That's the size of the master room of my new house KL really is "golden"

@jeff_ckf,
Not ALL houses in KL fetch that kinda value `k? It's all about location location location!

I was actually suprised by the size of the studio unit rather than the price....400 sq ft??

You'll be even more suprised when you know how much rental these shoe-box unit can fetch

Guess that's why I can't live in KL too poor

The location is in Bukit mertajam, penang. The price increase 2k again. The good location now mostly booked by other people already.

Waiting for fire sale about two years from now ...

Interesting statement !

May I ask how do you know there would be a fire-sale in two years from now ?

Because if the said fire-sale does not come along, then you would have incurred opportunity cost. Your money would have earned more elsewhere.

I have learnt my lessons from previous fire sale, a.k.a 1997 financial crisis. Below is my 'forecast'
1. People lose jobs.
2. People try to hold on everything because they do not want to admit they cannot afford all these.
3. More people lose jobs.
4. People start to sell anything besides the primary residential properties
5. More and more people lose jobs.
6. Because of losses in other areas, some even lose primary residential properties


I hope my 'forecast' is wrong because it is not pretty

Actually I am not the only one who 'predict' this. Read this thread

I too anticipate that there will be a downturn in the economy in the next 1-2 years. And when there's a downturn, property will drop in price from current levels. Whether it will reach 'fire sale' levels is hard to say but it will soften.

But the real question is: when the downturn comes, is property the best thing to pick up?

I belived the 'softening' can be seen now. If you look in the streets, there are less cars and less traffic jams now.

What do the others here observe ?

I think this is a very noticeable occurence.

After reading this whole thread, so, what can we take advantage out from here? Save more and more now, wait for the moment when firesale, recession, people lose job selling properties then we go buy.

Of course. That's if you manage to save

Let's assume Jan 2009 recession, June 2009 10% of people lose jobs, 2010 more and more people lose job. So if people lose job selling property, I guess is around 2011. So you have to wait for 3 more years before you can get a house. But not everyone can wait for 3 more years, if they need a house around 1 or 2 years.

How old are you now vaio_me?

Almost reaching 30 when the recession time, do yo u think is a golden time? Saving now and keep on looking for opportunity.

Hotlink, seems like you are able to count the effects and able to predict the recession, if it comes. But have you been through a recession before ?

I mean have a personal experience in a recession ? If you have, then I would think you are able to foretell then.

---

Added on June 13, 2008, 3:58 pmI'm afraid I have to agree with Syd here. If you are only starting to save now to accumulate bullets for the recession, then, it will be difficult because now that all things have gone up in price, your expenses will be high.

Previously, when things around us were cheaper, that would have been the time to save. .....

This post has been edited by Lawyer1: Jun 13 2008, 03:58 PM

it may sound straight forward, but how much money will you have by the time? it will be very hard to get bank loan, you have to pay cash if you were to buy in auction, worse comes to worse, you might lose job yourself, then you need the money to sustain you and your family...hahaha...money goes away easily..

I personally feel that during the actual recession, u really need balls made of steel to actually buy a property. Reason :


1. Banks r too afraid to lend you money even if you could afford to pay the sky-rocketting interest.

2. Everybody around u will be telling u to keep your cash, cash is king, properties is expensive etc, times r bad.....negative feel that will drag u down.

3. U dunno if you will still be employed next month, hence should you really take the risk DURING A RECESSION?

4. You then realized that good property's value doesnt drop that much, UNLESS we're talking about massive supply VS average demand.

@Pai,

The funny thing is .. now with the economy tumbling down, the rates of homeloans are getting more attractive. I guess they're channeling their money more towards secured loans these days.

Cash IS king. Rawr.

This is not funny at all.

Ekonomi Asas taught us that interest rates should be raised to counter inflation.

At the same time, our ailing economy require the people to keep spending money.

Do you think our BNM unaware of this?

They foresee such a situation already, so they roll out PIDB to take over the Govt's responsibility of guaranteeing deposit in commercial bank.

At this rate of inflation, a 1-2% increase in BLR is enough to make quite a number of people homeless.