Property Malaysia

Interesting read, for those into global economy and spillover effect into our country.

Home prices fall at fastest rate in 13 years

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — U.S. home prices continued to fall in February, with prices down 1.5% in 10 major cities compared with a year ago, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday.
Home prices depreciated year-over-year for the second straight month, falling at the fastest pace since late 1993.
A year ago, prices were rising 14%.
In 20 major cities, prices are down 1% in the past year, the biggest decline ever in that series that dates back to 2000.
“The deceleration and declines in home prices are showing no signs of turnaround,” S&P said in a release.
Prices will probably continue falling, said Goldman Sachs economists in a research note. “We expect [the index] to be down about 5% by the end of 2007. If anything, it’s getting there a bit faster than we anticipated,” they wrote.
Prices fell year-over-year in 13 of the 20 cities, led by Detroit (down 7.8%), San Diego (down 5%), Boston (down 4.7%) and Washington (down 4.3%).

You can read the full article here.

We’ve been casting an interested eye over this project for a few months now, since it’s quite near the main road going to Cyberjaya. They have put out a few teaser ads for registrants in the papers recently, but without much info. We checked their website frequently, too, but not much there either.

Anyway, today a comment from reader Wyne prompted us to check their website again, and they’ve put up some progress pics of their show village.

Looks like we might drop by in a day or two to see the actual progress, although we know from them that the actual soft launch date isn’t here yet. The design definitely looks contemporary, and the location quite good, updates soon.

For more info, you can see their website here.

A subsidiary of E&O Property Development , KCB Trading Sdn Bhd has proposed to buy a piece of freehold property in Jalan Yap Kwan Seng from BhdMezzon Development Sdn Bhd for RM47.76 million. The size of the land is a 0.52ha.

According to the Edge:

It added that the land, located at Jalan Yap Kwan Seng in Kuala Lumpur, had been approved for the development of a 40-storey building comprising 80 units of condominium, with a two-storey basement car park. However, E&O said it had not finalised the costs and profits arising from the development of the land.

(source)

Looks like we can look forward to them launching a condo property there some time next year, if all goes well. Currently, E&O have almost completed the Dua Residency along Jalan Tun Razak and Idamansara in Damansara Heights.

This might interest some people, especially i-Zen owners, who should be getting their units some time next year, i think. And maybe to a lesser extent, Kiaraville (lots of buzz on that one lately…)

Ireka lists property portfolio on LSE on April 5

Ireka Corporation Bhd will be listing its property portfolio on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on April 5, making its the first such listing of a property fund focussing on Malaysia.

The listing is via a property development fund, Aseana Properties Ltd (APL), which had acquired Ireka’s entire interest in Ireka Land Sdn Bhd and ICSD Ventures Sdn Bhd.

“These proposed disposals and the listing exercise enable the Ireka group to unlock the value of its property portfolio at market value in the form of cash and APL shares

We know this has nothing to do with Malaysian property either, but since it’s a slow Monday morning, might as well…

Dutch architectural firm OMA is designing an office tower for the Far East Organization, a company some Malaysians are familiar with. The tower, a free standing gravity defying structure, will be called Scott’s Tower, situated near Orchard Road.

The 153 meter tall tower will be located at the intersection of Scotts Road and Cairnhill Road, in close proximity to Orchard Road, Singapore’s famous shopping and lifestyle street. With 20,000m² of built floor area, the building will provide 68 high-end apartment units with panoramic views. The design strategically maneuvers within the highly regulated building environment to maximize the full potential of the site: Four individual apartment towers are vertically offset from one another and suspended from a central core.

No kidding. I bet the price per square foot is going to be a LOT higher than the RM450psf you get in Mont’Kiara… let’s not even talk about the maintenance fees…

Read all about it here.

Not an April’s Fool joke. Check it out here.

Malaysia to scrap property gains tax from April 1

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will scrap capital gains tax on property deals from April 1, the prime minister said Thursday as he announced a slew of pro-investment programmes and incentives in a bid to boost the economy.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he hoped the decision would “inject more excitement and dynamism in both the property and financial sectors.'’

“Potential that has gone unrealized or under-optimized will be turned into new industries and businesses, new value creation and new jobs,'’ he said in a speech at a conference of local and foreign fund managers, and heads of some of Malaysia’s biggest companies.

The Malaysian property market is currently believed to be stagnating, and considered undervalued compared to other countries in the region, especially Singapore.

Abolishing the property gains tax would encourage investment and deals and bring more liquidity into the market.

“Going forward to further improve the national property sector, the government has decided not to impose real property gains tax throughout the country commencing 1st April, 2007,'’ Abdullah said.

All those uncles and datuks with dozens of property investments should be rejoicing, then?

Reader Ian has sent recent some photos of Desa Putra taken by his friend.

For the original review of Desa Putra, click here.

More photos of Sierra Residency sent in by Cel last week… signboard up.

Did anyone read this in today’s The Star Metro?

ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS GO DOWN HARD ON PROTESTERS

ABOUT 12 enforcement officers from the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) burst into Taman Hijau Apartments in Ukay Heights recently and started tearing down banners and placards put up by the residents in protest against an development project in the neighbourhood.

An eyewitness to the incident who refused to be identified said the officers were dressed in their official uniforms and came storming into the apartment area at about 11am without proper documentation, shouting and behaving like hooligans.

“They did not gain permission but merely stormed in and refused to identify themselves,'’ she said.

“It was shocking to see officers from the local authority behaving like that,'’ she said.

Expatriate H. Berbar said the officers were rude and when he started taking pictures of the raid, they covered their nametags on the uniforms.

“The whole incident happened so fast that I sprained my ankle during the commotion,'’ he said.

“When we questioned one of the officers, he said we did not have a permit for the banners.

“My question is why did they not take down all the other signages in Ukay Heights, which obviously did not have permits as well?

“Where was their permit to enter private property and remove items?'’ asked Berbar.

Datuk Mustapha Mahmud, who is a resident of Taman Hijau, said he was alarmed when he saw the way the officers were behaving.

“Technically, they do not have the right to come into the property as it is private owned yet they did so and when I questioned them about it, they ran away,'’ he said.

Read the full article here.

As bad as the PR of some of the local councils with public, this has got to make it worse. That area has a lot of foreign expats staying there, how do you think it will make Malaysia look? Bad. Especially with the government trying to promote Malaysia My Second Home and Visit Malaysia Year.

We’re STILL in a holiday mood.

Meanwhile, it’s a good time to check out an article from Forbes on the World’s Most Expensive Homes.

We definitely can’t afford, but we can admire (and drool), can’t we…?

For the full article and photo montage, click here.