Young buyers flock to property market

Why millennials are flocking to real estate

Interest rate cuts, govt incentives spur buying interests

“We believe the strong growth in our young buyers is both a natural evolution and as a result of a conscious strategic effort we have made to appeal to this important customer group,"-
Datuk Chang Khim Wah

 

Eco World Development Group Bhd president and chief executive officer Datuk Chang Khim Wah told StarBiz the increase in younger buyers was due to a conscious strategic effort made by the group to appeal to this target market.

Property developers are seeing a pick up in sales, especially from younger buyers, as the numerous interest rate cuts and government incentives have spurred buying interest.

Eco World Development Group Bhd president and chief executive officer Datuk Chang Khim Wah said the increase in younger buyers was due to a conscious strategic effort made by the group to appeal to this target market.

“During our initial years of operations (circa 2015) the percentage of young buyers (below 40 years old) was around 43% and today it is more than 70%.

“We believe the strong growth in our young buyers is both a natural evolution and as a result of a conscious strategic effort we have made to appeal to this important customer group, both through the products we are offering as well as the way in which we engage them via social media and digital channels, ” he told StarBiz.

Of the 70%, Chang said around 50% are in their 30s and the remaining 20% are in their 20s. “We are particularly happy that a good number of these buyers include children of our own customers and residents in the vicinity of our development. This validates our efforts over the last few years to make a strong pivot to serve the needs of this market segment and the wider M40 group.

“Our upcoming launch of the new Duduk series of vertical townships offering semi-furnished apartments priced below RM400,000 at Eco Ardence and Eco Sanctuary, as well landed homes starting from RM500,000 at Eco Botanic 2, will enable us to further capture the hearts and minds of this very important market segment.”

Chang said the prolonged movement control order (MCO) period has really made many young people realise that the quality of home and living environment matters greatly.

Mah Sing Group Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Ho Hon Sang (pic below) said as the bulk of its projects comprised units within the affordable range segment, the majority of its buyers comprised those below 35 years of age.

“For Mah Sing, 84% of our target sales for 2020 are for residential properties priced below RM700,000 with key focus in the affordable segment. We typically see about 65% of buyers who are 35 years and below, for most of the affordable projects were launched in recent years. Hence, the majority of our buyers are first time homeowners.”

Despite the challenging market environment in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ho said demand continues to be resilient as property remained one of the safest forms of asset class for long-term capital protection and appreciation.

“Malaysia’s population is still very young with 66% below 40 years old and as such, household formation continues to be strong. Affordably-priced properties of good quality and at strategic locations remain highly sought after.

“This is especially for first-time home buyers, which augers well for Mah Sing’s product composition.”

Sunway Property said it is seeing increasing interest from younger buyers from 25 years to 35 years in its properties that are transit-oriented and have good facilities nearby.

“For example, our developments such as the transit-oriented Sunway Avila in Wangsa Maju, the integrated and transit-oriented Sunway Velocity TWO and the youth-focused development of Sunway Grid in Sunway Iskandar has seen enthusiastic response from younger purchasers, ” it said.

Property data, analytics and solutions provider MyProperty Data chief executive officer Thor Joe Hock said the median age for residential property transactions has gradually dropped over the years.

“When we look at the over 2.5 million residential property transactions, including serviced apartments, it appears that the median age of buyers from 2000 to 2019 has remained largely unchanged at between 34 to 35 years of age.

“However, when you break it down into landed and non-landed transactions, we start to get a clearer picture. The median age for non-landed properties has fallen from 40 years in 2000 to 28 years in 2019; while the median age for landed property purchasers marginally decreased from 40 years to 37 years over the same period.”

MyProperty Data manages a property data portal called PropertyAdvisor.

Meanwhile, Lagenda Properties Bhd managing director Datuk Jimmy Doh said more than half of its buyers are below 39 years of age.

“We believe as young people start new phases in their lives, for example getting a job or starting their own families, they prefer to stay independently and have their own space, granted that the properties are within their price range.

“Over the past few years, we have been seeing an increase in buyers. Our properties are priced below RM200,000, ” he said.

MIDF Research in a recent report said the aggressive overnight policy rate (OPR) cuts have improved home buyers’ purchasing power.

“Bank Negara cut its overnight policy rate for the fourth time this year by 25 basis points (bps) to a record low of 1.75% in July due to the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global economy. The aggressive OPR cuts this year are positive to the sector as it improved home buyer’s purchasing power by reducing loan installments.

“We estimate monthly installments to reduce by 14%, after 125 bps cut for RM500,000 loan with a loan repayment period of 30 years, which is quite significant in our view. Hence, we think the record-low interest rate will partly help to alleviate home buyers’ issue of securing home financing, as the record low yield has boosted the affordability of home buyers.”

MIDF Research also said it expected loan demand to recover in the second half of 2020.

Citing Bank Negara’s statistics, it said total applied loan for the purchase of property improved sequentially by 52.9% month-on-month to RM13.1bil in May, after plunging by 64.8% month-on-month in April.

“Note that total applied loan recorded steep decline in April due to the disruption to business activity following the commencement of the MCO.

“Nevertheless, total applied loan in May was lower by 61.8% year-on-year while cumulative total applied loan in the first five months of 2020 was lower by 33.6% year-on-year, indicating buying interest was subdued.”

Looking ahead, the research house expected buying interest to recover in the second half of this year, spurred by incentives introduced by the government.

Under the Short-Term Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana), which was announced in June, the government reintroduced the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC). Under the HOC, stamp duty exemption will be provided on the transfer of property and loan agreement for the purchase of home priced between RM300,000 and RM2.5mil.

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Understanding the attraction between men and women

Dr Goh Pei Hwa  from Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Science

HOW many times have we all, at some point in our lives, misinterpreted signs?


Movies like He’s Just Not That into You, which is based on Greg Behrendt’s and Liz Tuccillo’s 2004 self-help book of the same name, tells people that if a man in whom you are interested in is not making an effort to pursue you, he is “just not that into you.”

Research has long indicated that it is mostly men, who tend to misperceive friendliness as sexual interest. They overestimate the sexual interest of potential mates. Even when two people have clearly defined their relationship as platonic, more often, it is the men, who are attracted to their opposite-sex friends.

According to Dr Goh Pei Hwa from the Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, this is not always the case.

While the majority of existing findings show the abovementioned pattern of men overperceiving sexual interest, relationship researchers have demonstrated that among heterosexual couples in committed relationships, men were more likely to underperceive sexual interest from their partners.

Men from certain cultures were also less likely to overperceive sexual interest than others.

In other words, the “male over perception bias” appears to be less universal than previously assumed.

In her recent work, Dr Goh revisited the question of gender differences in sexual perception accuracy using a face-to-face, laboratory-based interaction paradigm on a sample of university students in Malaysia.

Participants consisted of 62 previously unacquainted heterosexual dyads aged 20 years on average. Each participant was randomly paired with another participant of the other sex, and each dyad engaged in a semi-structured conversation task for five minutes.

After the interaction task, participants completed measures capturing their degree of sexual interest in their interaction partner and an estimation of their partner’s sexual interest in them.

Results revealed that people’s perception of their partner’s sexual interest did not match their partner’s actual sexual interest. This indicates that people generally lacked accuracy in their perception of sexual interest.

In fact, people’s perception of sexual interest was highly in line with their own sexual interest in their interaction partner.

More importantly, no gender differences were found. This means that both men and women were equally inaccurate and equally likely to project their own sexual interest onto their estimations of their partner’s sexual interest.

“In essence, people are bad at interpreting sexual interest from strangers. Based on the research, Malaysian men do not overperceive sexual interest as past studies have suggested. Women, on the other hand, tend to underperceive sexual interest, supporting past studies,” says Goh.

The current study advances our understanding that people are generally underperceiving sexual interest in initial interactions, regardless of gender.

That is, people are either not communicating their sexual interest effectively or missing all the sexual interest cues being expressed by someone else.

Here, it translates into a lot of potentially missed opportunities. This is highly applicable to first meetings between potential partners, which begs the question: does technology further impede our ability to gauge the sexual interest of others accurately?

With dating apps, we typically already know that we are chatting with someone who finds us attractive or appealing to a certain extent.

Thus, there is no need to try to decipher whether or not someone is into us based on the interaction.

Goh concludes: “If you like someone or have some interest in a person, express it more overtly. This will invite the other person to respond according to his or her own interest in you.

“Let the other person decide if he or she is interested, not you and your potentially (or most likely) wrong perceptions”.

■ For more details, look out for the advertisement in this StarSpecial.

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US president’s move to get a cut from TikTok as an ‘extortion threat’ and ‘mafia deal’

Washington robs TikTok by treading upon rules

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As the US shocked the free world with its mafia-style forced sale of Chinese-owned short-form video platform TikTok, Chinese experts said that US extortion and looting have left a deep impression on the minds of the nations of the world, and pointed out that many of the countries are already striving to boost self-reliance in terms of security, industrial independence and technological ownership.

Expert slams US president’s move to get a cut from TikTok as an ‘extortion threat’ and ‘mafia deal’. 

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Controversial: Trump has said he would approve TikTok’s sale to Microsoft only if the US government gets a cut from the deal. — Reuters

TikTok's roller-coaster ride in the United States continued on Monday as President Donald Trump said he would approve the video-sharing app's sale to Microsoft only if the US government gets a cut, a condition that one expert called a "mafia" deal.

The president also gave Microsoft and TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, a deadline of Sept 15 to complete the deal, or the app will be banned in the US.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular media briefing in Beijing on Tuesday that the US treatment of TikTok is "outright bullying", and the US only uses a "national security risk" as an excuse to suppress Chinese tech enterprises.

"The relevant enterprises carry out business activities in the US following market principles and international rules and abiding by local laws and regulations," he said. "However, the US has set restrictions and suppressed them with unwarranted charges, which is political manipulation."

Wang said that if the wrongdoing by the US continues, then any country could take similar measures against any American enterprise on the grounds of national security.

"The US side must not open this Pandora's box, otherwise it will suffer its consequences," he said.

The increased scrutiny of TikTok culminated on Friday when Trump threatened to ban the app from operating in the US due to a "national security risk". The negotiations between the two companies were then halted.

But after a weekend phone call with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Trump reversed his stance and reportedly gave the two companies 45 days to close the deal. This was confirmed by Microsoft on Sunday, which said in a statement it "will move quickly to pursue discussions" with ByteDance and complete the talks "no later than" Sept 15.

The president added a condition to the potential purchase on Monday: Microsoft should buy TikTok outright, and the US Treasury Department should be paid because the government made the deal possible.

"It's a little bit like the landlord/tenant; without a lease the tenant has nothing, so they pay what's called 'key money', or they pay something," Trump told reporters in the Cabinet Room at the White House on Monday. "But the United States should be reimbursed or should be paid a substantial amount of money, because, without the United States, they don't have anything."

Investors in privately owned Byte-Dance valued TikTok at $50 billion, according to a Reuters report.

Kai-Fu Lee, former chairman of Google China, said the US treatment of TikTok, including "forced acquisition, plus only 45 days, plus finder's fees", is "incredible".

Lee said that China has set clear rules for internet companies that want to operate in the country, and Google had decided to exit as it didn't want to comply with Chinese laws and regulations.

"The US didn't give any parameters that TikTok could work with, and didn't provide any evidence for their claims that TikTok had caused national security risks to the US," he said.

The legal basis of Trump's requirement that some of the money from the deal go to the US Treasury was immediately questioned by experts.

"This is quite unusual; this is out of the norm," Gene Kimmelman, a former chief counsel for the US Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, told CNN.

"It's actually quite hard to understand what the president is actually talking about here.... It's not unheard of for transactions to have broader geopolitical implications between countries, but it's quite remarkable to think about some kind of money being on the table in connection with a transaction," said Kimmelman, a senior adviser to the policy group Public Knowledge.

Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., said Trump's "extortion threat" is a "mafia business model".

"Trump's full explanation of why the Treasury should get a 'cut' of a Microsoft/TikTok deal is, somehow, even more grotesque and shameless than I had anticipated," said Sanchez.

"As with his tariff policy, there doesn't seem to be any consideration of whether this sets a dangerous precedent for other countries to engage in similar pretextual protectionism against us, or how whimsically compelling divestment might affect international investment," he said.

Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center, also warned that shutting down the app altogether would set "a dangerous precedent in which the US government can blacklist companies based on country of origin using blanket national security as justification".

The Trump administration has been scrutinizing TikTok for several months, claiming that the platform shares the data of US users with the Chinese government. The company has repeatedly denied the accusations, maintaining that all the users' information is stored in the US.

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No smartphone = problems living in Penang

Please resolve the parking and soon-to-be marketing woes of constituents who do not own and do not wish to own smartphones.

 

Councils should tackle car parking woes

 LIVE in Penang, and while I usually try to catch the infrequent Rapid bus, walk or bike, I do drive when I need to. However, I have an intractable problem with parking at Penang City Council-designated parking lots because I do not own a smartphone.

The state government implemented an e-parking system at the start of this year. My old phone does not allow me to download the e-parking app.

To compound my parking woes, I am unable to purchase parking coupons – they are no longer available as a result of the new system.

I have actually paid the council RM40 for unused, 2019 parking coupons.

Effectively, I have already paid for public parking which I cannot make use of. I went to the council recently, hoping to exchange the outdated parking coupons for current ones or to try and get my money back.

I explained my problem, fanned out the “virgin” parking coupon booklets and showed my phone.

The staff that I talked to said he couldn’t help.

When I insisted that I am not getting a service I had already paid for, he said I should document my complaint in a complaints form.

“You are not the first person to complain. Many have already complained before you.”

“So what happened to their complaints?” I asked.

“Nothing, no action was taken, ” was his reply.

“You want me to waste my time filling out a complaint form when many have already done the same and no action was taken?”

I realised then that the city council was only implementing a policy that the Penang government had pushed through without thinking of the needs of all in the community.

Did the state government not receive the complaints that had been lodged by those who do not have smartphones and are facing parking woes? How is this segment of the population to park at council parking lots?

Buy a smartphone? That is not right, some of us make a conscious choice not to own a smartphone because, hey, smartphones are so not smart for the planet.

Another problem looms on the horizon for this segment of our community: the state government plans to implement the use of an e-wallet app at local markets. I will not be able to buy fresh, local produce there because I don’t have a smartphone.

The state government’s “Green, Clean Penang” does not take into account the environmental impact of smartphones and their usage for basic services like marketing and parking.

Apart from the carbon footprint of manufacturing smartphones that only last for two to three years, the way smartphones are used has a huge environmental impact too. Among the largest generators of CO2 emissions are the servers and data centres that calculate every Google search, every Facebook post, and even every time we open an app.

To those calling the shots at the Penang government, please resolve the parking and soon-to-be marketing woes of your constituents who do not own and do not wish to own smartphones.

TEH AWA MUTU Penang

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‘It’s the right time to invest’

We found that data availability and transparency in the real estate sector is less than what we were used to when we were working in the financial industry and we are set to change that, ” says Red Angpow co-founder Erhan Azrai.

PETALING JAYA: Even as many consumers are cautious in purchasing high-ticket items in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, industry experts say sale of properties and cars have been rising since June.

Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (Rehda) Malaysia national council member Tony Khoo Boon Chuan said property sales had picked up since June, thanks to lower interest rates and the extension of the government’s Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) until 2021.

“No doubt buyers are guarded when buying high-priced products.

“But others who are not affected financially also realise the time is here to buy or invest in a new property, ” he said in an interview.

Apart from the HOC’s 10% discount on the selling price, Khoo said buyers also enjoy incentives such as stamp duty exemption, free legal fees and freebies such as home security and alarm systems, additional cabling, fittings and fixtures.

“There are so many choices with perks and benefits in the market now for buyers.

“This is indeed the right time to invest, ” he said.

HOC is a government initiative in 2019 aimed at supporting homebuyers, and it has been reintroduced in June under the Penjana economic revival plan.

Khoo noted that the government’s exemption of real property gains tax for Malaysians for disposal of up to three properties had made it easy for property sales in the secondary market.

“This will certainly encourage a lot of investors and buyers who are looking to upgrade, ” he said.

In the automotive industry, both new and used cars have seen brisk sales in recent months, with foot traffic at showrooms having increased tremendously.

Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) president Datuk Aishah Ahmad said new car sales improved to 42,000 in June, compared with 22,000 in May, following the government’s announcement to remove the sales tax for certain categories of vehicles.

“Many car companies are offering lots of discounts and attractive hire purchase rates to entice customers, ” she said.

Although many car buyers are still cautious, she said premium cars purchases did not see much problem.

In fact, Aishah said MAA had readjusted the forecast of Malaysia’s total industry volume to 470,000 for this year, versus the earlier forecast of 400,000.

Federation of Motor and Credit Companies Association of Malaysia president Datuk Tony Khor Chong Boon agreed, adding that the used car market had also experienced tremendous growth in July.

“June sales were on par with full recovery following the recovery movement control order.

“July was very encouraging with 37,880 units sold, which is 25% higher than the same month last year, ” he said, adding that it was the highest monthly sales achieved in the last five years.

In contrast, he said used car sales only chalked up 303 units in April, when the usual monthly figure was between 30,000 and 35,000 units.

Khor said several factors contributed to the recent good vibes in the automotive industry, with measures introduced in the government’s economic revival plan shown to work.

“The moratorium has allowed some to have more money to spend, while the sales tax exemption has stimulated sales.

“Some buyers choose to get a car due to concerns about physical distancing and hygiene in public transport, ” he said, adding that used cars costing around RM30,000 were popular.

He noted that brisk sales of used cars resulted in a long waiting time for inspection at Puspakom, with a minimum wait time of at least five to seven days, and even 10 days or more at some locations.

When asked, Khor said it was hard to predict how long the good vibes would last because the real challenge would come when many borrowers are required to pay when the moratorium is lifted beginning October.

“To keep the market and economy stimulated, the government has to periodically come out with relevant measures and policies, ” he said.

Human resource executive CW Lim, who has been househunting for a few months, said he would make use of the discount and offers to buy a house in the Klang Valley.

“With the HOC, I’ll be able to save tens of thousand in downpayment, stamp duty fees and legal fees that could take me years to save up.

“Since my job and industry is not affected much, I hope I will soon own a house through these offers, ” said the 30-year-old from Klang.

Clinic nurse Farisha Azman, 29, who has been commuting to work from Subang Jaya to Shah Alam daily using the train, said she was in the process of buying a new car.

“Not having to worry about distancing on the train gives me peace of mind, ” she said.

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Serving property investors’ needs

WITH the property market expected to remain soft over the next few months, tech startupRED ANGPOW Analytics is hopeful that property owners will be knocking on its doors for help to better manage their asset portfolios.

The company does online map-based real estate due diligence, feasibility study and price analytics.

“We foresee asset holders requiring good information to manage their portfolios. Data on past transactions that have been useful will no longer be enough.

“We found that data availability and transparency in the real estate sector is less than what we were used to when we were working in the financial industry and we are set to change that, ” says Red Angpow co-founder Erhan Azrai.

The startup generally has two groups of target clients, which are development-based organisations and individuals who use research to make decisions such as property investors, analysts, researchers, valuers and banks. Red Angpow’s services are not only useful for developers, but also related industries that are supporting real estate.

Erhan notes that clients are becoming savvier and are looking for more opportunities in the soft property market and they will need more relevant data to make their investment decisions.

“After the 1997-1998 financial crisis, the National Property Information Centre (NAPIC) was created to provide accurate and timely information on the property market.

“In the current environment, we believe the timing is right for an enhanced service.

“In the longer term, there is a need to increase the efficiency of the real estate market with a lot more data transparency.

“From the work that we have done so far, we saw that a lot of data is actually available, but it is unstructured and comes from multiple sources.

“Before we can compile all this data via an artificial intelligence means, we are doing the very basic first, which is getting the data cleaned, tagged and harmonised in a form that can be used easily by researchers, ” he says.

He adds that ensuring property investors have timely and accurate data has become even more important now as real estate loans make up a sizeable portion of total loans.

As of February 2020, Erhan notes that real estate loans in the banking system stood at RM836bil or 47% of total loans.

“This staggering amount needs better data to manage the portfolio, especially when industries are cutting jobs. A 10% downward correction will affect up to 5% of the total loan portfolio, depending on the age of the loan asset. That’s a huge amount.”

While the movement control order (MCO) has hindered some of its plans, Red Angpow has been fortunate to have raised enough capital to weather the course for the next two years.

“So, we are going to stay the course. The MCO allows us to hunker down and complete our work. We planned to launch a subscription for property analytics dashboard by July. But we are confident that we will hit the ground running once again after the MCO is lifted, ” he says.

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RM525mil investment for Penang to create 1,600 jobs & human capital programme

( From left) Chow looking at the Penang NCER human capital graphic info. With him are John, state executive councillor Datuk Abdul Halim .

Three-month loan moratorium extension for those in need

https://youtu.be/wT4fZ9IcR6c https://youtu.be/nzqy79-m8Z0 Extension for those in need | The Star Rapt attention: Laun...

Do we still need an office?

Millennials now make up over a third of the workplace and overwhelmingly value flexibility in where, when and how to work. And top talent has been increasingly clustering in dense urban areas and has been unwilling to commute to suburban office parks