I have friend who also hopes everyday for the past several years for the home price in Penang to come down. In the end, he bought a property in Alor Setar for RM200K which has a appreciation to about RM280K after a few years.
Instead of betting solely on home prices to come down, you should have plan B, C and D. Example, If the homes in KL are too expensive, maybe you should consider investing in a property further away, not to stay but as an investment. In KL, rent a place as a home. Your investment property will appreciate (or for rental) and maybe in the future, you can sell it to fund your dream home in KL.

About 3 years ago, a single storey semi D.

Well, the way prices are going up, soon the middle class will be renting low cost.
I say it with genuine bemusement.

This is not to hentam gold investors. I invest a bit in it as well.
I think there are better instrumenets to invest in (Google what Warren Buffet say about Gold investment). For all the gold that is produced, only some is actually used to produce things. The rest are held by investers and also "doomsday" preppers. When people say it can go up and up, I doubt it actually. Why? Because, people keep producing new supply of gold every year, especially if the price is so high. If prices became very high, people will will start extracting gold from places which were previously deemed uneconomic. Eg. recycling gold from printed circuit boards which people are doing now.
Or syntesis gold itself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_synthesis#Gold.
Unless gold producing is controlledby cartels (like oil producing countries).

By all means invest in gold but diversify.

O&G will be strong for about 20 years. By that time other alternative energy (solar, wind, hydrogen fuel) will contribute more significantly. And the way we use energy will also make a strong case - example electric vehicles, energy efficient appliances. The drivers are sometimes more political than economical. Example, the US wants to gradually wean off their dependence on foreign oil. And Europe wants to wean off their dependence on gas from Rusia, hence their aggressive expansion into solar energy.

good point but,

quote from wiki

"The consumption of gold produced in the world is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_gold#Applications

And you can also recycle products to exctract the gold.
Once you burn fuel - well , its gone.

Thanks for sharing.
Simple but great idea.

There was a time in Holland , tulips were worth more than a house.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

"Steve Ballmer presided over the greatest declines over 5 years?" Really. Apart from the crash in 2008 (almost all shares went south briefly at that time), the share price has been steady.
As for Intel, in the last 20 years (maybe not last 5 years), Intel shares has created many millionaire engineers/managers in Penang.

Exactly. Every business, comodity and investment idea will have its up and downs. Look at Apple, a great company, but trading way below its high.
The trick is to switch between these investments at the right time.
Most of the richest guys in the world diversify and never bet on one horse.

And the truth lies somewhere in between.

bro, don't get to emotional-lah. The GST if it happens will affect all MALAYSIANS.

What is you are assuming is people paying tax now will get their income tax lowered in place of GST ala Singapore.
Personally, I don't think so, because the deficit is too high, and the govt has a lot more promises to fulfill. Lets see what happens.

Well since Selangor was not captured. He might not unleash in Selangor but in Sabah and Sarawak instead.

With GST, building material will go up.
So property building cost goes up.
And developer charge higher price.
The question is how much more? - 5%-10% more?
The question will then come down to - will customer accept higher price?
Will this 5% drive customers away?
I guess maybe just like the time petrol price went up - people started using motor bike, public transport, car pooling, NGV - but eventually just accept the higher price.

You have consider many things before you migrate to Australia.
If you are a doctor ,dentist, IT, nurse, maybe can make it. Or a mining engineer, civil engineering.
Manufacturing there is dying as the AUD is too high. A huge production from there was transfered to Penang, because manufacturing cost is high.
If you are still young, and don't mind suffering a bit for several months, don't mind odd jobs, have strong metal toughness, you can try to go.

You got some points. But if our debt is not controlled, a debt rerating will occur (more expensive debt). My worry is that the govt will look for cheaper source of debt - like our EPF, and other retirement funds. Also, the govt will look for other forms of income source - other forms of taxes, etc. If our ringgit becomes weaker, interest rates may go up.

I think people shouldn't label themselves "down" or "up" camp. It puts ourselves in a non flexible situation. Regardless, of a lousy or a good economy, there are hidden gems to be uncovered. In short whether we are in the "down" or "up" camp, we will always look for good value investing. And people should not be bothered about how many properties other people buy - its dependent on the amount of resource that they have. This is a neutral's point of view and is not meant to offend anybody. I hope everybody cool down and just have fun sharing and learning something new from each other. I don't think property investment is a zero sum game.

This post has been edited by tigana: May 26 2013, 11:20 PM