MM2H is not really an open license for everything in Malaysia, especially with Johor State pertaining to property ownership. The general MM2H rule of foreigner owning property of priced at RM150,000 doesn't apply to Johor. If i may clarify, all land matters are state matters in Malaysia. In other words, land laws are under the jurisdiction of the different state governments. Take Johor for instance, foreigner can only purchase residential properties of minimum RM250,000 and above with many other terms and conditions.
MM2H originate from a previous plan called "silver-haired programme", which to me is a great move to attractive more foreigners other than just the elderly people to reside in Malaysia. A great disappointment however, this programme prevents them from working. How can we expect those younger and affordable foreign personnels to come and reside in Malaysia for a long period of time without giving them a chance to work locally? Are we too overly protect our local job market? Just some thoughts to share.
Over 30 years of experience in Iskandar Malaysia's property market, Johor Bahru -based registered estate agency, Tiram Realty, offers FREE tips and info on the selling, buying, renting and auction of properties in Iskandar Malaysia through the blog.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Real estate blogs and you
Recently, i came across some blogs concerning real estate investment in Johor Bahru. Interesting blogs as they may be seen, and i am happy to see more blogs of this nature to come into existence, as they provide a good platform for investors at large to pool in their opinions with regards to Johor Bahru property market. Be cautious however to their opinions, as they are not accountable to any real estate professional body to what they have said whatsoever, be it ethicals or real estate professional practices in Malaysia.
I have always tried to avoid general statistics or formalaes in my articles as i always tell this to my clients, what they should choose to invest at the end of the day should be something that they are "familiar" with, which they have plenty of on-site market information. Information, information, information is the golden rule to property investment. Always check out the location, rate of return, tenantability and property management when you want to invest in property. You can refer to my previous articles on this.
One word of advise however, never get yourself "over-geared/over-borrowed" in property investment, or else you may be easily get caught when the market is in the downturn like what's happening to our counter-parts in the States right now.
I have always tried to avoid general statistics or formalaes in my articles as i always tell this to my clients, what they should choose to invest at the end of the day should be something that they are "familiar" with, which they have plenty of on-site market information. Information, information, information is the golden rule to property investment. Always check out the location, rate of return, tenantability and property management when you want to invest in property. You can refer to my previous articles on this.
One word of advise however, never get yourself "over-geared/over-borrowed" in property investment, or else you may be easily get caught when the market is in the downturn like what's happening to our counter-parts in the States right now.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Auction cancelled 20 minutes AFTER HAMMER DOWN
In response to our article entitled "Can someone cancel the house I bought in an auction?", one of our website visitors is kind enough to share with us a personal experience:
It happened to me 2 years ago. For my case, 20 minutes after the hammer down, the bank cancelled. I was not even given the chance to sign S&P. Nevertheless, I proceeded to sue the bank and won the case in KL High Court. The difficult tasks are finding a lawyer that is willing to sue and a valuator willing to prove your damage. My case is pending for the damage assessment.- S Ong
Under the auction law, the property is declared sold upon hammer down, hence leaving no more rooms for withdrawal. So, I have no doubt that Mr. S Ong above has a solid cause of action against the bank and i'm happy that the KL High Court has further strenghten this principle. He pointed out a very practical problem however, i.e. getting a lawyer to sue the bank.
How to get satellite images of your property?
Thanks to Google Maps, obtaining a satellite image of your property is as easy as lifting your finger, and and it's FREE! Though the image may not be real-time, it's already a technological wonder that many of us could benefit from.
View Larger Map
If you have noticed, Google Maps has now included many street names in major cities in Malaysia. Hopefully very soon we could find detailed driving directions through Google Maps, as what millions of users in United States and many other countries have been using.
If your property is in Malaysia, you might find it tricky to find it on Google Map using your address (as I've mentioned, it's not fully functional for some countries like Malaysia). My tip is to first find a bigger area ("Malaysia", or "Johor" for example).
Once you are in the "Malaysia" map, then all you need to do is to do some dragging and zooming in. (If you know any other better ways, feel free to share it with us!)
To see the map in satellite mode, click on the "Sat" button on the top right corner of the map. And yes, you can show the terrain of the area by clicking the "Ter" as well.
You could even mark your property with it, like how we mark the location of our office in the map above.
P.S. If you have yet to use Google Map before, and you would like to know more about it, you might want to visit the following link:
http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=68259
Friday, August 17, 2007
Real Estate Tips #20: Subprime loan crisis, the after thoughts...
This is what happen in United States, i.e. if you cannot qualify for loans or are having difficulty obtaining credit through the normal channel, then a subprime loan may be your next port of call. A subprime loan is a loan that is given to people with a bad credit record. The interest rate on a subprime loan is likely to be a lot higher than an interest rate you would expect on a loan from a bank.
In Malaysia, the closest to its kind is probably credit company. However, this kind of credit loan is usually smaller in amount and is not widely used when purchasing real estate in Malaysia unlike its peers in United States. Once defaulted, as with the case with "loan-sharks", it creates more social issue rather than economic issue.
What I'm more concerned with is the so-called "Full-Loan" package the developers are offering in the market for the past few years. Yes, you can now own a house by paying a nominal sum of probably RM500. The developer can achieve this by marking up the true selling price of the property by 10%, enabling the buyer to obtain 100% loan, or full-loan so to speak. Unlike the conventional way of buying houses, where the buyer used to fork-up minimum 10% downpayment for the house price, this new marketing strategy has given more people (even the less affordable ones) to own a house at an earlier stage.
As a result, the banks now loses their comfort zone of this 10% of the house price. Once defaulted, the borrower may still owe the bank's a considerable sum of money even after the property is being auctioned. In other words, house buyers today are much more heavily-indebted as compared to the conventional ones. They are also exposed to higher risk on variation in the interest rates, i.e. Base Lending Rates.
Spending future money seems to be the trend now. Even when we buy a few thousand mobile phone, some still opt to pay by installment, thanks to the bank's "zero-interest" repayment scheme.
We are in the midst of building another economic bubbles, which we don't know when it will burst. But if it does burst, are we then prepared for it?
In Malaysia, the closest to its kind is probably credit company. However, this kind of credit loan is usually smaller in amount and is not widely used when purchasing real estate in Malaysia unlike its peers in United States. Once defaulted, as with the case with "loan-sharks", it creates more social issue rather than economic issue.
What I'm more concerned with is the so-called "Full-Loan" package the developers are offering in the market for the past few years. Yes, you can now own a house by paying a nominal sum of probably RM500. The developer can achieve this by marking up the true selling price of the property by 10%, enabling the buyer to obtain 100% loan, or full-loan so to speak. Unlike the conventional way of buying houses, where the buyer used to fork-up minimum 10% downpayment for the house price, this new marketing strategy has given more people (even the less affordable ones) to own a house at an earlier stage.
As a result, the banks now loses their comfort zone of this 10% of the house price. Once defaulted, the borrower may still owe the bank's a considerable sum of money even after the property is being auctioned. In other words, house buyers today are much more heavily-indebted as compared to the conventional ones. They are also exposed to higher risk on variation in the interest rates, i.e. Base Lending Rates.
Spending future money seems to be the trend now. Even when we buy a few thousand mobile phone, some still opt to pay by installment, thanks to the bank's "zero-interest" repayment scheme.
We are in the midst of building another economic bubbles, which we don't know when it will burst. But if it does burst, are we then prepared for it?
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Real Estate Tips #19: Sell your property through a registered estate agent
By way of referral or advertisement, you may call up a registered estate agent to sell your property for you. On your first meeting, the following should be discussed:
(1) Joint inspection of the property
- Before the joint inspection, you might want to give the address of the property to the agent for him to gather some information on the market price. During the inspection, the owner should produce documents such as photocopy of the title or quit rent receipts as proof of ownership.
- The owner should clearly point out to the agent any renovation involved and any known defaults on the property.
(2) Formal written instruction to procure a purchaser
Any registered estate agent should have with themselves a an instruction form, normally known as " Appointment to act as an estate agent (to secure a purchaser) " . This form may vary from one agent to another, but the general information should be as following as prescribed under the Malaysian Estate Agent Standard:
(a) Vendor's (seller) details and contact.
(b) Type of property
(c) Property address.
(d) The permission for the agents to display signboards/advertise in the media/send out flyers and promote generally the sale of property.
(e) The general terms and condition of sales, which includes:
- Asking price
- Earnest deposit on acceptance of offer, which is normally 1%
- On signing of Sale & Purchase Agreement, which is the balance 9%
- After signing the balance to be paid within, which is normally 120 days
- With or Without vacant possession, it simply means the buyer can or cannot take over the occupying of the property after purchase
- Other terms and conditions include, such as 8% p.a. charged on any extension give to the completion period of the agreement.
(f) Types of agency, such as exclusive/sole/sole joint/joint/ad hoc agency. Further explanation can be found in my previous article named Types of Agency you may come across with an estate agent.
(g) Appointment period.
- It can vary from 2 months to 6 months or so.
(h) Agreed fee
- Commission payable as prescribed by the Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Act
- Payable upon the creation of a binding contract for the sale and purchase of the property, i.e. the signing of a unconditional Sale & Purchase Agreement.
- Other reimbursement may include :
I. costs of printing, plans, copies of documents, lithography, traveling (only when the distance between the agent's office and the property is more than 40km) and other expenses actually incurred;
II. costs of media advertisements, signboards, brochures or other promotional materials;
III. costs of private auction, conductin a tender, open house , exhibitions and tele and electronics marketing services.
IV. the total cost of reimbursement is payable on receipt of a statement of accounts even in the event of the transaction not being successfully concluded.
(i) In the case of this appointment being aborted, the estate agent is entitled to claim 50% of the full fee or 50% of the forfeited deposit/ compensation received, whichever is the lower.
(j) The capacity of the instruction given, such as registered proprietor, attorney of the registered proprietor pursuant to a Power of Attorney or a trustee for the legal owner.
(k) Signatory and witness.
(l) Viewing arrangement need to be decided as some property may be tenanted , then special arrangement needs to be made with the cooperation of the tenant before viewing.
Again , the above may vary from one agents to another, but this is pretty much the terms needed to be agreed upon between the agent and the vendor at the stage of appointment.
(1) Joint inspection of the property
- Before the joint inspection, you might want to give the address of the property to the agent for him to gather some information on the market price. During the inspection, the owner should produce documents such as photocopy of the title or quit rent receipts as proof of ownership.
- The owner should clearly point out to the agent any renovation involved and any known defaults on the property.
(2) Formal written instruction to procure a purchaser
Any registered estate agent should have with themselves a an instruction form, normally known as " Appointment to act as an estate agent (to secure a purchaser) " . This form may vary from one agent to another, but the general information should be as following as prescribed under the Malaysian Estate Agent Standard:
(a) Vendor's (seller) details and contact.
(b) Type of property
(c) Property address.
(d) The permission for the agents to display signboards/advertise in the media/send out flyers and promote generally the sale of property.
(e) The general terms and condition of sales, which includes:
- Asking price
- Earnest deposit on acceptance of offer, which is normally 1%
- On signing of Sale & Purchase Agreement, which is the balance 9%
- After signing the balance to be paid within, which is normally 120 days
- With or Without vacant possession, it simply means the buyer can or cannot take over the occupying of the property after purchase
- Other terms and conditions include, such as 8% p.a. charged on any extension give to the completion period of the agreement.
(f) Types of agency, such as exclusive/sole/sole joint/joint/ad hoc agency. Further explanation can be found in my previous article named Types of Agency you may come across with an estate agent.
(g) Appointment period.
- It can vary from 2 months to 6 months or so.
(h) Agreed fee
- Commission payable as prescribed by the Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Act
- Payable upon the creation of a binding contract for the sale and purchase of the property, i.e. the signing of a unconditional Sale & Purchase Agreement.
- Other reimbursement may include :
I. costs of printing, plans, copies of documents, lithography, traveling (only when the distance between the agent's office and the property is more than 40km) and other expenses actually incurred;
II. costs of media advertisements, signboards, brochures or other promotional materials;
III. costs of private auction, conductin a tender, open house , exhibitions and tele and electronics marketing services.
IV. the total cost of reimbursement is payable on receipt of a statement of accounts even in the event of the transaction not being successfully concluded.
(i) In the case of this appointment being aborted, the estate agent is entitled to claim 50% of the full fee or 50% of the forfeited deposit/ compensation received, whichever is the lower.
(j) The capacity of the instruction given, such as registered proprietor, attorney of the registered proprietor pursuant to a Power of Attorney or a trustee for the legal owner.
(k) Signatory and witness.
(l) Viewing arrangement need to be decided as some property may be tenanted , then special arrangement needs to be made with the cooperation of the tenant before viewing.
Again , the above may vary from one agents to another, but this is pretty much the terms needed to be agreed upon between the agent and the vendor at the stage of appointment.
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