* Article by Freemen *

Penang has been having pretty good growth in a market that was supposedly facing a decline last year.

Bad news is, they were still affected by the market slowdown last year and has yet to fully recover.

Considering the slow market, the government has promised to provide a home for everyone by offering tax exemptions and incentives to encourage developers to offer more rent-to-own schemes. It’s a great investment, especially since there has been undersupply in the affordable housing market for the past few years.

It’s good news for the economy.

Just when things are looking up, we get news that the government signed a RM144 billion loan agreement with China to fund our infrastructure and transportation rails for an East Coast Rail Link project two years ago.  China is one of Malaysia’s largest trading partner, but this deal is extremely large. Yet, no news about a repayment scheme has been made known.

We can’t have cash flowing out of the country every month without income to support ourselves. Yet how can affordable housing be realized if we are sitting in a pool of debt?

On the bright side, Penang is one of the few last stronghold of land reserves with a strong economic standpoint. Their GDP (Gross Domestic Product) contributed 5.6% to the entire nation’s GDP, coming in fourth to Johor’s 5.7%.

The simple reason is because there is still demand although the market is thriving with oversupply.

So how do we find the balance between economic growth and market stability?

The three sectors to look out for is tourism, biomedical, and semiconductor industry. Statistics from the Penang International Airport recorded a number of 5.34 million tourist passengers, which has an 8.67% increase from the 4.91 million passengers in 2016.

The tourism sector has also contributed a significant number to the medical industry with the number of medical tourists and foreign patients rising 14.8% year on year to 347,000 in 2016. In the same year, the medical tourism sector saw a revenue growth of 18% y-o-y to RM458 million.

As long as these three sectors thrive, the Penang market will continue to see a boom.

New developments popping up at south Seberang Perai district are some to keep an eye out for, particularly in Batu Kawan area.

In short term, one may experience doubt when buying in a situation of oversupply. But if you don’t buy, you end up losing the race in the long run.

Huge oversupply of PR1MA housing is another factor to contend with.

But hey, not all hope is lost. Let me show you that it’s possible to tread the market with the knowledge and tools I’m about to hand over to you:

GE14 Property Investment Masterclass

Time: 9am to 6pm
Date: 19^th May 2018
Location: The Northam Hotel

More good news for you, fellow readers! We’re offering a Buy 1 Free 1 promotion for the FIRST 15 PEOPLE who sign up for the workshop!

Seats available are limited, so click here to reserve your seat now!

– Michael Tan

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