I used to be an avid property investor and speculator.

Klang valley and most urban area properties are no longer good investments unless you bought them pre-2010.

Cash flow? Nope. There isn’t any positive cash flow properties you can invest in any longer. Most are too expensive and rental rarely ever covers cost of ownership and maintenance.

Capital appreciation? Nope, most Klang valley properties are in stagnation and if you have a brickz account you’ll know that the secondary market isn’t moving all that much. Inflation however is eating into the value of your wealth.

Is it still a viable investment? Oh it depends, I own several old aged care homes and recently opened a confinement centre, if I didn’t buy the property then these businesses are at the mercy of a landlord. It’s a decent instrument if you’re fairly young and using it as a means for retirement or saving for your kids higher education, yes there are many better instruments but don’t bullshit yourself that you understand these instruments all that well as you’re probably not Warren Buffett.

Is it a good time to buy? It’s a buyers market now but it’s a good time to buy a nicer place for own dwelling. A decent time to buy something for each of your kids if you’re not planning on sending them overseas. It’s also a fantastic time to invest in property for certain business needs.

But the absolute best type of property you could invest in are freehold agriculture land that doesn’t have any type of ownership restrictions. If you find a piece of it especially if it has water and electric infra in place you better quickly snap it as soon as possible.

If you’re a developer now is a good time to increase your land bank.

If you’re a successful farmer now is a good time to buy more land.

If you’re a successful restauranteur and don’t own your own premise or want to expand your premise then now is a good time to buy a new shop.

If you’re a manufacturer or industrialist then now is a fantastic time to buy a factory.

If you operate nursing or confinement homes like me and fairly successful at it then there’s no better time then now to source for new properties to expand.

Along that lines.

Most PJ DST that are 20x70 are going for around RM800-900k for a basic unit without any extensions. Check out Taman Mayang area.

Below RM800k? Yup, 18x60 ones, SS5, SS7 and some parts of SS3 and SS4 are around that these days.

22x70 for below RM800k? Can if you're willing to stay near HTC, face T-junction or near something else deemed undesirable.

PJ houses aren't any hotter or cooler than other homes built during the similar period.

Personally not that big into PJ DSTs though born and raised till 11 at various PJ houses. Now I don't find them to be all that appealing to live in as many of them the road and townplanning didn't move on with time, streets that should be 1 way isn't 1 way and their commercial areas are mostly stuck in their past glory and fails to attract a younger crowd.

If I were to buy a DST today then it would be in either Bangsar, Damansara or TTDI but I rather not live in a DST as I don't like having neighbours, especially Asian neighbours.

People often mistake listed/asking price as the price it will sell.

Also some people take the values they saw at brickz.my as the true gospel of how much a property sold for and usually forget that there could have been overvaluation in order for the buyer to pay less in deposits.

But are people buying?

Transaction data seems to show the market is all but dead.

But that’s still a near 20 year old house.

The maintenance on such a house don’t come cheap.

Those props are also down from their highs, most that are transacted are well below market value.

Too bad in this country most people won’t pay for quality.

Everything want cheap cheap.

When a developer builds a development, there are more to it than just the house.

They also need to cover the infra, these are by no means cheap to provide especially these days.

No one does business for free.

Yes??

I guess you didn't ask him how much his salary was at that time and why he didn't buy more of them?