Asia

[kum yin lau]

Hi all, I'm in Kuala Lumpur & thought I'd report from the ground.

Life goes on as usual, half of my classmates retired last year, others still doing what they always did.

Weddings, weddings & weddings. Generation X finally giving us a bit of that echo boom. Interesting note for property investors - all I know [about 5] have bought apartments. My niece bought in the 200s a cousin looking for one in the 400s. Most marrying at age 29 - 30.

My brother is building 800 houses in Brunei. He almost went under in 97/98 during the Asian financial crisis. His partner ditto. Now they have retired all personal debt & are busy planning early retirement.

The commodities boom has sort of staggered, the price of raw rubber [latex] dropped from $4/kg to under 2 then back up to 3.

People seem to be doing OK.

The KLCI dropped under 200 & now I think is above 1000.

Of the Asian markets, only Singapore, possibly Japan, have been impacted by USA. I may be wrong on this cos I'd not been interested to follow what's happening.

My sister says Vietnam is the fastest growing of the smaller Asian economies. [I believe her - she used to be the manager of a small bank & regularly went to Bank Negara]

Draw whatever conclusions you need of this long & maybe garbled story.

The GFC appears to me to have HELPED quite a few people I know. Their debt commitments were denominated in USD. Overnight, their debts evaporated.

The ones who worry are the job seekers.

Maybe some of you guys will be more lucid on the situation than me.

Just seems that here, no number of new houses is enough. And in Kuala Lumpur, free standing houses cost millions. One Gen X in my extended family is buying a block of land for tens of millions.

Tell me what you all think.

KY

 

[craigb]

Interesting news from KL, do they need builders, ???

Why are homes millions, of dollers in kl? land, labor, or products?

 

[BayView]

Interesting news from KL, do they need builders, ???

Why are homes millions, of dollers in kl? land, labor, or products?

Bribes for Gubbermint Officials, and everyone in between perhaps??

 

[bobbiemenzies]

malaysian foreclosures

I think Mr KYL is referring to the best areas in KL when he says freestanding houses cost millions. Places where diplomats hang out - Damansara, Bangsar etc. Elsewhere, albeit in the styx, you'd be more likely to find better value.

Malaysia is typically a bull-bear place and prices paid for assets is a reflection of market psychology - when people get into buy mode, there's no stopping them; and when they sell, its as if they think the world will end. Savvy people can exploit these extremes in behavior.

Mr Lau, tell us how to make money in Malaysian property. I noticed the foreclosure market is huge, with newspapers running public adverts almost every day. How can we benefit from this? Is it true one has to buy these homes without being able to make an internal inspection? How do we buy without getting our fingers burnt?

 

[kum yin lau]

Hi, to anyone thinking of venturing into Malaysian real estate, the words are caveat emptor and caveat emptor.

I posted the news as a general comment on the economics of the GFC. My thinking is that there's a shift, rather than a total collapse.

So financial armageddon & deflation/stagflation etc may not come to pass.

Places like HK, Malaysia maybe Thailand/Indonesia had their crises years ago but because they're small and sectorised, the impact may not have been publicised enough such that the man on the street knew about it.

I don't pretend to know much about it so don't shoot me if i got it wrong. Quite a few years ago, someone explained the financial crisis & how China stopped HK & in a way Taiwan & Korea from the same fate of Thailand & Indonesia. They sold or threatened to sell USD bonds.

The power of the USD. Now what will happen if another currency becomes the preferred exchange?

Back to KL housing. Foreclosures are more likely to be in the areas far from the city centre such as Rawang [houses stood empty, vandalised etc]

My brother's house cost close to a million [he spent a stack on renos] but will sell maybe for 600K. The house behind was empty ever since it was built. But it's a good place to live in.

My parents' home in a small town ditto. But new houses sell for 380K.

So it's the same story as with housing everywhere. There're are local quirks & oddities.

The tens of millions? It's near the tasik.

KY

 

[BoatBoy]

My parents' home in a small town ditto. But new houses sell for 380K.

So it's the same story as with housing everywhere. There're are local quirks & oddities.

The tens of millions? It's near the tasik.

KY

This is all in ringgits right?

Dave