You know what, you are absolutely spot on! Property prices up a few years keep whining. Cars have been a bubble since god knows when. You see the number of expensive cars like city, civic, accord, vios, forte etc. Yes, those are freaking expensive cars for Malaysians. Notice I did not even mention the BMWs and the Merc. Those are astronomical in terms of Malaysian's level of income. Yet, Malaysians happily drive them. No complaints, man. Got lah, got complain, but nothing one, accept it and move on lo. The same thing with property, complain lah, but nothing much can be done lah. want to complain, start with the car first...persevere until you get the prices down..then only target property...

Relative to cars, Malaysian property should go up another 200%. Then, we can justify the car prices.

Prob with got face onot ma. Many young kids driving luxury cars picking up leng lui. Whereas there r minority of down to earth ppl drive lauya cars collecting rental.

Of cos, its not an advise to many ppl to buy now. The arguement might go back to yrs ago tat 1 should not hav waited to invest in props. And who would guarantee the market ll goes up or down with onli some crap analysis. If the charts shown tat PIGS is goin 6 ft under, then who r those tat oso missed the boat in KLCI in the recent GE??? Facts shown tat ajibkor is palia 1, but many make handsome profit in KLCI.

Noone can guarantee a market crash or boom with some articles which reflected personal "I THINK SO". Just buy or sell if u think u r comfortable with the decision made.

Well said.

Malaysia's currency, bond markets face vicious sell-off
Ringgit at 3-year lows; government bond yields driven to 2 1/2-year high

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/premium/ma...s-sell-20130806

Wow... more and more good news...

RM weaken can help in CPO export. I blif there r some CPO company laughing to sleep tis few wks.

We have to look at things in perspective.

Cars' prices in Malaysia are expensive in relative to our general incomes when compared to other countries.
That being said, its prices are low as a percentage of our income when compared to properties.
If someone has an annual salary of RM72k, then a Vios is probably worth about a year's salary.
But that same someone might need to fork out five or six times the amount for a property.
Thus, the burden from property loans are five or six times higher than a car's loan.

Secondly, who said cars prices never crash? It 'crashed' the moment the first purchaser signed the forms.
Except for my first Proton, I had never purchased a brand new car before. I would go for subsales, especially for those around one year old European cars.

That is what I argued on V11 about Malaysians psychology on purchasing. People know that the super expensive cars in Malaysia will go down the moment you turn on the key and start the engine but they keep on buying. How will properties will ever go down?

So if a Vios is worth a year salary of 72k, then a house that is worth 720k is worth only 10 years salary, no? Now is not that affordable? Then factor in cars depreciating then you know which purchase is value for money. And factor in as well for property loans, the interest is reducing balance.

Yeah I know, I told these guys we should do action plan for car price instead of properties. And the no 1 bankruptcy reason for Malaysians are defaulting car loans.

Yes, you are right when you said it is smarter (from purely financial point of view) to purchase property than car.

However the pyschological part cannot be applied on property. People know Apple's products are more expensive, yet there are die hard fans who is willing to pay due to various reasons. One of the most important reason is the relative price versus income. It might be RM500 more expensive compared to other brands, but that RM500 is minor in contrast to RM72k annual income. So people will just think, "What the heck, it's only RM500 more. Let's do it!"

It's the same for cars versus properties. It is not financially wise to pay RM50k more for a car, but people are more willing to do it because the total mortgage could be only 1-2 years worth of the salary. But to pay RM200-300k more, now that's another story. People will feel more fearful to commit to a loan worth 10 years of their salaries compared to 1-2 years' worth.

Secondly, I always talk about affordability. For someone earning RM72k, it might NOT be financially wise to purchase a RM100k car compared to purchasing a RM300k property. This is something I agree. But wise or not, he still can afford the RM100k car. But he can't afford, even if he wants to, buy a property worth RM700k.

And there is a mismatch between affordability and prices in the property market. How many million ringgit properties are in the market, and what is the percentage of people who can actually 'afford' them?

ya la, last time if buy house now can change car for free...but if still dun change now, few years down the road, can upgrade few "ma-si-li"

"It's the same for cars versus properties. It is not financially wise to pay RM50k more for a car, but people are more willing to do it because the total mortgage could be only 1-2 years worth of the salary. But to pay RM200-300k more, now that's another story. People will feel more fearful to commit to a loan worth 10 years of their salaries compared to 1-2 years' worth."

Secondly, I always talk about affordability. For someone earning RM72k, it might NOT be financially wise to purchase a RM100k car compared to purchasing a RM300k property. This is something I agree. But wise or not, he still can afford the RM100k car. But he can't afford, even if he wants to, buy a property worth RM700k."

This part is the psychology fren. Malaysian have been brainwashed to accept that cars are always affordable when it is actually not but properties only recently people make noise that it is not affordable. And I disagree if you say that he can't afford the 700k property, he can afford it but just don't want too. I would swap 7 cars worth 100k for a property worth 700k any day. And committing a loan worth 10 years for a property is actually a good thing. And giving yourself as example, you bought more than 1 car in your life.

You can ask any ex pat who live in Malaysia and ask them what do they think about the price of cars in Malaysia. And then maybe can ask them what do they think the price of properties in Malaysia too. I highlighted that these expat who accept the offer from the gov to make Malaysia as a second home, the governemnt let them have one car ( or two cars?) purchased tax free. The gov pampered the ex pats but like torturing malaysians citizens.

am i in F&F thread..?????

what is F&F? sorry i blur

Fast and Furious...the only worthy Car thread in MY!

P.S. It's also in Lowyat forum.

many thanks!!!

These are minimum benchmark for urbanites today:

Buy latest Samsung gadget,
Buy first foreign car,
Buy Burberry wallet or Coach bag for girlfriend,
Buy first highrise property new or subsale,
Eat TGIF or Chillis or chillout in bar such as WIP Bangsar,
Party in Sepang (events) or Zouk,
Watch latest Hollywood movie in cinema with girlfriend,
Fitness gym membership and/or participate in StanChart marathon,
Go travel to Bangkok on AirAsia,
Go overseas to Korea or Japan or Australia on AirAsia X

Despite we say Malaysians have low purchasing power but we still spend like nobody's biz, in fact better than many urbanites of the same age group even those from America.

This post has been edited by accetera: Aug 12 2013, 11:48 AM

This's good news too

You can swap 7 RM100k cars for one RM700k properties, but in the first place who would have brought 7 cars at one go?

Ok, you think a person earning RM6k can 'afford' a RM700k property. Let's do a rough calculation:
Gross Salary at RM6000.
After EPF etc, RM5200

Food = RM900
Electricity, water, telephone =RM300
Travelling =RM450 (no car, only travel by taxi and bus)
Household groceries/cleaning etc=RM150
Insurance=RM250
General entertainment/expenses=RM200
Total RM2250
Balance RM2950.

Based on the month mortgage payment of RM2950 above, the amount of loans he could probably get is roughly only around RM620k, which is at already very low prevailing rate of BLR-2.4%.

Remember, for above I didn't factor in:
1) Car installment, which is a necessity in Malaysia, unfortunately.
2) Saving or investment for rainy days
3) Children's education and parent's pocket money
4) Income tax payment and other assessment fees

If die die also must do, I'm sure that person can buy a RM700k property. At the current interest rate, at least. What will happen if the rate adjusts upward? I remember those days when BLR shoot up from 6 point something % to 8-9% within 2 years. I think it was back in 1996-97. For those too young to remember, yes, it is real.

In the above scenario, RM700k loan is NOT 'affordable' to someone earning RM6k in the real sense of the word. To me, something is 'affordable' when you can own it, and still live a fairly comfortable and good quality life.

Maybe many youngsters who came out to work in the past 10 years are so used to easy credit and low interest environment, so they feel everything is 'affordable'.
Perhaps that explains why our debt level is soaring in the past few years.

Well dont swap 7 cars at 1 go. It is like your purchasing the first car for the first two years. Then chnage to a new car..then change again. Change 7 times.

And if rate adjusts in the future, then I am sure for somebody who earned 6k now, his pay should adjust again in a years time. Ok depends on ur age, if u are young, lots of potential upside. Saw a thread a few weeks ago late 20s and saying he is in low income category. Well what can I say, 8k and he still consider himself low income and in late 20s summore and cant afford to buy property. And the thread started 2 years ago I think.

ANd maybe should factor in bonus as well for the scenario that you put above. Should be alright, if u sacrifice buying a car.

CPO is priced in MYR not USD.