing except MoT = another saving of ~ 5k
- Legal for airbnb/homestay business , which means no saman! Weeeee!

More information in [ Urban Suites ]

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Leasehold? Freehold?

Some new investor or first home buyers could get confused about certain attributes of the property that they are going to purchase. Freehold and leasehold are one of them. Usually people will notice them through the difference in price of the two type of properties.

If you own a home freehold, it means that you own the building and the land that it stands on until the day that you sell it to someone else. A freehold property can be held by the owner indefinitely. It is one of the reason that advertisements often declare that the building is freehold as it will fetch a higher price. People living in it feel safer as they will not be kicked out when lease expires because it has no lease. *But if government decides to blow off your flat/condo to make way for further development, the status of freehold or not does not help you maintain your house there.

Leasehold is that you own the right to stay in that house for a certain period, but you do not own the building itself. Which mean after the lease expired (usually 99years after its built) , the landlord/government have the rights to take it back (which mean you lose your home). This explains why leasehold properties are usually cheaper than freeholds. If you plan to save on the purchasing price, some leasehold properties can be cheaper up to 20% compared to freehold properties on the same location. However, you will need to think about the selling price when you want to let go of that properties which can be only some ten years left on the lease. Because you yourself wont want to buy a property that is going to kick you out after some years right? Of course there are ways to hold your property - extend the lease or buy it from the landlord.

So before making an offer for leasehold property you’ll need to consider:

- How many years are left on the lease.
- How you’ll budget for service charges and related costs.
- How the length of the lease might affect getting a mortgage and the property resale value.

*If the lease is for less than 70 years, you might struggle to get a mortgage.

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Each Challenge Lies Opportunities

Even the 90s have seen the hard effect of economy slowdown in this few years where many struggles to meet their ends. This is clearly proven when people start to work for more than one job (or joining lots of money game) just to squeeze more juice out of their nuts.

Young Malaysian that starts to get out of their comfort zone and work will begin to hunt for suitable property as their first home. There are always queries by property buyers of when will be the best time to purchase a property. We always try to haul things best when it is in a big discount. What if I tell you that the property market is cheap now?

For some people out there that is worried about the possible economy meltdown in the next GE election or due to Trump's administration, you could be correct, but even catastrophe happens, everyone still need foods and shelters right? The temporary downturn will be reversed as the economy cycle is always on the run.  Truth is, even you kept the money instead of investing in property, just in case of economy breakdown, the currency will most probably crash as well, causing your RM 100 to be worth like RM10 in that situation ( which explains inflation as well.)

It could be quite risky if you might not be able to pay the mortgage on time, but have you ever thought that if the economy is stable and you got your 9-5 job working out smoothly for 10 years, will the property price be the same as now? Will your salary increase be able to cover the price hike? Will population of the world increase? Does it affect the price change of the property markets?
Remember, taking no risk at all is the highest risk.

Properties are a double-edged sword where it can cut and harm you, but it can also make you wealthy effortlessly. There are people who took the opportunities and bought certain stocks or properties in Penang Island and just live their life quietly as usual, until 10 years later they become millionaires out of the air. (as seen by some people)

"Knowledge is power and if we mastered such intelligence, anytime is a good time to purchase properties. Property investment is a long-term game, and investing into long-term markets will guarantee you great returns."
- Dato’ Sri Gavin Tee, the founder and president of SwhengTee International Real Estate Investors Club and the director of AGV Consulting Sdn.Bhd

Study, Learn and start Investing!

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Property prices might reached the bottom.

"Continuing to help Malaysians make more informed property decisions, PropertyGuru, the leading online property portal, launched its proprietary ‘PropertyGuru Market Index’ (PMI) exclusively for Malaysia today. PMI is a comprehensive, insightful quarterly overview of home pricing trends at a nationwide level, as well as the key property markets of Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor and Penang." 

Starting from June, they launched this PMI system to allow us commoners to check the median prices and compare whether we are buying expensive property or not easily. As PropertyGuru can be considered as one of the largest real estate market in Malaysia, it is able to collect and analyse loads of information provided by buyers and sellers.
The surveys and reports done by them are much more trustable and they are able to deliver min-depth insights to all Malaysian home seekers.


The index serves as a great knowledge asset and trend indicator to all consumers helping them make informed property decisions. PMI is available to the public at:
http://www.propertyguru.com.my/marketindex

Judging by the figure shown above, property market prices has been declining since years ago until 2017 which seem that it comes to a steady state. This would be one of the sign that the price has already reached the bottom and could start increasing anytime soon. 

Also from the news at PropertyGuru, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Johor registered upward price movements with increases of 0.3 percent, 0.3 percent and 3.4 percent respectively. As for Penang,it’s index showed a decline in property prices by 0.7 percent– largely attributed to a reduction in prices and a tapered supply.

Just to be sincere, we shouldn't try to time the market for the best time to buy in. Fork out a sum of money and start paying the mortgage for a house. Believe me, with the exponentially-increasing world population, the property prices are going up by hook or by crook. Sooner or later Penang will be following the steps of Hong Kong where their land can be pricier than the golds. At the end of your mortgage years later, you will be thanking yourself for making this decision earlier. 

If you're looking for a property in Penang, might as well check out the new condo projects that are having a promotion right now!
[Urban Suites] and [Golden Triangle 2]

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Are you debt-free?

Most of the people get stressed when they look at their overdue bills and debts. They don't like the feeling of owing debts. They feel like they are working their asses off just to meet the bills every end of the month. They couldn't achieve their financial freedom with this mountain of debts.

Question is, are debts always a bad thing?

Taking our Malaysian PTPTN loan for tertiary education as example, the cost of getting a degree in public universities is around RM30K ~ RM40k (which is definitely a huge difference with private universities which can cost up to RM300K)  and you only get to start paying off the loan 6 months after you graduate from your university. And you know what, the payment is only RM100-300 per month for maybe 20years and with an interest rate of only 1% !!

Do you know what that means? If you put the amount of money in fixed deposit (which gives around 3.5% interest rate), you earn the excess 2.5% rate even you had to pay for the 1% interest rate. Assuming you had to pay it off in 20years, you could have accumulated a total of ~RM60K by just putting in fixed deposit bank account while the 1% interest is only ~RM7K extra , you can earn ~RM23K by just paying off your loan on time slowly instead of in one shot !

If you opt to pay off RM30K in one go, you can skip paying the 1% interest but what for the hassle? You could've earn the excess 2.5% while paying your loan on time! ( which mean you are not blacklisted, just in debts, you still can go for travel overseas.)

Not to mention that if you opt to pay off one shot after you graduate, I am quite sure that you would have used up your emergency fund or any savings that you kept for years. Although you are now debt-free, but you are actually exposed to more risk of financial crisis. You could be unable to pay for your unforeseen car maintenance or a leaking house because you do not have any savings left.
Of course those can wait until you earn some money, but what if the circumstances is that you got into an accident *touchwood* and you need a large sum of money to go for operation? Will your debt-free status save your life now?

Everyone loves to be debt-free including myself. But we will need to gauge our own ability well before we make any decisions that could ultimately expose ourselves to a higher risk of unforeseen circumstances.

That being said, if you have achieved your debt-free status while being able to comfortably cope with your life, congratulations! You are definitely few steps ahead than most of your peers.

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Property markets are actually very much dependent on the country's economy.

The state of the property market is very much dependent on the state of the country’s economy.
When the economy is sluggish, so is real estate.

Key factor that affects the value of real estate is the overall health of the economy. The health can be determined by measuring economic indicators such as the GDP (Gross Domestic Product of Malaysia in 2017 is expected to be higher), employment data, manufacturing activity, the prices of goods, etc.

When the country is being covered by scandals and bad reputations, the economic status are usually affected and the impact will be shown mostly on the depreciation of currency and trades. The same situation when you saw your favourite star got caught taking drugs and the sponsors stop every business relation with that fellow.

The depreciation of RM currency did not get better when Trump won the election for US president out of most expectation. Declining global oil price has also been a headache to the government as their revenues from oil and gas income have been under pressure for some time now due to falling global oil prices.

Although the growth momentum has been stable so far, global uncertainties, together with political developments and weaker domestic fundamentals, are weighing on the overall economic outlook. Most people are gloomy on the economic status of Malaysia due to the coming GE election but some believe that the worst is over and soon it will be turning green, especially the Penang markets that are getting more investors from China and Singapore.

Be more careful with your investments so that you do not lose your hard-earned cash. Invest in the right place and it will have a higher margin of safety so you do not take much more risk compared to others.

Stay tune to this blog for more info on Penang property market news!
You can just leave a message or pm me if you wish to know more about available housing projects in Penang!

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