Malaysia Money Matters

I created a simulator based on price, loan paydown, market value, profit on sale (including RPGT) and compared against using the same cash outlay into FD or investments. Running the 2 investment options against each other, while property wins in the long run, the returns actually flatten out over a long period of time because a cash investment (e.g. even at the safest asset class which is FD) gives an ever growing rate of return while a property's value growth slows after 8 to 9 years! That explains why mortgage portfolios price their rates on an 8-year longevity. Here is the final result of the simulation with the RPGT in place means that while you are better off holding in FD for 5 years, your maximum return is within the 7-9 year window before the property value growth begins to flatten: So you would break even at year 5 and have to hold for a few more years - up to 10 or 11 if you want to cash out more but that's up to you. update: Some anonymous reader ...

Check out brickz.my This website basically digitizes the public information of stamp duty paid on the sale price of all properties sold. Currently they have uploaded the data for the major urban areas of KL and Selangor. Believe Johor and Penang are on the way as is the rest of the country eventually. The great thing about it is that you can see a lot of details like transaction date, the price, property size and type - down to like intermediate or corner unit and even the floor level for condos and apartments. Hence, before you buy into an area or a unit, you can do an independent check yourself without relying on the real estate agent to get a good gauge of how much you should pay. The latest information is at the last 2 months - i.e. as of November, you will be able to see September 2015 data which is quite a good recency. Of course, for areas where there is active sales transactions, you will see up to September. Other areas that are quieter, you will see the most recent ...

So the good news is that EPF announced a dividend of 6.35% - which is the highest for many years.. or even a decade plus. The not-so-good news was that over the weekend, I decided to do a bit of special cooking and since I rarely do grocery shopping, the price of food really has gone up! Though of doing lamb shanks but the price, oh my... 2 frozen pieces came up to RM54 at Cold Storage. Yes, granted I was shopping at the posh places but STILL?! Then a bunch of celery (organic it seems) - the smallest bunch was RM6?! For double the quantity at AEON Big, the price was RM1.90! faint. Not blowing my own horn but yes, my pay is pretty decent. Even so, these prices are an eye opener for me. Either that or I have to disabuse myself of the notion of my supposed socio-economic class and start having lower tastes, then not so 'heart-pain' to have to pay through my nose for something I want to eat. Sigh....