Malaysia Money Matters

Let's be a little snarky for once - really, "Astoria" .. is the developer trying to 'tumpang glamour' from the Waldorf-Astoria of New York? Did you know where the name Astoria comes from? It is from the old-money New York family, the Asters. Specifically, the erstwhile matriarch Mrs Aster was so incensed that the Waldorf hotel was built next to her mansion that she decided to move out and build her own hotel on the site called the Astoria. The two hotels later joined up and became the now famous Waldorf-Astoria. So what does this story have to do with Astoria Ampang? Nothing really, except for the penchant of Malaysian developers to choose fancy names for their condos that have NO RELEVANCE whatsoever. :) Anyway, I saw the ads and came across their show booth during the Renovation Expo at the KL Convention Centre that was held during the 3rd week of January. Only had a cursory glance and a brief conversation with their sales people - the lady was nice ...

I wrote about Nadayu 62 earlier. Lately, the banners and billboards for Nadayu 63 have come up. 296 service apartment units (small-ish), ranging from 500+ sf up to 1,100 sf at around 800+ per square foot. There are also 42 retail units starting from RM3.2 million each - so basically, there's going to be a mini mall within Nadayu, so they won't even need to venture the 2km distance to the upcoming Melawati Mall. Completion date estimated in 2017 and leasehold. Very interesting - it looks like Nadayu is trying to create a self- contained village by having enough critical mass of younger people who can afford the smaller units to ensure that the mall is self-sustaining to benefit the low dense bungalow dwellers. So do we like this? Well, the location is lovely - very quiet, an annex or appendix of Melawati. The con is that it is a leasehold and maintenance is likely to be pricey - because you're paying for the exclusivity (although, I don't think 296 units in a...

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 ...