Monday, June 25, 2007

Iskandar Development Region #6: New updates on Nusajaya

These are some of the happenings in Nusajaya City:

(1)Columbia-Asia Hospital commencing work by September 2007, a 70 beds hospital at Medi-Park

(2)University managed by I-Carnegie commencing work by September 2007

(3)Estimated first yacht will be sailing into Puteri Harbour at Nusajaya by December 2007.

(4)Detailed incentive package for IDR will be published by September 2007.

Looks like September this year will be an exciting month for all of us who's interested in the progress of Iskandar Development Region.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Real Estate Tips #16: Are you planning to visit a mapex/property exhibition? Here's what you should do.

Before you go, you should :

(1) Determine your purpose.
Are you looking for a house at a particular locality? Are you searching for a shophouse for investment purchase? Are you looking at a single or double storey terrace house? How many rooms i needed? Too many questions? Well, to make things simpler, just answer the following questions:
- What's the locality you wanted?
- What's the type of house you wanted, single/double house, or apartment?
- What's the value added facility you wanted? Security features, larger carporch or etc?

(2) Determine your budget.
What sort of initial outlay can you fork up? If you are looking for a residential property, you should be looking at minimum 10% outlay, as for commercial property, you need to have minimum 20% of the value of the property. You may notice many developers now are coming out with an easy entry package which may need as low as RM1000 as initial outlay to buy their product/houses. Don't feel skeptical about it, because these are genuine package. Besides the first payment of the property, there are also some incidental costs such as legal costs, stamping and etc, this will amount to another 5% roughly.

Besides initial outlay, the bank's installment comes into the picture. As a rule of thumb, the monthly installment should not be more than 1/3 of your monthly income, or not more than 40$ of your monthly net disposable income.

Now that you have determined a purpose and budget, you will then be more focus as you step into the exhibition hall. Here's what you should do as you arrive:

(1) Stay Calm
You will be surrounded and flooded by flyers, brochures and sales person. Just stay calm and accepting flyers and put it aside, as you can read it later when you are back home.

(2) Plan your trip
Look for an exhibition hall map, if any, and decide a logical track where you won't repeat the same booths again and again and get lost. Go for a quick one round to have a feel of what's available there generally and take note on those comes within your purpose and budget as targeted booths.

(3) Visit the targeted booths
Now is time to go to the targeted booths , and here's what you can do there:
- Look through the master plan of the project, and its adjacent development
- See the model house
- Obtained detailed brochure, which entails design of the house, price, package, built-up area, land size, actually location and etc.
- Ask the sales person should you have any question, don't be shy, they are more than happy to answer to your questions.
- Register with the developer if you want more information to be sent to you in future
- Check the developer's background with the sales personnels
- Find out who are the bank panels, some banks may offered special rate for particular product for this developer
- NEVER BUY ON IMPULSE, i've met plenty of first-time house buyers who regretted purchasing their first house, don't go and become one of them.


(4) Visit the bank's booths
- After knowing what you might want to buy, now it's time to chat with the bank officer to see your financial standing, whether or not you are eligible and affordable to purchase the property you wanted.
- The more financial information you give to the bank's officer the better, i.e. monthly income, commitments such as car loans and etc.
- The bank's officers can normally calculate your monthly installment on the spot.
- Don't get confused over the different package offered by different banks, just obtain the brochures/flyers and study them when you are back home later.
- Here's some questions you might want to ask the bank's officers:
(a) What's the rates offered?
(b) What's the installment payment i need to make?
(c) How long can i borrow?
(d) What's the margin i can borrow?
(e) What's the incidental cost involved?
(f) How much do i have to pay the MRTA? How do I make myself covered in the "correct" way? Please refer to my previous articles on the MRTA insurance.
(g) Can i make prepayment? What's the cost involved?
(h) What's the penalty if i switch the loan? How long are you going to bind me?

Always remember, getting information from the property exhibition is only a first stage of purchasing a property, you should then pay a site visit to gather more information, such as actual showhouse, construction stage, orientation, road's level and etc.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Real Estate Tips #15: Seminar on Southern Johor Development

Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents , Johor Branch together with the cooperation of University of Technology of Malaysia and Land & Mines Johor are conducting a seminar on SOUTHERN JOHOR DEVELOPMENT: PROSPECTS & CHALLENGES IN THE 21ST CENTURY at The M-Suites Johor Bahru, 27th & 28th June 2007.

The seminar topics are as follows:

1. Iskandar Development Region - Embarking into a New Horizon;prospects and challenges
2. Iskandar Development Region - The need for a balanced development
3. Challenges of the Malaysian Torrens System in to the 21st Century
4. Environmental Management Issues
5. Latest Amendment of the Strata Title Act 1985 and the Incorporation of Gated Community Schemes
6. Introducing new paradigm in housing industry: developer's perspective
7. Introducing new paradigm in housing industry (certificate of completion & compliance, build then sell, one stop centre, gated and guarded community, latest amendment of strata title act): Government's perspective
8. Making build then sell 10:90 concept work
9. Business and Investment Opportunities in Southern Johor Development
10. Southern Development: The way forward
11. Certificate of completion and compliance: new role for the architect
12. The concept of waqf as an instrument for real estate development in IDR

All topics are given by prominent speakers. The fees are RM600 per person, including notes, refreshments and lunch. For enquiries, please send me a email to boonping@tiramrealty.com.my.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Real Estate Tips #14: Mortgage Reducing Term Assurance (MRTA), have you bought it?

MRTA is designed exclusively to protect against the outstanding balance of housing mortgage in the event of the loan holder’s unexpected death or TPD (Total Permanent Disability). In other words, it will pay off the mortgage thereby securing the repayment of the housing loan.

Over my 8 years involvement in the real estate industry, I've come across two typical true cases related to the issue of MRTA.

Case one:
Mr. A lost his eye-sights due to work injury, and he still has to carry a household consist of his wife and a 2 years old daughther. He previously bought a single storey terrace house at Bukit Jaya, and now fully paid off by the banks' MRTA. At least, he still can provide shelter for his family.

Case two:
Mr. B got me to sell off his double storey terrace house at Taman Puteri Wangsa, because he simply couldn't afford to continue serve the bank installment on his own anymore due to a car accident which caused him paralized.He is the only income earner to his family. He didn't subscribe to MRTA, as a result, he's not only losing his livinghood, he also lost his house.

The above are 2 real cases where i've met so far with regards to MRTA, therefore, i strongly urge all house owners subsribe to MRTA.

Get your bank's officer/insurers to explain to you in detail on how MRTA covers you and how you should be covered. That is to say, there are actually many options available when you want to subscribe to it.

Example:
A newly wed couple bought a house at RM150,000. If the husband is the only income earner to the family, then the husband should subcribe fully to the MRTA. If both couple are major income earners to the family, then they can opt to either subcribe to RM75,000 each, or RM150,000 each. In the case of subcription to half of the property value by each of the couple, in the event of death of TPD, the insurer will only pay off half the mortgage. The remaining ones will still have to pay off the balance. The younger the subscriber is, the cheaper the previum is.

The best part of the MRTA is that it can be made to become a portion of the loan margin you are getting from your bank.

Many people out there don't even know how they initially subscribed their MRTA, please refer back to your bank document on that matter, and please ensure you have made the right options (pleaser refer to example above) when buying it.