Many people complain it is hard to get a house loan approval today. Developers also have a hard time to sell their properties. Even though there are many schemes offered by government, in reality it is hard to get a house loan approval. Is it really that hard?
I have an acquiantance/mantee who have successfully get a 100% house loan recently. Yes, it is hard to get a loan. He spent about one month sourcing different banks to get the best offer. Initially, he was offered for a 90% loan. At 90% loan, the price is already about the same price of the last commercial transaction in the area. But, the area he want to buy is a very good location. Thus, he does not give up and look for a 100% loan.
Yes, this also means he needs more time to secure a loan. He is still young. Time is abundant. But cash is expensive. Therefore, a 100% loan worth more to him than a quick loan approval. In addition, it is harder to find a house to buy in a good location than the loan to buy. House owners realize the property in their area are in high demand, rent keep rising, and there is almost no vacant house. A vacant house is quickly fill within days.
So, if you are an investor, are you looking for a beautiful house to invest or are you looking for a 'beautiful' area? For banks, they want to secure their collateral. If home owners cannot afford to pay the loan in the future, banks have no problem to auction the houses to get back their money.
Thus, to successfully buy a property, you must also know how a bank think and operate. What I have written here is just a small part of bank mindset. A more detail information and tricks can be learned in my short courses.
Happy Investing!
Friday, February 26, 2016
Sunday, February 14, 2016
New House Renovation Part 4
These are the 4th week work in progress:
Most of the work still concentrated on the ground floor especially the kitchen. The side balcony is to be extended to that it is at the same with with the kitchen. The extended space will be an open air space. My new home has quite a strong wind flow either in the morning or afternoon. Thus, the open space will take advantage of this wind condition. My wife plan, the open space will be the 2nd place for dining.
Looking to the front from the back area
My neighbor at the front of my house is also undergoing extensive renovation. The house to be extended by about ten feet from front to the back of the house, ground and top floor. He is a Chinese. He hope to be able to move in before Chinese New Year.
Most of the work still concentrated on the ground floor especially the kitchen. The side balcony is to be extended to that it is at the same with with the kitchen. The extended space will be an open air space. My new home has quite a strong wind flow either in the morning or afternoon. Thus, the open space will take advantage of this wind condition. My wife plan, the open space will be the 2nd place for dining.
Viewing from 45 degrees angle
From side view
The side view of the kitchen
Looking to the front from the back area
My neighbor at the front of my house is also undergoing extensive renovation. The house to be extended by about ten feet from front to the back of the house, ground and top floor. He is a Chinese. He hope to be able to move in before Chinese New Year.
The pole idea is from my contractor.
Meanwhile, I don't want to wait for the renovation to be completed before I do something more to my new home. So, I decided to plant banana trees: lemak manis, emas and kapas. As per expected, when I dug the soil, there were many small stones which must be eliminated. The holes were refilled with better soil before the banana trees can be planted. I enjoyed plating trees. It is good for both mental and physical. In addition, the fruits can be consumed without any chemical additive.
During this week, my contractor had also prepared to build the top floor. They are using the stagings to support the woods which will contain the concrete. The process is not easy as it seems. A careful craftsmanship will ensure there will be no damage to the structure to be built and existing structure.
The woods must be arranged tightly so that the concrete will not sip through the woods. The woods must be supported with enough strength from the staging to ensure the woods will not break. All the woods must be carefully nailed to ensure sufficient strength.
Beams were constructed to strengthen the floor. The beams at the back of the first floor at the boarder to my neighbor house. There are two beams because there will be a special space at the back of the new room.
The new room at the top floor is not connected to the existing balcony. This is to ensure the existing room can still have a window. Originally the existing room have two windows. One of the windows will be sealed with the new room's wall.
The existing side balcony will be extended to be at the same width of the new room.
Steel rods about 1 cm diameter is used to strengthen the concrete. These steel rods will be arranged in parallel at about 1 feet distance to each other. The most critical part is some of the rods' tip must be connected to the steel rod in the existing building. Thus, they have to carefully find the steel rod in the existing building by poking several holes. The new rod will be clipped to the found steel rods. This is very important to ensure the floor to be built must have a strong support from the existing building.
The clipping or rods is critical especially where the beam will be built. The poked holes will be cemented by the concrete later on.
The beam at the edge of the new balcony
The work in progress is getting exciting. I often visit the site to learn more about the development process.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Opportunity Still Available in Slower Economy - Sebana Cove Resort
Most property reports full of gloom but not yet doom. However, a few developers are still offering good products and have high selling rate. It is not necessarily the development projects must be located at a large city. If you are a late starter and look for a medium to long term investment, you should look at Sebana Cove Resort offerings.
Sebana Resort is owned and developed by IJM Land Berhad, a well established developer. It owns about 1,200 acres of land and next to the RAPID project in Pengerang, Kota Tinggi. You should read further the size of RAPID project and the adjacent lands. Petronas has slowed down her other development activities except RAPID project.
Currently, the company is developing about 110 banglows in the area. The offering price is around RM1.6 million. There are two type of banglows. I have seen the show houses and quite satisfy with the quality and design being developed. Actually, it was on my second visit I finally managed to visit the gallery to see the master plan and visit the show houses. My first visit was during Hari Raya Aidil Adha. But the gallery was closed. This time during Chinese new year, I took the time to revisit the site.
The Classic buildings
The banglows is still beyond my affordability. But, if you are eligible for the loan, I advise you not to miss the opportunity to invest. By the time the banglows was finised being developed, the rent is still very good considering the progress in RAPID development. In order to ensure the forecast, I pay another visit to the RAPID development site. The new road to Pengerang was already completed during my first visit. From Pengerang, I can travel to Sungai Rengit and go back to Felda Adela. But this time around, the road between Pengerang and Sungai Rengit is already closed. This means a more extensive development is already underway. I believe the development involve the ships berths which is at the Pengerang shores. In my first visit, I can see several oil & gas storage already completed. I can also see huge water reservoir already completed. This means once the ship berth is completed, the first operation day is very close. This also means different type of workers will come in. And they need places to stay. Current houses barely meet these needs. Some current workers have to stay as far as Pasak or even Pasir Gudang. Hence, this is a big opportunity for those who buy houses in close proximity to RAPID.
Another important development is the main road from the Senai-Penawar highway to Sungai Rengit is being expanded to cater for 4 lanes road (2 lanes in each direction). Some of the Felda settlers land was acquired to do so. I didn't realize this when I came back at night from Johor Bahru. During my visit to Sebana and RAPID, I can see the land is being cleared, digged or filled to make the whole new road being evenly built.
By looking at the road infrastructure, we can estimate the economy activities in the future. Beside the road, I also observe for other indicator for future population needs.
There are something interesting with the master plan of Sebana Resort which can cater for different background and future population. Be reminded, many oil and gas workers are foreigners. Together with local workers which was estimated may reached 70,000 people, they will spend the day working hard and required good sleep and rest at night. This is where the master plan should be carefully planned and executed. For your information, what Sebana Resort can offer is only a small fraction of the actual population needs.
If you are interested to know more about this opportunity, you may contact me directly. I am not going to write everything here. Different strategies need to be formulated for different investment goals and different investors background. I may organized a field visit for those who are interested to learn more.
Sebana Resort is owned and developed by IJM Land Berhad, a well established developer. It owns about 1,200 acres of land and next to the RAPID project in Pengerang, Kota Tinggi. You should read further the size of RAPID project and the adjacent lands. Petronas has slowed down her other development activities except RAPID project.
Currently, the company is developing about 110 banglows in the area. The offering price is around RM1.6 million. There are two type of banglows. I have seen the show houses and quite satisfy with the quality and design being developed. Actually, it was on my second visit I finally managed to visit the gallery to see the master plan and visit the show houses. My first visit was during Hari Raya Aidil Adha. But the gallery was closed. This time during Chinese new year, I took the time to revisit the site.
The Classic buildings
The banglows is still beyond my affordability. But, if you are eligible for the loan, I advise you not to miss the opportunity to invest. By the time the banglows was finised being developed, the rent is still very good considering the progress in RAPID development. In order to ensure the forecast, I pay another visit to the RAPID development site. The new road to Pengerang was already completed during my first visit. From Pengerang, I can travel to Sungai Rengit and go back to Felda Adela. But this time around, the road between Pengerang and Sungai Rengit is already closed. This means a more extensive development is already underway. I believe the development involve the ships berths which is at the Pengerang shores. In my first visit, I can see several oil & gas storage already completed. I can also see huge water reservoir already completed. This means once the ship berth is completed, the first operation day is very close. This also means different type of workers will come in. And they need places to stay. Current houses barely meet these needs. Some current workers have to stay as far as Pasak or even Pasir Gudang. Hence, this is a big opportunity for those who buy houses in close proximity to RAPID.
Another important development is the main road from the Senai-Penawar highway to Sungai Rengit is being expanded to cater for 4 lanes road (2 lanes in each direction). Some of the Felda settlers land was acquired to do so. I didn't realize this when I came back at night from Johor Bahru. During my visit to Sebana and RAPID, I can see the land is being cleared, digged or filled to make the whole new road being evenly built.By looking at the road infrastructure, we can estimate the economy activities in the future. Beside the road, I also observe for other indicator for future population needs.
If you are interested to know more about this opportunity, you may contact me directly. I am not going to write everything here. Different strategies need to be formulated for different investment goals and different investors background. I may organized a field visit for those who are interested to learn more.
Sunday, February 7, 2016
Prepare Yourself Than Depending on the Government
World financial crisis is on the way.
It is worst than 2008.
In 2008 and 2009, Malaysia faced the financial crisis by lowering the interest rate to spur domestic consumption including housing development. Household and government debt were lower at that time compared to today. The tightening of the financial loans by end of 2014 was one of the preparation by the government or specifically by BNM.
Are you prepared? What have you done to face the coming financial crisis?
I am not sure myself whether I have made all the necessary preparation. One thing for sure, I am planning to prepare to lower the consumption cost of water, electricity, and foods. It is also important to have emergency backup plan for all these essential resources.
When I was a boy and lived in Muar, my village always faced water shortages. In early 1980s, My father have to prepare huge water storage tank, bought water pump, he cannot afford electric water pump, so he bought manual water pump. Normally, every three days, a lorry with a huge water tank will pass by to distribute the water. Since my father has placed a huge tank at the front of our house, my father's house has become one of the important place for people to gather and bring their own water storages when the lorry arrived.
That part is not difficult. The most difficult part is to carry the water to the kitchen which is about 60 meters away. We used various method to carry water, either using a bucket, a small storage tank on the back of a bicycle, a trolley and etc.. I remembered it was a commodity to be able to build your own trolley to carry a water tank. The trolley was also used for other purposes. During worst season, my father and I had to take water from the river which sometimes did not have sufficient water flow at all.
Then, in 1990s, a new water treatment plant was built in Muar which solved the water problem in the district. People thought it is a permanent solution. As time goes by, population and commercial activities keep growing. As a result, the needs for more water keeps increasing. While there are lesser sources of raw water. Malaysia is still a young population. So this will become a big issue in the future unless something is done now.
So, I don't want to wait the government to do something for a longer solution. I better prepare now by making sure my new house can retain as much rain water as possible. It is not as simple as you think.
Have you done any preparation!? Ask people in Kota Tinggi and Pasir Gudang. They wished they are better prepared. Now it is over after 3 months ration, it does not mean it will not happen again!
It is worst than 2008.
In 2008 and 2009, Malaysia faced the financial crisis by lowering the interest rate to spur domestic consumption including housing development. Household and government debt were lower at that time compared to today. The tightening of the financial loans by end of 2014 was one of the preparation by the government or specifically by BNM.
Are you prepared? What have you done to face the coming financial crisis?
I am not sure myself whether I have made all the necessary preparation. One thing for sure, I am planning to prepare to lower the consumption cost of water, electricity, and foods. It is also important to have emergency backup plan for all these essential resources.
When I was a boy and lived in Muar, my village always faced water shortages. In early 1980s, My father have to prepare huge water storage tank, bought water pump, he cannot afford electric water pump, so he bought manual water pump. Normally, every three days, a lorry with a huge water tank will pass by to distribute the water. Since my father has placed a huge tank at the front of our house, my father's house has become one of the important place for people to gather and bring their own water storages when the lorry arrived.
That part is not difficult. The most difficult part is to carry the water to the kitchen which is about 60 meters away. We used various method to carry water, either using a bucket, a small storage tank on the back of a bicycle, a trolley and etc.. I remembered it was a commodity to be able to build your own trolley to carry a water tank. The trolley was also used for other purposes. During worst season, my father and I had to take water from the river which sometimes did not have sufficient water flow at all.
Then, in 1990s, a new water treatment plant was built in Muar which solved the water problem in the district. People thought it is a permanent solution. As time goes by, population and commercial activities keep growing. As a result, the needs for more water keeps increasing. While there are lesser sources of raw water. Malaysia is still a young population. So this will become a big issue in the future unless something is done now.
So, I don't want to wait the government to do something for a longer solution. I better prepare now by making sure my new house can retain as much rain water as possible. It is not as simple as you think.
Have you done any preparation!? Ask people in Kota Tinggi and Pasir Gudang. They wished they are better prepared. Now it is over after 3 months ration, it does not mean it will not happen again!