"I want to sell my property according to the value indicated in my assessment (cukai pintu)."

"My assessment (cukai pintu) says my house is worth RM300,000, please sell my house at the value indicated by government valuers."

Yes, we still receive numerous selling instructions with the abovementioned manner and I was always puzzled by this type of instruction. My answer is NO due to the following two (2) major reasons:

(1) Purpose of valuation
The purpose of valuation when the local government valuers did the valuation is for the purpose of assessment, not for the purpose of sale negotiation. The basis of valuation is therefore varies.

(2) Date of valuation
Our local governments do not update the assessment value every year, they usually update it every 5 to 10 years' time. In the case of Johor, some of our assessment values were actually valued over 10 years ago. Yes, believe it or not, the assessment value you have just shown to me is already 10 years' old!

Therefore, please stop going to estate agents and tell them your property is actually worth higher than the current market value simply because your Assessment (Cukai Pintu) says so. One interesting observation here however, they never show you their assessment when the indicated value is lower than the current market value,due to the reason best known to them.

Is Iskandar Malaysia (formerly IDR) a MYTH or VISION?

I gave a talk on the topic matter pertaining to "Johor Property Market Outlook 2009" early January 2009. During the talk, I was surprised to find there are still many local Johorean who knew very little on Iskandar Malaysia (IM) and/or hardly have any interests in understanding what IM is all about. From what I've gathered so far, foreigners seem to be more "excited" with IM as compared to locals. I do not wish to elaborate too much on why this is happening, the fact is, there are simply too many white elephants running around in Johor Bahru city over the years.

This time round however, I stand to differ. To me, IM is a bold and yet tactful long term plan for Johor Bahru, i.e. to focus, enhance and improve the level of service industry in Johor Bahru. This is a very tactical approach as I dare to say Johor state has been doing well so far in respect of industrial and agricultural sectors, should we want to go further and make our economy more well-rounded, service is the thing to go for. The same goes to many other foreign economies where the GDP percentage for service sector is ever increasing.

During the talk, one question was asked, " why does Johor State Government want to spending hefty sum of money to build new government buildings in Gelang Patah? Is there a need for it". First of all, I am in no position to answer this question. Secondly, this question to me is now irrelevant. The new Johor State Administrative Centre has already been completed and the state government departments are moving in stages by stages starting early this year. The question we all should be asking right now is "how can we play a role in Iskandar Malaysia?"

Especially during this challenging time, we should all get involve more with IM and explore our business opportunities with all the key players in IM, which my company has done so ever since its inception. We have already benefited and we are very optimistic about it. When's your turn?