Malaysia most popular place for property buys

This article appeared Fri 23 May 2014, Straits Times.

Not surprising, given Malaysia's proximity to Singapore. To be more accurate, I think Johore is the most popular investment destination for Singaporeans, though I would be very interested to know which other Malaysian cities or states Singaporeans like to invest in.

Where Will The Singapore-KL High-Speed Rail Stations Be Located?
I think once the location of the new stations on the new high speed rail link between Singapore and KL are finalized, the property around those stations would become very valuable. Even buying a property in KL sounds more interesting, if indeed we can get to KL in 90 minutes or so, from Singapore, via a convenient high speed rail link.

Student Accommodation - Beware!
On London, the article quotes this chap from ECG Holdings who reportedly said that once Singaporeans go to Zone 3 and further out, they tend to invest in student accommodations that give a rental guarantee. He then cites some pricing numbers for such student accommodation.

This is not true, in fact, potentially very misleading. I do not know where this chap got his data from and I stand corrected if he can show the data to support his statements. More cynically, he may just be trying to attract some attention to student accommodations, which I have blogged a lot about in earlier posts. Beware of them!

There are decent residential deals in Zone 3 and beyond. And all of them don't come with rental guarantees simply because the rental stream is strong. Which developer would need to give a guarantee? Only those that are un-confident of how well their units could rent out.

Developments like Stratford, Hoola, Royal Wharf etc are all in zone 3. We own units in Zone 3 and they are doing fantastically well from a yield perspective, and they are definitely NOT student accommodation.

Happy investing!