Property Malaysia

We’ve been listening to BFM quite a bit recently, a refreshing to the other radio stations we have here, especially when you’re stuck in the notorious KL traffic. As you know the talk radio station covers a wide range of subjects, basically anything related to finance, business and money. The other day we heard this pretty good interview - ‘Selecting and Securing Tenant for Commercial Properties’, you can listen to it onthe BFM website here. Quite interesting, especially for newbies looking for tips.

(strangely i am unable to embed the podcasts here)

The podcast section of the BFM homepage lists all the interviews that they’ve had so you can actually scroll through them to find the one you missed.

The National House Buyers Association is organising a Conference on House Buyers Rights when purchasing new property from Developers and what can be done to protect the rights of house buyers.

As you know, there are still many bad developers out there, from Abandoned Projects, Late Delivery, shoddy workmanship, etc, the list goes on. This conference is not about developer bashing, but to create awarness on the rights of new House Buyers.

Protection Not Guaranteed

The National House Buyers Association (HBA), an apolitical, housebuyers protection organisation is organizing a House Buyers Conference with the theme “Protection Not Guaranteed” for house buyers to confer and share their home acquiring experience.

The conference is organized by the National House Buyers Association and will be held at Putra World Trade Center (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, 6th December, 2008 at 2.30pm. Participation fee is only RM15 per person. For more information, please call 012 3345676 or 012-2524287 or check out the HBA website at www.hba.org.my

Or if you want us to mail you the form, leave a comment here and we’ll get it to you pronto.

(hat tip to preacher for the heads up)

Some of you may have seen it advertised by some local developers as “to Conquas 21 Standard!” or something like that.

But what really is Conquas 21 and what has it got to do with Malaysian property?

In a nutshell, it is a quality standard used by the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore (it’s something like our CIDB) to control the standards of buildings by giving a score for every project. The score is in percentage, like say this project has achieved a final Conquas score of 81. How they derive this score is based a systematic, transparent and rigorous testing that involves architectural, structural, mechanical and electrical random testing carried out by different teams throughout the construction period. (The 21 refers to the revision number)

For example, for the architectural component score, they randomly select different locations of the almost complete building and do numerous tests to every imaginable part – like floor levelness, tile pull out test, door alignment, etc. They the Conquas rod and and other normal equipment like spirit level, and all data is keyed in to a computer to be tabulated.

It all started back in the recession of the late 80’s, and the Singapore government took advantage of the slow construction industry to improve the quality of construction work in the country. As a result, after almost 20 years, the Conquas score has become an important factor in determining a particular contractor’s caliber and it stands as a good quality benchmark for other countries to emulate. In Singapore, a lot of precast work and skilled labor is used, which helps in maintaining good quality, something not as widely practiced here.

Scores are published in BCA’s website, so buyers can know what kind of quality to expect, while developers can also know the standard to expect from some contractors.

Malaysian developers can also get BCA to train their staff to this standard and get them to test their own projects, Sunrise and Gamuda are two early adopters of this standard, and many more developers are catching on here. It must also be emphasized that most Malaysian developers opt to test only the architectural component, which is basically the finishing touches, as doing the complete tests can be costly and time consuming. Also, since testing by local projects are voluntary, not all are listed on the website, only those that score well are usually listed.

You can see some of the local projects with the Conquas score here.

It should also be noted that when a local project says that it is ‘to Conquas standard’ it basically mean that it was tested according to the specs, it doesn’t mean that it has any better quality than other projects, unless if they quote score. Even then, it is important to ask if the full Conquas component tests were carried out or not.

For more info, you can check out these websites:
http://www.corenet.gov.sg/iquas/
http://www.bca.gov.sg/

While in some parts of the world, houses are getting bigger and bigger all the time (like here), in some parts of Europe, designing small homes is becoming more popular.

Here are 5 examples of oh-so-cute homes that probably won’t sell so well here in KL…

TOP 5 TINIEST PREFAB HOMES.

The 4th one looks cool.

If you’re the type who are interested in nice design and architectural innovation in your homes, you might want to check out the 8th Malaysia Architecture, Interior Design & Building Exhibition (ARCHIDEX 07) in Kuala Lumpur.

It will be held from the 5th to 8th of July at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. This time round they are featuring a total of 15 avant garde architects and designers from around the world who will present their latest ideas on design. But the more interesting part for us will be the exhibition, where they will be featuring 800 local and foreign participants and more than 600 booths, accommodating 200 local and foreign exhibitors in five halls at the convention centre.

We’re probably going to bump into a lot of our architect friends there…

For more info and biodata of the speakers, check out here and here.

The Star ran an interesting article about moving from a bungalow to a large size condominium in an upmarket area, a trend that mirrors the real estate landscape in areas like Mont’Kiara and KLCC.

WHEN Ben, a 30-something, invited his parents to live with him in his condominium, his parents winced. Having lived all their lives in a bungalow, they have come to relish the spaciousness offered by a landed property.

But things have a strange way of turning out. Concerned about security and having difficulties finding a gated and guarded environment with landed units in a locale they find acceptable, they finally settled on buying a condominium. Not just any, but a biggie, with a minimum of 3,000 sq ft and above.

Recomended read. You can find the full article here.

House renovation is a very lucrative business. Don’t believe us? Just drive around a newly completed housing estate and observe a few things:

• The number of houses doing renovations;
• The size of the renovations (especially relative to the original house);
• And the number contractors present in the area, with their huge banners advertising themselves, hung at the houses they are working on.

There are a few reasons why we say renovation work is lucrative.

One, there isn’t a fixed rate for a lot of these things. Let’s say you’ve been staying in your house for 5 years. One day, you decide to widen the gate (to accommodate parking 2 cars in your driveway). This involves moving a lot of stuff, like your refuse chamber, water meter, widening the slab over the drain, and tiling up the small patch of grass so that you can park your new Smart ForTwo next to your existing Honda City. You can get quotes ranging from RM5,000 to RM20,000. Or even higher. Some promise you ‘better quality’ with a premium price, but you can’t really tell that, can you? It’s not like there’s a scale model or show house for you to refer to. And by the time it finished, and the quality bombs big time, well…

Secondly, a lot of these works are not documented. No contract documents, no receipts, no invoices, etc.

Thirdly, renovation contractors are really good in upselling. For this price, you get this, but hey, for RM1000 more, you get this nice stainless steel gate, it’s all the rage now you know. That cheaper gate, any thief can jack it in 3 minutes. And oh, by the way, I know a guy that can do kitchen cabinets for you at a good price, want to do or not?

In some new housing estates, a few contractors band up to share business, while making sure no outsiders come in and ‘steal’ their business. It happened to my neighbour, who got his brother-in-law to do the renovations to his just-completed house. Simple stuff, just add in grill, change the gate, kitchen cabinets, tiling. The ‘resident’ contractors came and threatened my neighbours brother-in-law to leave everyday until they completed the works.

Let’s put it in perspective. On the average, every landed house in a newly completed project needs a few basic renovations – grill, kitchen cabinets and wardrobes, electrical wiring (including lights and fan). Then there are other options like marble floor polishing, air-conditioning, kitchen extension (very popular, I tell you), tiling, paint job, the list goes on. With the high volume of work in a centralized location all in a short period of time, the contractors can offer very competitive prices while still making astronomical profits.

Obviously, there are plenty of good and responsible renovation contractors out there, but sometimes it’s really difficult for people to find the right one at the right price. If anyone has any horror stories about renovation works, feel free to let us all hear…

With the recent furore about illegally built palaces and business premises on state land, one aspect we should take a good look at is getting the proper approvals for the renovation works done to your homes.

By and large, a lot of people carry out renovations to their landed units without any approvals from the local council. If you want to know, you can ask your neighbours who did renovate their houses - it’ll give you a good picture of just how many. Sometimes, the house owner entrusts the renovation contractor to get the paperwork done - more often than not, he doesn’t do it.

These days, local council enforcement is getting stricter. Gone are the days that “it’s OK if no one complains about it”, nowadays, the council can immediately instruct you to tear down any illegal structures if it infringes on the regulations.

The Star highlighted some interviews with councillors regarding this issue, and they also issued some guidelines for people thinking of doing some works to their houses (source here):

BEFORE SUBMITTING PLANS

• Obtain a letter of consent from the neighbours if extension or renovation works involve house borders or the front facade.
• Appoint a registered architect (or one from the council).
• Appoint a consultant engineer if extension/renovation works involve concrete works.
• Consult the Building Control Department (of MBPJ) if extension/renovation works involved is 50% or more of the built-up area of the premises.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

• Four copies of the proposed extension and renovation work plan
• A copy of the structure plan
• A copy of the latest assessment receipt
• A copy of certificate of fitness
• A copy of the sales and purchase agreement

Some councils have differing requirements, so the best is to check with them before starting any work. Remember, not everyone of us can afford to pay the fine of RM24,000 for not having an approval…

This is an excellent read about mortgages. The specifics and terms are skewed towards the American real estate industry, but the basic principles are applicable here.

The article outlines the ten questions to ask about mortgages:

• How much can I afford to borrow?
• How can I tell which mortgage rate is best for me?
• What is the best type of mortgage for me?
• How should I repay it?
• Can I make lump sum payments to reduce the size of the loan?
• Are there any redemption penalties?
• Does this mortgage come with compulsory insurance?
• What other charges will I have to pay?
• What happens if I can’t pay?
• What about the small print?

The full article and explanation can be found here.

Reader S-kay has sent in some photos of the site progress of Saujana Residency. This project was reviewed here in Property Malaysia (and you can read it here) and there’s quite a vibrant discussion ongoing there between the buyers and would-be buyers.

She also managed to snap some photos of the nearby Subang Avenue.