CAP warns against Malaysia real estate promotion in Hong Kong
Vocal pressure group CAP has warned that a promotion drive by local developers to attract Hong Kong investors to buy properties in Malaysia in the wake of the political crisis in the island city could push house prices beyond the reach of ordinary citizens.
“Encouraging foreigners to acquire properties here have undesired impacts such as causing property prices to skyrocket because of demand, aggravating the current shortage of land, and causing an increase in the cost of living,” the Consumers Association of Penang said in a statement, amid reports of Malaysian developers planning a promotion drive in land-strapped Hong Kong.
CAP president Mohideen Abdul Kader said the floor price set in Penang, Selangor and Johor for foreign property buyers will not discourage them.
In Selangor and Johor, the bare minimum price for foreigners to buy residential units is RM2 million. In Penang, foreigners are barred from buying landed houses less than RM3 million and high-rise units less than RM1 million.
Mohideen said the prices were still affordable for foreigners especially in Hong Kong, where the average price of a home is more than US$1.2 million, according to a global real estate report released this year.
“For those with US dollars or Singapore dollars to spare, our RM3 million is equivalent to US$718,787 or S$995,405 respectively. With RM3 million, a Hong Kong resident is able to buy an almost 2,000 sq ft luxurious bungalow in Tanjung Bungah and that is almost 11 times the size of Hong Kong’s 178 sq ft micro-home,” he said in a statement.
Last month, FMT reported that wealthy property buyers from Hong Kong were looking to Malaysia as a possible second home as the special administrative region of China struggles with widespread protests.
The report said Malaysian property agents and developers had been collaborating with agents in Hong Kong for data on buyers there.
“In the next one to two months, many developers are expected to go to Hong Kong to sell Malaysian properties,” Toh Chin Leong, the chairman of the Penang chapter of the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda), had told FMT.
Mohideen said the move could make Penang “another Hong Kong”, with the poor being forced to live in slums and small flats.
“Are we having a fire-sale?” he asked.
He said Putrajaya should focus on the development of rent-to-own flats as well as affordable housing “instead of pandering to developers wanting to build luxurious houses and condominiums that few locals can afford”.
“Could the current property overhang be caused by developers’ over optimism about the housing market without looking at the economic reality and the inability of potential house buyers to obtain a bank loan?”
Mohideen said when George Town was declared a Unesco World Heritage site in 2008, Penang property prices skyrocketed as Singaporeans went on a “shopping spree for pre-war houses”
“As a result the prices of houses in the inner city of George Town soared beyond the affordability of most locals to rent or buy,” he added.
Source: FreeMalaysiaToday.com
Hongkies are mostly very narcissistic and don’t think many of them really care to look at Malaysia. Even some of their “not very well offs” would rather/only look towards Thailand than here.
Sarcastically, they call us all – 马来(鬼）.
Sammy, please of how u address those American/ Europeans? Or how u address our foreign labors here? This isn’t much on sacarstic or humiliation, it’s more towards how people pin point your national development.
CAP has raised a valid concern. It’s simple maths, when you have more foreigners whose properties in their homeland cost an average 6-7 times more than Msia, you tend to see upward pressure on local property prices when they come and buy, especially for a land scarce island like Penang. So what does that mean? What do we do? Can we stop them from buying? Should we stop them from buying?
Does a “win” for developers means a “lose” for local buyers?
Does a “win” for local buyers means a “lose” for developers?
Is it possible for the state gov to come up with a more “sophisticated” and holistic (instead of the current crude and very basic ) foreign purchase policy so that everyone (local buyers+agents+developers+foreign buyers) wins when we sell properties to foreigners?
The last person you should ever pay attention to is Mohideen Abdul Kader.
The concern is unfounded. 1st, foreigners can only buy properties above RM1m. There are still plenty of unsold properties in Penang below RM600k new and subsales. 2nd, I doubt Penang developers can even sell more than 100 units to Hongkongers in next 1 year. The target groups are a) those can afford to retire. Earn enough. b) those rich who can commute HK -PG like taking bus. The common Hong kongers still need to work, don’t think they can get a job in Penang. Just do the math, how many Hong kongers fall into group A and B. The super rich will go Singapore or Australia. The not so super rich still have many choices including KL (predominantly Cantonese dialect). Don’t forget Thailand provides them more entertainment. It’s not going to even make a small little dent in Penang property prices
@Penang lang
I believe Penang lang has a direct and valid reason to answer that silly doubt by the NGO.
CAP too free? Did they have any idea about the ownership of ownership of foreigners is less than 2% in Penang.
How many local by % owns property with 1M and onwards? Landed Properties 2M and onwards?
The treshold has already cause stagnant in the property market. and i guess that has already more than enough to slowdown the buying power for foreigners
we don’t welcome them, later they turn ‘black’ shirt and demand Penang to be independent !
and I still have to work for another 1.5 year hopefully the company can extend my retirement age because I still need milk powder money.
let me educate you, if any tom dick harry in hong kong sell off their tofu small square box house and bring the money here malaysia, they can buy big bungalow and drive big car and have another 3 millions RM to retire,why need to work again ?
I’d been to Hong Kong a couple of times before. I personally do not like their attitude.
Please do not come here to Penang to live.
@David Wong
You can also go to Africa and become super rich and buy a bungalow. Will you go there? Don’t think so highly of yourself.
so many affordable there yet your local also cant buy… nak buat bising go ask for 1million property and foreigner market…. bodoh betul CAP ni… tak guna punya kumpulan
Whether one can retire is really down to financial calculations. RM3M is not a lot of money, really. Perhaps not sufficient to lead a decent retirement life. On top, NOT all properties in Hong Kong are “Tofu Square Boxes”. I think we need to be fair when making a comment.
@David Wong
And who actually has the ample knowledge here to “educate” others?????
@Latte Chow
Well, just saw it in one of those property programs shown on Astro, a 25-year-old 900sf condo in Sha Tin Hong Kong actually goes for 15 mil HKD, and it’s not even CBD, yes, oh my WTF! However, that is precisely the reason they don’t have to buy in PG as they can actually afford something much better if the sell in HK and buy elsewhere, namely Spore!
There is not much good reason to come here lah seriously, with the way our sakai PG city council manages our state, potholes everywhere, broken road barricades and sidewalks, lalang growing here and there, community rubbish dump exposed openly for everyone to see and smell. We thought after rocket took over things would improve, but sadly, zero improvements!! and yes, a lot more parking fines!
@Latte Chow
It’s a fact that a 900sf apartment in a not-so-prime location in HongKong cost an average of 14 mil HKD, but even those kind of owners won’t buy penang properties if they sell what they have in HK, Spore is normally their prefered investment.