value drop 50%? highly unlikely....unless those super luxury condo which are speculated deeply...then no commen

Just my 2 cent.
Your salary increase rate is forever unable to catchup with the properties price increase rate, unless you have your own business. If you are just a normal man like me, every months end waiting for the salary, and no other better investment plan, please don't wait further. Just buy now. The properties price won't wait for us. Most of the people buy properties with taking bank loan with the lowest interest rate, maximize the tenure, and minimize the monthly installment.

This unfortunately is why the RE market has imploded in the US UK and EUROzone. It was surprising to me to see how expensive RE (over 8x income) is for the average Malay. Forever didnt and doesnt exist in these mentioned markets and now others like Canada, Australia and China are on the verge of a massive correction.

Credit Expansion for the last 15 years has proven that low rates, relaxed lending practises, extended ammortizations and loose monetary policy has made RE a loosing proposition for investment in the western world and the Keynesian Model was not sustainable.

Moving here from HK just over a year ago I looked at home prices. The home we occupy is in fact sitting at 8x income but can be rented for 4x income which is deemed "moderately affordable" as 3.5x would be "reasonably affordable" and 3x "affordable".

Note that these 8x levels are comparable to those countries which have crashed and those about too, to the point where even the printing of money (stimulus) and keeping low rates running have not worked matched with new home buying programs etc etc. We have hit the wall on consumer spending, jobs and income so DEFLATION has entered and will be with those countries for years until the bottom in unemployment can be put in.

With asset deflation comes increases in public taxes, utilities, income tax and everything from fuel to food making way for inflation down the road. If you think owning a home is unaffordable now, just wait until DEFLATION hits our shores. You cannot defend that Malaysia will be saved from this. I used to think we were slightly better off given our perceived bubble was not as great as the rest of Asia, ie CHINA, HK, SING but this 8x income is true evidence we are in trouble.

NOW, if you dont believe any of the above, and this may be true for someone either highly dillusional, unable to take view outside the Malaysian shores or feels limited to alternative investment may I bring you to the unstoppable demographic who will bring all things into play as described above ---- BABY BOOMERS!

Most Boomers have all their money tied (not unlike most globally) into RE and they are counting on these funds for retirement. These Boomers in US UK EURO have already been forced to sell to both access liquid funds to cover current retirement costs or downsize substantially from McMansions into smaller dwellings. This demographic sucked all sub prime and even prime mortgage holders into negative equity which keeps going down every day they cannot get out. Countries on the verge of bubbles popping have seen the writing on the wall and now getting out on the front end to net highest profit, again to sit on the sidelines and actually retire so they dont OUTLIVE THEIR MONEY!

If the US is any blueprint for failure and what the future holds given this massive demographic in BOOMERS who's needs are unstoppable, then you have to look at options.

Now to step off the soapbox!

The avg. Malaysian always has a choice. For those who have been sitting in properties for over 5 years, you are probably okay if you view your RE strictly as HOME (somewhere you live and enjoy with your family and can absorb a drop of say 30%). Those who view their RE as an INVESTMENT should look at potentially freeing up these funds in liquid form anticipating the drop.

For those who have purchased within the last 3 years or so, you really need to understand the risk you take for you and your family at this time and for likely the next 5-7 years as the GREAT GLOBAL RESET takes place.

My advice is simple. If you dont need to own just sell. Take your gains if any, go back into a rental which is half the cost of ownership and take either the profits and/or savings monthly and get into safe yielding dividend investements via banks or utilities and sit on the sidelines waiting to enter other opportunities as RE will be deemed negative for some time to come.

If you subscribe to this strategy like I do, there is one more thing you need to be ready for that is fiat currency devaluation on a global scale. The RM is strong right now as the USD is lowering mostly on recovery "talk" and an increase in oil prices. Dont buy into it as it's a false as the previous heighs put in around 2007. The USD is still the world reserve currency and is likely the last currency to fall (best of a bad bunch). Eventually the USD will need to drop to be competitive with the others and this is when you want to revisit your asset allocation, drop your liquidity play and get back into hard assets while they are both valued at the bottom and a weak currency in place.

I am sorry to say very few will be able to follow through with this strategy so I am certain that the above will occur to some level. I am safe to forcast the future in the developed world to a fairly reliable level but for Malaysia I still have some more work to do but getting close. I am happy to live here and feel it might be one destination which could be much better off than others given it's cost of living and domestic assets but it doesnt change my investement strategy one bit on the Global scale.

This has been my 10 cents! Good Luck to All!

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Added on August 5, 2010, 1:31 pmWednesday, August 4, 2010
Andy Xie on China’s Empty Apartments

I recall a presentation on China at the Asia Society on the eve of the financial crisis, in which an economist commented on China’s extremely low interest rate on deposits (less than 1%) versus its markedly higher inflation rate, and commented that that was a recipe for hyperinflation. Well, that hasn’t been and is unlikely to be the result. Instead, we are seeing an even more extreme version of what negative real interest rates in the US produced: leveraged asset speculation, particularly in the biggest asset class, residential real estate.

Recent articles in media have illustrated how out of line prices are with incomes and rental yields. Reader Glenn Stehle highlighted a key factoid in a recent New York Times article on China’s real estate bubble boom:

And as the prices of new apartments soar — in Shanghai, for instance, they often exceed $200,000, while the average disposable income is about $4,000 a year — the trend also threatens to undermine the central government’s goal of affordable housing for the rising middle class.

We noted that the Chinese officialdom is worried about the social implications of overpriced housing. Richard Smith, who provided a series of posts on China’s real estate markets (here and here), tried making sense of the investment math:

The residential RE stuff is completely baffling: the valuation differences between cities are large; but none of them look cheap. Shanghai may be extreme – but even at the more modest (!) house price = 8x salary in other cities, a 30-year mortgage @ 6% or so takes 60% of gross average income (unless my calcs are completely shot) . So I can’t understand who is buying housing at all or how or what they are living on – even if the parents and grandparents are helping out their 1 child, it is quite a stretch. Rental yields 2-4% depending on location so that’s no good if there’s much gearing.

Another piece of the puzzle comes from Andy Xie (Caixin via MarketWatch), that the number of vacant apartments in China, the result of speculative warehousing (purchased as an investment but kept vacant) plus new construction languishing unsold is much greater than commonly realized:

How many flats in China are sitting empty? The media recently floated a story — denied by power companies — that 64.5 million urban electricity meters registered zero consumption over a recent, six-month period. That led to a theory that China has enough empty apartments to house 200 million people….

What especially distinguishes China’s property bubble…is an unprecedented amount of living space. This huge stock of empty flats equals the nation’s quantity bubble.

Quantity bubbles are less common than price bubbles, and they don’t last as long…A quantity bubble is sometimes a construction bubble, and it fizzles out when a building cycle turns over, crashing prices as soon as new supply becomes available….

Quantity and price bubbles may grow together. Southeast Asia, for example, experienced a quantity-cum-price bubble that lasted several years in the 1990s. As regional currencies were pegged to the dollar, loose monetary conditions were imported from the United States, fueling a property bubble. Due to few restrictions on urban development, rising prices led to massive increases in supply. Liquidity inflow fueled speculative demand. But when U.S. monetary policy tightened, the market crashed and triggered the Asian Financial Crisis…

One useful figure for analysts is China’s living space per capita….Based on this limited data, however, we can confidently conclude that China does not have a housing shortage. Moreover, its per-capita living space is higher than in Europe and Japan. Indeed, if we adopt Japan’s standard, China already has sufficient urban housing space for every man, woman and child in the country.

Far more important than general data, however, are the housing figures pointing to a huge quantity of empty flats apparently being held only for speculation.

In a normal market, the vacancy rate should be equal to the number of households relocating, times the average transition period, plus newly formed households times the average purchase period. For example, a vacancy rate of 1.5% could accommodate a market in which 6% of households relocate every year, and the transit time is three months. If new household formation is 3%, and the average period for a property purchase is six months, this factor requires a vacancy rate of another 1.5%. The total normal vacancy rate should be 3%. This figure includes the new properties ready for sale.

Although the government doesn’t publish vacancy data, I think the vacancy rate for the nation’s private, commercial housing stock is between 25% and 30%. That’s at least double what’s required in a normal market. The gap between what’s needed and what’s available can be viewed as speculative inventory. The value of this inventory held by speculators is probably around 15% of GDP. It’s being kept on ice, just as copper and other commodities are hoarded in anticipation of rising prices…

Right now, tight credit is holding back the market, and supply is piling up on the developer side as inventory. The government’s tightening squeezed buyers of second and third homes, and transaction volumes across the country collapsed. What I’ve learned from intermediaries is that most property demand now falls into restricted categories, i.e., speculative.

It’s reasonable to assume, therefore, that the supply would be close to 15% of GDP in value this year and in 2011. That’s because when the policy is relaxed — as most expect — speculation will probably revive and lead to a doubling in the total value of speculative inventory.

Chances are good that policy makers will indeed relax policy. In some cities, banks are already loosening a bit. A key reason is that local governments have a lot of debt — commonly five times more debt than revenue — and could get into financial trouble without a decent level of property transactions.

Local governments in China depend on real-estate deals for revenue and could default if the market falls too far. Thus, the central government may loosen policy to help the locals without making a formal announcement. Such a change of heart would ease short-term government difficulties but double the trouble down the road when the property bubble bursts.

So even if China’s stock of empty flats is only half that recent estimate of 64.5 million, it would still be equivalent to 20% of all urban households. That’s higher than Taiwan’s vacancy rate at the peak of its bubble. Moreover, as credit rules are loosened, the stock could rise to more than 30%.

China’s housing oversupply isn’t surprising. Excess supply reflects the under-pricing of capital, and China’s system is structured to increase supply quickly. But rising prices alongside rising vacancy rates are surprising. Normally, speculators are spooked by high vacancy rates. But China’s phenomenon is unique for at least four reasons:

1) A sustained negative real interest rate has led to a falling demand for money and rising appetite for speculation. Greed and inflation fears are working together to form unprecedented speculative demand for property.

2) A massive amount of gray income is seeking safe haven. China’s gray income of various sorts could be around 10% of GDP. In an environment of rising inflation with a depreciating dollar — the traditional safe haven — China’s rising property market is becoming a preferred place to park this money.

3) Few people in China have experienced a property bubble. The property crash in the 1990s touched a small segment of society, such as foreigners and state-owned enterprises. Geographically, it was restricted to the country’s freewheeling zones in Hainan, Guangdong and Shanghai. Most people didn’t even know there was a property crash. This ignorance has led to a lack of fear that’s now turbo-charging greed.

4) Speculators think the government won’t let property prices fall. They correctly surmise that local governments rely on property deals for money and do all they can to prop up prices. But their faith in government omnipotence is misplaced. At the end of the day, the market is bigger than the government. The government can delay, but not abolish, market forces. Nevertheless, faith in government is replacing fears of a downside, and speculative demand will continue to grow as long as credit is available….keeping interest rates low will only worsen the nation’s bubble problem. Periodic credit tightening and crackdowns on speculation won’t work because they are not taken seriously and never last….

One only needs to glance at modern-day price and quantity property bubbles around the world to understand the stark consequences. What’s happening to the U.S. economy now is a prime example, and it should be lesson for us. Otherwise, China’s economy will look like America’s.

Notice the bind China is in. It has to keep the bubble going to preserve local government finances. They’ve become a classic Minsky Ponzi unit. And efforts to move away from the dollar as reserve currency, something which China desires from a practical and prestige perspective, only makes the domestic bubble worse.

We’ve pointed out repeatedly that creditor nations typically fare the worst in severe financial crises. China appears to be defying that pattern, but the implosion of its real estate bubble may prove it to be no exception.

This post has been edited by Onemorething: Aug 5 2010, 01:31 PM

Thanks you for the insight of the story. But believe it or not, when you look around the internet and read some of the articlse posted on the blog. You will know that there is a lot of problem arise from the low interest rate which FED kept low for so many year.

Hot money had been pouring into the Real Estate for so long and everyone is waiting it to burst . CHINA, HONG KONG, AUSTRALIA, SINGAPORE, you named it. But understand that the media kept quiet even they knew something was seriously wrong. We have been seeing empty housing, shoplet, flat, condo, for the last few year. SO MAKE SURE YOU KNOW BOTH SIDE OF THE STORY BEFORE YOU VENTURE INTO NEW STUFFS.

I like your view, and noticed most of your replies were anticipating a major meltdown.
any prediction of how far in the future will this happen to Malaysia? and how high will the interest rate go?

I see major problems for the developed countries due to sovereign debt. Eventually the manipulation of markets will end as there will be nothing left to try. For the US, UK and Eurozone especially after the last G20 meeting confirmed not all countries were willing to take the same position on debt and repaying it so I fear a more disconnected global reset is going to occur. This is not a good sign.

Malaysia has not been spared from global market problems as we know. The REAL downturn will come slowly and in a lengthy form so I am bearish on RE for the next 3-5 years minimum and then it will muddle along for another 3 years after (so no hurry to jump in). Note that the average buyer of RE in CHINA (not in the major cities) is avg. 8x income and in Shanghai/Beijing is estimated at 12-15x income. When this market corrects, it will be very bearish for all of Asia and would accelerate the downturn in pace and % down in HK-SING and Malaysia. A 3-5 year prediction could come in 2 years!

I believe Malaysia has alot going for it but I am very concerned about affordability at 8x+ income for the avg Malay and how rates and somewhat loose lending practices has led to this especially over the last 3-5 years. Malaysia has marketed RE purchases the same way as the western world mostly with the same offers and therefore will suffer the same fate to some extent.

Rates will only be a small factor in this as shown in developed nations as well (keeping rates low has not stopped housing from falling). Boomer demographics, major losses of wealth and higher costs of living are driving people out of RE which is in turn driving valuation down. When your house is under water (market value less than what you own) the bank comes knocking. Recent increases in delinquencies in Malaysia supports this!

If you want to know my view on rates, they may go up another 1% over the next 18 months which is also bearish for RE but it is the above which is the problem. Look at AUS raising rates which only forced buyers to jump in both feet. AUS is now deemed the largest bubble in the developed world followed by Canada and yes CHINA. Canada just reported a 40%+ avg drop in RE sales from June to July as homes in May June which listed and went in a bidding war up 10-15% from asking are now selling at 10-15% discounted off asking. That's a 20-30% drop in prices!

Obama will take the USA into more stimulus before the mid term elections in November as he tries to maintain his seat. I believe the US citizens have woken up and will not take this ongoing debt lying down. I see a repeat in the stock market.

Interesting times are always ahead of us but this time it will lead to massive changes and shifts in the consumer. The consumer will demand that RE be affordable once again and I also believe it will actually trendy to rent again only because you will have no choice.

If buying means 8x income and renting 4x income there is a real problem here. WHY WOULD YOU OWN! If cost of living and servicing the loan goes from 60% of your net income to 70 or 80% due to increase in rates and cost of living, you wont be able to own. The key is to get out at the top take profits and sideline yourself, live a healthy life and invest your disposable income into liquid appreciating investements. Also note that when RE drops so does rental prices so there is even more money available but it all comes down to employment so hope that in this next phase you can keep your job.

Yes I am bearish on RE now and longer term but bullish on the opportunities presented afterwards!

I like ur statement that since property price is so high and landed rental is lower in comparison, why buy? might as well rent...

BTW can u explain what is 8x and 4x means by below? I am new in property terms... thx.

"If buying means 8x income and renting 4x income there is a real problem here. "

Sure, this is a standard calculation which takes your gross salary per month x 12 months to get an annual salary. You then multiply by what is deemed affordable by a mulitplier. Affordability has changed over the years based on salaries, cost of living etc but quite simply the current level is about 3.5x.

So, if you are an average Malaysian making RM5000/m x 12 = RM60,000 annually, affordable housing should cost you RM210,000 to purchase. The challenge right now is that prices are topping RM500,000. Therefore 8x+ income is what you have to pay to own your own home.

On my rental if I went to purchase today would cost 7.5x income but I'm renting it at 50% the repayment price. Only 27% of NET income (after taxes) goes to rent while 57% of my NET income would be used each month to service ownership. I have not accounted for property taxes, maintainence and additional costs associated with ownership as well. With this included it is over 60% to own.

I believe we have hit our Peak Property Levels based on massive run up in consumption and credit expansion along with a Boomer demographical shift that will not be stopped. Japan is a good example of an aging population who was ahead of the western world by about 10 years before deflation kicked in for two lost decades. The height of that RE market corrected and has not recovered for 2 decades. The USA should have tanked 10 years ago after the high tech bubble but more money was printed and the credit crisis followed. Things have only gotten worse.

I use the term GREAT GLOBAL RESET as we have the means to manipulate the global marketplace in ways never thought of in the 1930's or during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. It will be at the very least a long drawn out downturn. However, if China cant control their outcome this time, it will come quickly and swiftly for us in Asia!

If I was a doomsday believer I would be living on a farm in rural Malaysia, preparing for the worst and looking to be self sustainable with REAL GOLD bars hidden on the property but I do believe we will figure things out but in a very painful way for most who spend little time thinking about what is really going on.

You do have some points. Just for discussion sake, like to raise 2 questions trying to understand your thoughts.

1. Say double dip recession really hit us, total collapse in the properties and stocks market. Properties down by 50%. Blue chips will be easily down >70-80% or more. Would you acquire property or shares? In the late 90' recession, interest rate risen >10%. With piles of cash or rather gold bars in hand what would you do?

2. Many believe in real gold bar during recession. Question:- what can you do with real gold bar during recession? Migrate? Or stay put? Probably it will be helpful if planning for sudden exit from the country. But if like many Malaysians who have no where to go, what are you going to do with gold bars? With current gold price at historical high, no interest earn and you can't eat gold for a living, isn't better to acquire farm land? As you said, with farm land at least you can be self sustainable.

You do have a point on average salary vs property price. That applies to new properties where almost all developers asking for ridiculous price and many are rushing to snap up before even launch. That's what we call madness

This post has been edited by Bobby C: Aug 6 2010, 05:42 PM

I would not call for a drop like this in Malaysia however I do think and avg. 30% is not far off the mark if SING and HK drop 50%. You have to be in the correct currency (best of the bad bunch) and I will stick with the USD even though I've played USD/AUS USD/EUR and USD/JPY various times over the last 3 years making great yield until there is a reasonable play back into hard assets.

In 80's you could yield 18% in the bank and just sit and wait for deals to happen. My REAL GOLD is only for worst case scenario and hedge against crashing currencies or inflation however my REAL SILVER is denominated nicely to buy staples like food and fuel if it even comes to that. I dont think so but you never know.

Gold bugs look at Gold as its value vs. fiat currency which I must admit has been impressive over the years and I've owned gold at $250 - $850 and sold some of it at $1250. Gold in any case should be physical GOLD which you have taken delivery of and should only account for 10% (max PM's) of your net wealth while RE in the future should only account for 40%, the other 50% should be invested when this all shakes out. If housing was 3.5x income and deemed moderately affordable, this mix is feasible.

I still like bank preferred dividend paying stocks and utilities right now and I am a firm believer in agriculture and aquaculture and for down the road. When land outside of KL going for $100,000 per acre can be had for $60,000 I'll be in!

There will be other options that are unseen right now but one thing for sure is liquidity will be king and if you wait too long to get out you'll miss the boat and get caught in the downward cycle where you cannot sell your home and slowly get taken under.

I predict 100% there will be a downturn, I predict a 70% chance of long drawn out muddle through 5-7 years with 3 years of flatening while a 30% chance of China imploding and accelerating both the speed and size of the drop.

The property developers in this town are only one ingredient in the PONZI scheme, followed by the banks, mortgage brokers and real estate agents and most of all the MSM for printing the garbage. This has all be done so nothing new.

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Added on August 6, 2010, 7:45 pmThere is however two others in the PONZI scheme which are cited everyday as the worst influence on buying new RE and that is both your family and friends...family such as parents who have never seen times like this and have of all of their equity tied up on RE and friends who have dove in expecting what many on this blog discuss, the never ending appreciation for RE and one in a lifetime interest rates.

You may love them but dont believe them!

This post has been edited by Onemorething: Aug 6 2010, 07:45 PM

Great sharing, thanks for the info..

still plenty to learn from you.. just a question.. we had read much about the bubble and usually associate with high end overprice property, say when D day really comes, in your opinion, what are the ripple effects on mass market property say those below RM500k that are still affordable by the larger market segment?

This post has been edited by eugene jk: Aug 7 2010, 07:56 AM

My thoughts on avg. RE drops of 30% takes in account high end properties who may take a worse hit and low end which may be less given some people may downsize or move further out of the city but still wish to own.

The condo market values seem to have been lifted nicely in this town over the last few years. Even though a condo might be selling at a lower price, say RM500K, which we understand is deemed unaffordable and I must admit at 8x income is defined at "seriously unaffordable" as unaffordable actually starts in around 6x income, the challenge for owners and investors will be when the downturn hits there is always too much comparison shopping in the same development and with the density there is always someone who needs to sell for reasons greater than yours.

This becomes a vicious spiral. It's happening in Vancouver Canada right now where the most unaffordable RE based on income levels has finally changed direction. They went from $500K USD (RM1.6M) asking prices 4 months ago and bidding wars taking property up to $600K at times but now this has changed direction and that $500K property is stuck asking $400K to sell and let's face it, if you see this drop now, you wait!

These condos are running 7x income in Vancouver as single family dwellings are running at 10-12x income.

The waiting game sucks the whole development in which could include sub prime and prime owners as values begin to drop 20-30% with no end in site.

This is what I believe could occur to that same market here. Anyone going in with 20% down will loose that equity in the condo and when the bank calls you to renew, it will not end well.

Repeat after me, VALUATIONS ARE VARIABLE, DEBT IS CONSTANT!

DEBT IS ON THE VERGE OF ACCELERATING cause interest rate is on the rise. So better watch out.

This is a healthy discussion.

I just had one recently with my realtor, and she believes that the RE market in M'sia has cooled down significantly. However, most agencies are still citing record monthly recruitment.

The basic fundamentals never change!

To me, it's like bullish period of stocks market. Ppl totally forget about the fundamental.

It's already happened in HK, US where property price could go down by 30 - 50%. Time will tell and give a wake up call to those who strong in believe - "Property price never go down"

This post has been edited by return78: Aug 7 2010, 10:50 PM

with bank's mortgage guideline of 33% of total salary, 30 year tenure and BLR-1.9%, I guess, its common to have 5x income to 6x income nowadays

So chief, what if your monthly repayment is lower VS rental costs? Would you buy or keep renting?

Interesting, I always salute for people like you who can always make such analysis based on historical data from various aspects such as interest rates, transaction volumes, income, living cost, economy crisis in the past, stock market performance, currencies, comparing to other countries, and etc, just like an economist. I think this is very useful for short to medium term player.

To me its rather simple, I think all of these are just part of the process with ups and downs, its important but we should also focus on the trend on a longer term e.g. 10 years and above. One should be confident on the property market in KL/PJ, because of the ever-increasing construction materials and labour cost, continuous demands from the buyers, the fact that KL/PJ or Malaysia is still developing (maybe at a different pace), and the fact that current property price is still considerably acceptable in many KL/PJ areas for the average KL income earners.

This post has been edited by vgodmax: Aug 8 2010, 01:46 PM

The challenge is as property prices come down so do the cost of rental but at some point there is an acceptable gap. There is pride in ownership I agree especially for a family being location and community however servicing rental at 27% vs 60% if owned is way too wide. I come back to affordability and feel for me 4-4.5x income is okay which might place ownership at 35-40% gross income! I am only looking at high end property so expect to pay more but in a correction expect more off the top so this will be a wash!

For the RM500K buyer who has to pay 8x+ income, it's a very tough call. I have spoken with my employees who both own and rent and have validated the gap in rent vs. buy. I asked them also if they had any money put aside for a potential job loss and they all said NO! I've asked them if they had family to support them through tough times and they said maybe for 3 months.

In and affordable scenario OR current rental + maybe 10% seems fair which would place 4-4.5x income in the RM265K - RM300K range. Property has a long way to go before this makes sense again.

I agree for the long term 10 years there is some agruement but honestly, the USA is going to go through a similar downturn as Japan via QE where properties dropped over 50% and never really recovered. The stock market dropped 75% and never recovered. With the potential for QE and DEFLATION all around the US, UK and EUROZONE, and Canada, AUS and CHINA on the brink of correction, WHY WOULD YOU EVEN TAKE THE CHANCE?

Best case scenario is property stabilizes in Malaysia will limited downside for a few years. I would still choose to rent as zero appreciation in RE makes absolutely no sense when you could be using the difference between rent vs own to save for a higher down payment or higher yielding investements.

I know what some will say, if interest rates increase I will be priced out OR will not be able to be approved for the loan. I say this is the arguement which has made RE unaffordable in the first place + it is proven that when interest rates go up, RE values go down! In the USA, UK and Europe it has been proven that when this level of unaffordability hits the top and properties correct downward, keeping rates low makes zero difference when for every 30 days you wait, 3-5% comes off the top, why would you buy! Dangerous times ahead! Asia will prevail but you need to be looking 15 years out and buying opportunities to come.

This is only my view and I may be proven wrong in Malaysia but sorry, I dont see an upside here as fundamentals have not had a strong track record over the last 10 years and we have lived outside our means for way too long.

interesting theory about the Global Reset. But I always thought that, houses are still considerably affordable in KV area.

See, if you earn 2k/month, then you stay apartment first lar...who told you to stay landed?

And if you earn 5k, then stay condominium la or buy leasehold...sub-sale lar...nobody want u to stay new development also...

and if you earn 10k, finally 500k sounds reasonable isn't it?

The point is, there's always choice out there in KV. We have land, but in prime area the land is very very scarce, that is where the "premium" price come from...

Those new development where developer set sky-high price...that one I really think got speculated a bit...

just my worthless 2 cents...