Consideration for MY property Purchase

Consideration for MY property Purchase

1. Avoid mixed devt; it is difficult to demarcate Hotel, Residential & Mall for Strata Title issue.  Best choice is JB (& Melaka) as more food choices & rentals. (KL & Penang are too far for me to travel, although it's property may have good return value. Need MM2H or else need to return home monthly to renew Visa extension.)

2. Before Strata Title issue, Unit has to pay State Consent every 2-year @RM5k (recently raised from RM3k) to keep unit ownership interim. 

When purchasing, bargain for one time payment for State Consent; no need renewal. But easily than said, Developer may not warrant it after 3-year Latent Defect Period (LDP). Not even through legal statements, unless it's first State Consent Certificate does not have expiry date.  

Earlier year, new property buy may have such privileges such as Deferred Interest Bearing Scheme (DIBS) loan absorption by developer during construction phrase; so one doesn't need to pay loan interest during development construction phrase. 

3. Don't buy very near to lift as noisy due to lift-announcements and "ding-dongs". Don't buy facing Hotel aircon installation on rooftop as it can be very noisy.

4. Try to be a privileged bank customer for that loaned bank to get better mortgage rate.

5. Don't borrow from uob; hidden cost like Loan Insurance indemnity and yearly update them of development Fire Insurance Certificate to "validate" your loan. Just my opinion only.

6. Freehold or not, I also may not have the answer for future generation; maybe a burden to them.  Involve them in your decision, if possible.

7. Only KL n Penang properties may (may only) make money. Don't expect any devt in other States to make money; likely upon TOP, its market value will slash by 50%. Still Singaporean cannot buy those that are already TOP if less than RM1M (or RM2M) depend on State Foreign Property Threshold.

8. Buy devt which their locals like; esp those that Singaporeans like. Locals will stay and make condo busy with human traffic. Singaporeans will be diligent to pay their maintenance fees.

9. At all times, avoid those devt with Chinese locals; 90%! (my opinion) they don't pay maintenance charges. End up the devt will not have money for maintenance.

10. Annual Maintenance cost is cheap @ RM2,500 to RM5,000 p.a.  (depend on Unit size).  Property & Water Taxes are paid directly to State.  

11. Anything unpleasant, take it as a blessing mentality, a Plan B for retirement. 

12. On choice of developer, look through their credentials.  Avoid Chinese owned developers.  Just look at Danga Bay, R&F, Forest City.

13. Foreigners can only buy new devt threshold minimum sum from RM500k to RM2M!, depend on State. Iskandar region is the only Economic Zone that does not have minumum sum threshold, for now.

14. Foreigners cannot buy TOP-ed devt, even if its offered Unit is less than RM500k, except for Iskandar Economic Zone. Maybe one can still buy unsold TOP units from Developer at threshold minimum sum.

15. For condo, if got choice of Sea view, choose Sea view for better rental.

16. For landed, choose those with good local mixed as got more human daily activities in vicinity. Choose those with malls nearby, if possible. Quiet home vicinity may be tempting for break-ins. 

17. Choose your Mortgage Bank properly. Bank switching incur legal fees. And also as most devt value may have fallen by 50%, one may need to topup more cash in partial payment as development Unit is usually below market value than the Mortgage loan balance.  

18. For foreigner who buys any new MY property, bank would lend upto 70~75% loan quantum of the property price. If your mortgage loan balance is less than RM500k, one may not be able to get bank loan. This may end up paying full property price.

If those days before 2016, the MYR/SGD exchange rate is ~2.5:1. Now is 3.45:1! This itself, lost out by ~40% in S$ value.

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Above are my considerations, please make your decisions.