Hold on to it, if you can. The shit is hitting the fan!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/blog/20...ftse-usa-europe

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/au...rmoil-investors

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/au...oil-august-2007

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/busines...global-carnage/

Bursa bleeds another RM31b in global carnage
By Yow Hong Chieh August 08, 2011

Bursa Malaysia has now lost over RM65 billion in value from a week ago. — Reuters pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 — Malaysian stocks continued tumbling today with an estimated RM31 billion in value shed from Bursa Malaysia, as jittery investors spooked by concerns about the global economic outlook continued to dump shares.
After the sustained sell-off today, sparked by concerns over Standard & Poor’s downgrading of the United States’ credit rating and Europe’s persistent debt woes, the KL share market is down an estimated RM65 billion in value from last Monday.

Losers overwhelmed gainers 1,051 to 67 today while the broad-based Emas index shed 2.39 per cent to settle at 10,227.95 — a five-month low.

The benchmark FBMKLCI slipped 1.8 per cent to 1496.99, also a five-month low.

OSK research head Chris Eng said that despite the possibility of a small rebound in coming days, markets were unlikely to climb back up to the levels seen in July and would remain volatile.

“We downgraded the market today thinking that in the mid-term it doesn’t look too good, especially after the S&P (Standard and Poor’s) downgrade (of US long-term credit rating).

“It’s prudent that investors start looking at more (alternative) defensive stocks,” he said, suggesting healthcare, media and some consumer stocks.

Eng added that while markets responded positively around mid-day to news that the European Central Bank (ECB) was buying Italian and Spanish bonds, he did not expect the optimism to last.

“It’s not enough what they’re doing at this point,” he said.

An estimated RM26 billion was wiped off the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange on Friday after investors took their cue from the regional meltdown following last week’s rout on Wall Street, the worst since Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008.

Other Asian stocks continued to tumble today as S&P’s first-ever downgrade of US long-term credit rating on Friday continued to batter already weak sentiment.

Tokyo’s Nikkei stock average slid 2.2 per cent to 9,097.56 after dropping as low as 9,057.29, while the broader Topix fell 2.3 per cent to 782.86.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index plunged more than four per cent to hit its lowest level in a year, while the Shanghai Composite Index dropped more than three per cent.

Singapore’s benchmark index fell by 3.39 per cent, Indonesia by 1.82 per cent and Thailand by 0.99 per cent.

An estimated US$2.7 trillion (RM8.13 trillion) was wiped off the value of world stocks last week, according to Reuters.

This post has been edited by MFLooi: Aug 8 2011, 06:36 PM

KL faces property glut as economy bites
UPDATED @ 05:05:46 PM 31-10-2011 By Lee Wei Lian October 31, 2011

CBRE said some luxury condominiums have seen rental yields dive by nearly 50 per cent. — File pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — Kuala Lumpur is facing an impending surge of new office and retail space that could further depress rental yields already under pressure from the current oversupply, said CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) Malaysia today.
The international real estate service firm said the residential market is also beginning to ease as capital appreciation has reached its peak, and rent in some high-end areas of the city have come down by almost 50 per cent.

A combination of a squeeze on rental yields and stagnant capital values could put pressure on over-leveraged investors.

Christoper Boyd, executive chairman of CBRE, said rent for some luxury condominiums in oversupplied markets such as KLCC and Mont Kiara have almost halved, while the office space sector is also looking at an oversupply situation over the next 18 months with the rental market becoming more competitive.

CBRE managing director Allan Soo said KL is set to overtake Singapore in terms of retail space per capita as new malls near completion.

He noted that the Klang Valley currently has 7.1 sq ft of retail space per person, which is equivalent to Singapore, but is set to overtake the city state when approximately 10 million sq ft of planned retail space comes online by 2014.

Soo pointed out, however, that while Singapore’s retail market was strong, KL was a tenant’s market with some malls resorting to paying clients to take up space.

“Here we have to beg tenants,” said Soo.

Figures provided by Soo show that KL’s total retail space is set to grow from 43.7 million sq ft currently spread out among 149 malls and hypermarkets to 53 million sq ft by 2014.

“Our analysis shows that only 43 or one third of the retail centres and hypermarkets are performing,” he said. “You must build grade A, building grade B me too malls won’t work.”

Boyd said that over four million sq ft of office space had come online this year which was far in excess of normal demand.

He said that more than six million sq ft of office space meanwhile is expected next year while 25 million is expected by 2015 excluding the mega-projects of KL Metropolis, PNB’s 100 storey Warisan Merdeka and the Kuala Lumpur International Financial District.

“We’re looking at the supply outstripping demand with a likely impact on rental values,” said Boyd.

The CBRE executive chairman also said that the residential market could see some potential buyers drop out due to issues of affordability.

The Malaysian Insider had earlier reported that investors and home buyers have moved to the sidelines as worries of a global economic slowdown, government cooling measures and uncertainty due to the upcoming general election start to bite.

The consensus among analysts and industry veterans appears to be that sales have slowed as the market enters a cooling phase and will continue to slow as buyers take a “wait-and-see” approach, although a hard crash landing of the property market is not expected unless the economy plunges first.

Property analysts contacted by The Malaysian Insider expect sales to slow from a high of 21 per cent growth last year to between zero and five per cent growth next year or even contract if the economy takes a turn for the worse.

Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/busines...-economy-bites/

Monday, 31 October 2011 17:13
UK house prices fall faster, demand dips
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The fall in house prices in England and Wales accelerated in October as consumers become increasingly worried about the outlook for the economy and shy away from buying homes, property data firm Hometrack said.

Average prices dipped 0.2 percent on the month compared to falls of 0.1 percent in each of the five preceding months, Hometrack said. House prices were 2.8 percent below the October 2010 level.

"Growing consumer concern over the outlook for the economy is beginning to impact directly on house prices," Hometrack Director of Research Richard Donnell said in a statement.

As in previous releases, the survey showed large regional differences, although prices stalled even in London after rising for seven months in a row.

"The evidence is clear that buyers are drifting away from the market in the face of weak consumer confidence and concerns over the prospects for the economy and their household finances," Donnell said.

Hometrack said that while demand eased, supply had grown by 11 percent over the past six months.

"The balance between supply and demand is clearly shifting and points to an acceleration in price falls in the coming months," Donnell said.



- The Star
Source: http://malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?op...d-dips&Itemid=3

MRT stations and Singapore property prices — Ku Swee Yong
December 30, 2011
DEC 30 — As more and more MRT stations are built in Singapore, there has been much discussion over whether the presence of an MRT station will boost the prices of residential units nearby.

Let’s use the recently completed Circle Line for discussion. According to one school of thought, when the Circle Line and the locations of its stations were first announced in the early 2000s, prices of developments within walking distance to the stations started to pick up.

Very quickly, advertisements for developers’ new launches and classified ads placed by real estate agents highlighted the benefits of the future MRT stations: Accessibility and travel convenience, resulting in increased demand from both owner-occupiers and tenants, leading to improved rentals and higher transacted prices.

Some investors believe in entering the market early because with the view that when the MRT stations are completed and the line starts running, the market for residential properties nearby would have already “priced in” the premium of the convenience. There is also a view that in the very long term, most Singaporeans will be living within 500m from an MRT station and any “price premium” arising from such proximity will disappear.

It seems that we still lack solid data to substantiate and quantify the effects. But I think it is correct to say that there is an initial euphoria as sellers of properties around the named stations will immediately raise their prices.

However, what follows after is about five to seven years of construction work for the MRT lines and the stations. During this period, there will be traffic diversions and residents in the vicinity are inconvenienced by the noise, dust and poor traffic conditions.

Based on our observations from serving investors and tenants, expatriates and locals looking for units to rent or buy typically shun condominiums where there is construction nearby. This is especially true for condominiums that suffer limited access due to the construction works for the MRT line and the stations.

For example, residents of LevelZ, Spanish Village and Gallop Gables at Farrer Road were inconvenienced during the construction of the Circle Line’s Farrer Road Station, when there was reduced access to their main entrances. Farrer Road itself had many changes and diversions, with new twists and turns appearing every few months or so. Residents had to bear with dust, noise and the occasional movement of heavy construction equipment. The result: Lower occupancy rates and longer periods of vacancies between tenants, which led to weaker rentals and, in many cases, lower-than-market transaction prices.

As completion nears and the streetscape is brought back to normal, with roads straightened and potholes patched up, prospective tenants are more willing to consider renting these properties in the knowledge that the MRT line will begin operating soon.

Once the station is open, tenants are willing to pay a bit more and may also make quicker decisions on signing the tenancy agreements. Therefore rentals rise and as yields in Singapore remain within 3 per cent per annum, the prices of the condominiums will grow with the rental growth.

It is difficult, almost impossible, to use a standard yardstick to measure the opportunity costs or the relative underperformance of property values affected by MRT construction. Some cases can be pretty obvious as evidenced by the retail outlets around Chun Tin Road and Beauty World Centre. Due to a reduction in parking lots and traffic congestion, patronage of the food outlets is reduced and, therefore, rentals drop.

In the case of residential properties, things are less obvious. Rental data is not rich for comparison and over the five-to-seven-year period, rentals and sale prices may go up or down depending on the overall external economy, en bloc exercises and new launches, etc.

However, we do have snippets of data that can support our empirical observations. From the chart, we can compare the median rental prices for residential properties around Lorong Chuan and Farrer Road MRT Stations over the last three years.

We see that from May to Sept 2009, when Lorong Chuan MRT Station began operating, median rentals climbed 55 per cent from SS$1.97 (RM4.82) per sq ft per month to SS$3.06 psf per month. Over the same period, median rentals along Farrer Road rose about 30 per cent from a three-month average of SS$3.01 psf per month (Note: I have used the average of April to June 2009 because of the spike in May) to SS$3.91 psf per month in Sept 2011. In fact, during the period in May to Dec 2009, when rentals around Lorong Chuan station were creeping up steadily, the average rentals along Farrer Road were flattish, due to the fact that Farrer Road was still in a mess as far as the traffic flow and the MRT construction were concerned.

I would summarise it as such: Prices of residential properties rise due to exuberant expectations when the locations of the MRT stations are announced, subsequently underperform the rest of the market during the construction period, and then trend up again when the work is completed.

So, buy at the correct time: When the MRT stations are about to be completed, not when the stations are announced and certainly not when the construction is at its peak.

In a previous commentary in Today, I had recommended that investors avoid Upper Bukit Timah, Thomson and Upper Thomson, especially the latter locations as two major infrastructure projects will be built at the same time — the North South Expressway and the Thomson MRT line — choking north-south traffic until 2020.

With Circle Line’s Stages 4 and 5 — from Marymount to Harbourfront — running since October and cutting travelling times to Holland Village, Buona Vista, Science Park, NUS, etc, where the working population and student population are high, I am optimistic that the residential markets will begin to show rental and price growth.

Furthermore, I believe that price growth will not be limited to the two new stages. Stage 3 of the Circle Line (Bartley to Marymount) began operations in May 2009, while Stages 1 and 2 (Dhoby Ghaut to Bartley) commenced services last April. Looking at the potential of the residential segments across these stations, I believe there are several locations that are particularly promising:

1) At Bartley MRT Station, where works on the Bartley viaduct and the Paya Lebar underpass had inconvenienced traffic for several years, watch out for a new condominium launching soon between Lorong How Sun and Bartley Road. This residential precinct has been neglected by investors for a while due to the lack of new projects and the traffic situation. Now that traffic has improved and the environment is nice and neat like it used to be over 10 years ago, property values can begin to rise with the convenience of the expressways and the Circle Line.

2) Lorong Chuan MRT Station is surrounded by a cluster of private condominiums. Several international schools and major shopping malls are within a five-to-10 minute drive. In the past, a resident here would take 30 minutes to an hour to commute by public transport to Alexandra, Pasir Panjang or NUS. Today it takes 20 to 40 minutes. The 10-year-old condominiums there are priced at SS$800 to SS$1,100psf, with rental yields of 3.5 per cent per annum and higher.

3) Pasir Panjang MRT Station, where freehold condominiums are trading around SS$1,000psf. I would consider them undervalued relative to mass market locations at the same price level, given that these condominiums are within a five-to-10 minute drive to the financial district and both the integrated resorts. — Today

* Ku Swee Yong is the founder of real estate agency International Property Advisor, specialising in property services for high-net-worth clients. He is the author of Real Estate Riches: Understanding Singapore’s Property Market in a Volatile Economy.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.

Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sidevie...s-ku-swee-yong/

Exactly !

The BKt Jalil Highway is designed to allow construction of 3rd lanes. It was said so 7 years ago, it still said the same thing!

This post has been edited by MFLooi: Dec 30 2011, 12:56 PM

There is a heavy traffic jam in the morning at Putra Permai. The jam will start waaaaaaaaay before the traffic light of the Putra Permai Giant before you can turn right into the Silk Highway.

The 4 lanes will then merge into 2 lanes at before over head bridge (Sierra 16). Once there, the traffic will diverge into:
1. Left: to South (Cyberjaya, Bangi, Putrajaya, Maju Express Way, SKVE)
2. Right: To Puchong, Shah Alam, etc

So, whichever way you wish to take from Zest to Cyberjaya in the mornings between 7 - 10am week days, YOU WILL HAVE JAM. Though next week will be much better as its the school holidays.

This apply to all the neighborhoods in Puchong as this is, after all, the new Local Center Gravity (LCG).

Do you know that soon you can fulfill your obligation to GOD as a sacred ground could be built infront of TZ entrance once MPSJ approves it.

This post has been edited by MFLooi: Apr 17 2012, 11:21 AM

Five times a day. Atleast now all BK9 residents, doesn't need to travel far to conduct your obligations . Its even better for The Zest resident. You just have walk and cross the road.
Best of all, you will be reminded five times a day so you won't miss your obligations. What a great arrangement!
I wonder whether classes will be conducted nightly and shared out to all the nearby community? What do you think?

wow..
1. Convenience of a sacred ground for intimate time between souls and GOD just opposite The Zest
2. Multicultural tenant .. 1 World .. dominated by african abashedly sharing their body secrements ..http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1986414/+2260
3. LRT being abandoned after GE? ...

and you pay ONLY RM400++ psf for all of this. I guess that is the right price for the best convenience.

This post has been edited by MFLooi: Apr 23 2012, 10:55 PM