There has been a few recent reports about Malaysian properties being much higher priced in terms of affordability when compared to developed countries. I think there are truths to this as I happened to have just visited Perth. Note, I said some truths because it is not all truth as well. In Perth, I was staying in Belmont which is considered an established area. I rented a one storey home with a back yard and a front porch able to fit 2 cars side by side. Two living rooms, three bedrooms and the backyard huge enough for a BBQ session of 15 pax. The price of the said property I believe is around AUD$500,000. Currencies aside, are we able to buy such a property for such a price in Malaysia? Answer is Yes and No. Yes if you buy a little further away and No if you are talking about majority of any popular area. For some, even two times of 500,000 may not yield you the same home. So, yes, there are really some truths to these reports and I have to agree.
However, having said that, have you ever been to any Australian property fairs in Malaysia recent years? Or even recent months? I am very sure you can see AUD$350,000 properties being bandied about. It includes even guaranteed rental schemes. Well, the units are most probably a one bedroom type of unit and the rental would mostly to students. Why are they targeting us (Malaysians)? Well, in Australia, foreigners cannot buy from the secondary market and even the thought of buying must first be preceded by act of getting approval for you to buy one. The few situations which foreigners are most probably allowed to buy is in the chart shown. Now do you know why they target us Malaysians? Well, truth is, for around AUD400,000 there are still quite many secondary choices that Australians have. Just take a look at their dominant property site, realestate.com.au and search for the AUD400,000 homes. Yes, the choices are aplenty and it’s almost certainly a landed property instead of the usual high rises that they are selling to us in Malaysia.
So, yes, the property prices in Malaysia really do seem high in comparison to even Perth which is already lower priced than Sydney or Melbourne. Sorry, the last time I was in London was over 15 years ago, thus I can only rely on news reports for London property prices. I think for London, they are higher than us. So much so that some London population is putting the blame on foreigners for pushing up their property prices. Well, truth is, locals always have a choice. They know the area well, or perhaps too well and thus they refused to believe it when property prices started to rise and when they realised, it was a little too late. This has happened in many local cities, not just overseas. I had a very good time in Perth for one week. Visited nothing less than 10 different parks, reserves, beaches and all of them were less than 15km from one another. All of them, clean and well maintained. I think even when prices are similar, are we able to have these public spots which are clean, refreshing and well maintained? One day, perhaps. For now, if we compare just on the basic stuffs, Malaysian (KL) property prices in general are considered more expensive than a developed city like Perth. I agree. Happy comparing.
written on 27 Nov 2014
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