Malaysia Money Matters

Was at Nu Sentral and saw the Kota Semarak booth there, so went to have a look - I was aware of this development some time back but I think the promotion is only just starting to rev up now - they are also just taking registration only, not deposits. Pricing, layout and other details are available already but since I was rather in a rush that day, what I got was this: Large scale development - will end up with around 1,200+ units over 4 separate buildings The land area is pretty large - 27 acres, so it's pretty massive Leasehold Location is actually very close to town, just down Jln Semarak - heavy traffic though Location has no LRT nearby You'd have to travel in the opposite direction away from town to get to town - e.g. the condo is pretty much equidistant to both Sri Rampai and Ampang Park - if you're working in town, you might as well just drive (of course, parking considerations etc etc) Next to the DUKE Highway with access to both directions of the highway...

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 ...

Saw a banner at the traffic junction on Desarina Bayu in Sri Rampai. It is a pretty high-end development for 3-storey terrace houses starting from about RM1.6 million up to RM2.5 million. The interesting / good thing is that it is a Build-then-Sell project; hence absolutely no risk of the project being abandoned. Only 70 units, so it must be a fairly small area. Location wise is where it starts to get a bit unstuck. It is adjacent to the Sri Rampai Business Park - which is quite a decent place, still new and has some decent Chinese eateries and a large car park area although that doesn't help if you are going to the shops on the other end of the centre. The problem is, unfortunately, Sri Rampai as a whole. It is a rather densely populated garden that has a working class population. Next to it is Kampung Rejang, an even more populated area that is distinctly down at heel... during the election, a friend of mine who was volunteering there was shocked. OK, admittedly, he i...

If you are cash rich, then your interest income from fixed deposits will go up. If you are paying off loans, actually you won't feel much because your repayment amount stays the same but the interest portion is now slightly higher. So what you should do, if you have some money in your EPF account 2, is to use that to pay down some of the principle of the loan to ensure your tenure is not extended unduly long. From the human psychology perspective, the rate hike will make house buyers nervous for a while so sales will go down a bit. Eventually though, they will get over it. This means that property prices will stabilise for a while then begin to pick up again because there will be housing pressure from a growing adult population. I believe now is a good time to look for distressed sellers and pick up a good bargain. Some people were very aggressive in buying properties during the boom, with "no money down" using inflated sales agreements - well, think that is goi...

There is some word, unpublicised as far as I know, that Bank Negara is looking seriously into the valuation practices of local banks. Mainly the way in which loan sales offices shop around valuers to get the valuation for the loan because it could be one of the factors driving up property prices. Well, in a way, yes it is a contributing factor but the margin of difference at which they are valuing is not really that large - based on observation, it is a fluctuation of about 5% to 7% in "hot areas" but true enough also that in low transacted areas, they can undervalue as much as 25% of the asking price. Which begs the question of is the market pricing too high or are valuers judging at too low / judging too high in hot areas in order to get the deal to do the final valuation report? After all, if they keep giving low verbal valuations, they will not get the business. If they give high values all the time, then it is an advantage to the seller and doesn't take into ...