Malaysia Money Matters

Well, that depends on your definition of "affordable" coupled with "liveable", isn't it? You can still get flats and apartment units for about 120k or 150k.. that means you need about RM500 to RM600 per month for repayment. At that price point, you *could* possibly get a 95% or 100% loan - usually from Islamic financing - especially from Bank Islam, Bank Rakyat and so on. So you hardly need any money down. Of course, you still need SOME money but if you're really serious about it then surely you can save it up? During my first job, many many years ago, my starting pay was RM1,700 (very decent already considering most of my peers were getting RM1,200) and I was staying with family - so my expenses were not very high, just transport and lunch - I managed to save up 3,000 in a few months. My only indulgence at the time was to get a couple of CDs a month - back then at RM40 each, expensive O! My bus fare per day was 50 sen minibus PJ to KL, then another

Many columnists and politicians (especially Opposition ones) like to harp on property prices being out-of-reach to the majority of people. This is a rather simplistic slogan that they like to keep repeating because a lot of people tend to agree with it at face value. Such a statement is only true up to a certain extent. To what extent, you ask, gentle reader? Well, if you are referring to newly launched properties by developers - then hella yes, they are QUITE expensive by both ticket size and cost per square foot! Why is this so? This is their pricing strategy - actually they give a lot of "rebates" and "discounts" to trick you into thinking that you are getting a good deal, AND that by these methods, you can get nearly 100% financing because the banks think you've paid down 10% but the developer is helping you "cheat" on this. Given the limited land available and the need to turn the maximum profit out of each project, developers will p