Malaysia Money Matters

Browsing through the PR write-up for Sunway Velocity, one of the points brought up was that the surrounding area of Jln Pudu and Jln Peel (Peel Road - I have fond memories as my mum used to teach at the Peel Road Convent and I used to hang out there, playing on the grounds while she finished up marking books before we went home) was a little 'run down' as it were and the developer said that the project would revitalise the whole area. So that got me thinking - is that true? First equivalent that comes to mind is the Kenanga Mall - sad to say, the surrounding area has not gentrified in any way or form. However, it must be said that the mall itself acts more like a wholesaler's mall - so the traffic there is made up of retailers going there to buy stock. It's purely business, so they are not going to hang around and spend on other stuff in the area. Next, Ampang Point - the shop lots around the complex were built first, and the area was dead for a long time until th

I remember way back when I first started work and I asked my cousin sister as a guide, how much should one pay for a house or a car based on annual salary? She said 10 times but you know, bless her, she's a bit of a bimbo when it comes to money since she's always had loads of it! Hahaha Anyway, being a bit free the other day, I decided to do a bit of number crunching based on my ahem "insider banking" knowledge (kidding) to work out for myself what is an easy benchmark to decide how much you should pay for a house or a car. The calculation model is very simple, using the maximum 33% of net salary as the repayment amount to determine the maximum eligible loan, then apply an assumed 90% loan to get to the house / car price amount. I also imputed the tax depending on the income levels because for lower income, the difference between your gross and net pay is relatively low with the bulk being caused by EPF's 11% but for higher income folks, the effective tax

A few of the recent launches are using the "upfront discount" method again so that essentially, it is back to the old 'no money down' model where buyers pay a booking fee and supposedly 'paid' the 10% deposit but the developer gives you back the money via discount. The bank then gives you a 90% loan but you actually did not fork out any equity. Now many or almost everyone would say what's wrong with that? But the thing is, you are actually buying an overvalued property. If this gets to a large scale and you try and offload the property once its built, your potential buyers will know that you bought it through this method and why would they want to pay the premium? Anyway, I know no matter what I say, this will still go on because people have short memories and by the time the development is complete, who is going to remember? And the cycle goes on. So the note to myself, in this case, is to stick with my plan to continue in the landed market, buy

Was walking through Publika after dinner and came across their booth - also, my friend was talking to me about it earlier that day, so it piqued my interest. Looks like a nice design. The location is decent - being in Ampang but there are some cons to it that I will get to in a bit. A brief run through:  - Leasehold  - Unit sizes from 500 sf to 1,100 sf  - Cost per square foot starts from RM600+; so the small studio is about RM400,000  - About 1,000 units (very dense) with 1 car park per unit  - The tower blocks are oriented in an East-West manner; West facing = KLCC view, East facing = Ampang / mountain view Didn't really go through all the facilities and payment option but I hear tell that it is a quasi-DIBS with minimal downpayment and large discount. My thoughts are: Pros: Location is close to town, still within DBKL limits, I believe Small size, fairly affordable and easy to rent out (maybe!) Easy access to MRR2, AKLEH and DUKE highways Close to Ampang