Financial news: When space becomes premium and money becomes smaller

Financial news: When space becomes a premium and money becomes smaller

Logical Fact when it comes to property and money

People say property is becoming expensive. People say money is becoming smaller. When we put these two into the same equation and we want to balance it, then it’s either property needs to adjust itself or money has to adjust itself. Unfortunately, salary is mostly fixed. So property has to adjust itself.

So, instead of forcing 3 person to rent a whole unit of 1,000 sq ft and paying RM700 each, then owner may have to sub-divide the unit into 6 rooms and rent to 6 persons instead and each person would pay just RM350 each. Size vs Money will always be a relevant learning for everyone and we do not need to look too far. Just look at the price of a small room in some expensive cities nearby Malaysia and you would know why kopiandproperty.com would advocate owning own place versus renting a space.

Kids do love their small play house

My daughter is 10. My son is 8. Occasionally, they still like to watch tv from their small little play house which is in the living room and has been with them for the past few years. It used to be spacious enough when both were smaller. Today, it’s really small and sometimes both of them could be inside at the same time still. I understand that they may like the tiny house because they have been playing with it for many years and they have left so many of their favourite toys, books, pillows inside.

However, when I looked at an article in says.com, I really do wonder why some people are okay with a small living space. It’s not for 10 minutes to watch TV. It’s for stay. It’s for living. It’s for every single day until one moves out. The space could be as small as a typical 10 ft height space being divided into top and bottom and each side having probably 5 ft height each? It could be as small as a space enough only for a single mattress of 3ft or so?

Here’s that article and some photos for reference.

Article in says.com Some photos in the article. Please read the full article as it has a lot more details, stories and photos too. Article in says.com

— end of photos from the Article in says.com

Why do people still want to rent these small sized living area then?

Well, even if there are cheaper units maybe 10km away, those places may require the person to wake up at 5:30am every working day just to arrive in the office on time. Hardly something people like; duration of travelling time due to traffic jams. Thus, if there is a small space for rental and they could actually just wake up at 8am and still be on time to work at 830am, of course they are interested.

Are there a lot of this group of people who hates travelling and prefers to stay nearby the office or the university or to whereever they would like to go? The answer is a firm yes. Meanwhile are there a lot of properties nearby some of these hotspots? Like many office towers, like nearby a big university or even close to a LRT station which is just within few minutes of walking?Briefly, the answer is that there are limited units.

So, we come to the question of demand versus supply and the owner versus the tenant. When demand is a lot and the supply within the surrounding areas are below the number demanded, then the prices would start to go up because the owners realised that they could rent out their units almost as soon as the current one moves out! Meanwhile the owners of these limited number of units are usually just common people and not some rich and charitable people who is willing to rent out their units dirt cheap just to help others. Come on… the home owners were investing. They should not be forced to rent low and then the one suffering is them and not the tenants yeah.

I used to stay in such rooms too

Once a upon a time, I studied in Subang Jaya and stayed in SS13. My landlord converted the back of the house into many new rooms and my two friends and I rented one of those rooms. The room had just enough space for a small bathroom within the unit, three small tables and three beds of which one is a double decker and the other is a single bed. There’s barely space to walk but we managed just fine. It was RM350 per person per month then. Rough estimation is that the room is maybe 300 sq ft. We survived…

It’s going to be even more common in the future

Many would say the only reason they are in this problem is because of the inadequacy of the public transport. I do not want to deny this but I think the main reason is just acceptance that the price to pay to be close to places we want to be is the size. It’s either bigger size unit and further away and losing a few hours everyday because of jams or just enough size, priced high but still affordable to the tenant. Happy deciding.

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