Global Property Guide - a good resource on global residential property investment

Global Property Guide
This is a one-stop website for global residential property investor.

Some highlights:
1. Interactive Comparison tool
Its Interactive comparison tool is useful.

Add to list the countries that you want to compare, click "compare" and it will yield a comparison table of

• buying price,
• gross rental yield,
• rental income tax,
• roundtrip cost,
• capital gains tax,
• buy-to-let income rating.

I try to compare Malaysia, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, USA, UK as these are the countries most Malaysian, especially Malaysian Chinese, will invest.

It seems that among these countries, Malaysia’s buying price (1366 USD/sq m) is lowest, gross rental yield (9.22%) is highest, rental income tax (22.42%) is 2nd highest, buy-to-let rating highest, roundtrip cost, capital gain tax not very high.

2. Countries/regions data
Its data on regions/countries is impressive.
Take for examples:
Malaysia
Singapore

"In depth" comes with overview, price history, rental yields, taxes and costs, tax on rent, buying guide, landlord & tenant, inheritance, living there, useful links, country statistics.

Regional statistics are abundant:
Sq M prices, rental yields, rents, price/rent ratio, price/GDP per cap, buy/sell costs, rental income tax, capital gains tax, price change 1 yr, price change 5yrs, landlord & tenant law, GDP per capita, GDP/cap growth 1 yr, GDP/cap growth 5 yrs, economic freedom, ec. freedom 5 yrs, competitiveness, property rights index, currency +/- value… Wow !

These indicators set me thinking what residential property investors need to look at.

3. Directory
It has directories of realtors, accountants, lawyers, foreign exchange, mortgages.

4. School of Profit
In its School of Profit, it has 2 guides that are insightful for residential property investors and real estate academics respectively:

• Guides to making money in residential property investment
• Guides to the academic literature

5. Rating

The website even has rating on countries, much like bond credit rater S&P, Fitch, Moody’s but it is on residential estate.

6. Real estate news
Its real estate news have a more local insights on specific countries.

7. Email subscription
There is a free email newsletter for subscription.

My genereal views:

I like the presentation of data of Global Property Guide. It tells you date of data used, sources of data, assumptions etc..

Beware though that the date of data may not be the most updated ones. Probably Premium Data subscription may have a more updated data.

Look at the assumptions too. Most of the times it is assuming the residential property investor is a foreign investor, for e.g. in tax, cost etc. If you are a local investor, you may need to adjust on that.

A great one-stop resource on global residential property investment indeed !

Effective real property gain tax of Malaysia Budget 2010

Proposal on real property gain tax on the Malaysia Budget 2010 can be seen in this Appendix of Budget 2010, at Appendix 15.

The Malaysia Budget 2010 speech can be seen here.

Did some calculation: data.

Taking into account of exemption “up to RM10,000 or 10% of the gains, which ever is higher be given to individuals”, it can be seen that there are 3 "regimes" of effective real property gain tax:

1. For real property gain from 0 to 10,000, effective real property gain tax is 0%.

2. For real property gain from 10,000 to 100,000, effective real property gain tax increases from 0% to 4.5%, with sharp initial increase. Rate of increase decreases with increase of real property gain.

3. For real property gain from 100,000 onwards, effective real property gain tax is 4.5%.

It seems the effective real property gain tax favoured smaller amount of real property gain.

This new flat-rate real property gain tax irregardless of holding period is less effective in curbing speculation in real estate compared to the older-version RPG tax which have progressive rates.

a book on housing

There is this book (in chinese) that I found very useful for insights on selecting a house.
Many aspects of house like waterproofing, earthquake rsistance, fireproofing, power supply, water supply, drainage, insulation, acoustics, airflow, exterior are discussed.

寻找梦想的家

More information on the book.
Book content, sample chapter are available.

Malaysia’s Ministry of Housing and Local Government

A forum friend has recommended this website of Malaysia’s Ministry of Housing and Local Government.
website

This is the Ministry governing housing developers in Malaysia.

Some information from the website which may be useful for housebuyers:
Guidelines: (some highlights)
1. Guideline on licensing
Can learn a great deal on licensing of housing developers and moneylenders.

2. Guideline on housing and you (important)
This is very useful. It tells potential housebuyer what to caution for when buying a house.

3. Guideline on landscape
This is government guidelines on aspects of landscape, public parks, greening of nations etc..

Services: (some highlights)
1. Licensing (important)
We can search for registered developers/housing projects, moneylenders here.

2. Tribunal for homebuyer claims (important)
An easier, cheaper and faster means of dispute resolution for homebuyers claiming compensation/damages from housing developers.
Conditions, procedures, forms etc.. are available in the website.

3. Housing Legal Clinic
Providing advise to resolve dispute between house buyer and developer, especially to those who cannot afford legal advice

4. Prosecuted & Fined Developers (important)
Good to know which developers (and projects) have bad reputations. Avoid buying house from them.

Great website...

Real Estate Malaysia - The Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Malaysia

Found this website of The Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Malaysia :
website

Quite a useful website to know more about Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents.

The Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Malaysia, under Ministry of Finance, Malaysia, is regulating the Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents practising in Malaysia.

Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents in Malaysia are governed under Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Act 1981.

Some highlights from the website:
1. Qualifications
We can know what are the academic qualifications, professional qualifications and test of professional competence for registration as a Valuer or an Estate Agent.
Maybe we can search further to find out the body of knowledge to be a Valuer or an Estate Agent.

2. Fees
We can find out how much are the fees for valuation services, property management and estate agency, at least we can know whether we are overcharged.

3. Code of conduct
Great. Can find what are not allowed on Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents.

4. Search
Good to confirm whether your Valuer, Appraiser and Estate Agent hired are a legally registered one.

5. Role/Role of Negotiator
We can learn what are the roles of Appraisers, Estate Agents and Property Management and Negotiator.
It also shows current number of firms, registered members & probationary members.

6. Publications
A number of publications listed, with their price.
Most are not expensive. Of interest is "Malaysian Valuation Standards" (RM15).
Will this teach us "how to evaluate real estate in M’sia" ?

Note:
Do check out my other posts on Malaysia investment and real estate.

Real Estate Malaysia - Valuation and Property Services Department – Ministry of Finance, Malaysia

A forum friend has mentioned about this website of Malaysia’s Valuation and Property Services Department – Ministry of Finance, Malaysia :
website
(in Malay, it is "Jabatan Penilaian dan Perkhidmatan Harta" (JPPH) )

I think it is a great resource to read about Malaysia’s Real Estate.

JPPH has 3 programmes:
1. Valuation and Property Services
2. National Institute of Valuation (INSPEN)
3. National Property Information Center (NAPIC)

Information by NAPIC is good for Malaysia Real Estate industry analysis.
Its quarterly Property Stock Report and Property Market Status Report are particularly useful.

Property Stock Report:
Inside the Property Stock Report, there is a summary of existing stock, future supply of residential property, commercial property, industrial property and leisure property in different states of Malaysia. Occupancy rates are also available. More detailed tables are also available for different types of property.

Property Market Status Report:
Inside the Property Market Status Report, there is a summary of new launches, property overhang, unsold not constructed property, unsold under construction property and commercial complexes vacancy. (Definition of what these include are in Technical Notes.)

Information on types, unit launched, sold and sales performance are available too. More detailed tables are available. It has details to the level of district, price ranges etc.., cool.

real estate - Malaysia National House Buyers Association

Buying property is a big decision. The amount of money involved is large.
There are a lot of pitfalls during the process. We need to be extra careful in every step.

Found this "Malaysia National House Buyers Association".
website

Some useful information:
1. Where to get help: FAQ and Forum Board, contact and advice centre

2. Statistics:
This shows complaint statistics (available from 2000 - 2006).
We will be able to take a glimpse of what can go wrong in property buying, for examples:
(the list is not exhaustive…)

• strata titles,
• management & maintenance,
• late delivery & LAD claims,
• certificate of fitness,
• abandoned projects, (look at abandoned projects)
• shoddy workmanship & defects,
• non-adherence to building plans,
• infrastructure,
• failure to recovery on awards/prosecution of awards – section 16AD,
• compensation delays,
• payments…

3. Buyer watch issues
We can find lots of issues/news on Malaysia’s property/housing.
Many are newspaper articles.

4 Buyers’ group list
We can find existing owners’ association/committee (in the form of Yahoo Groups, blogs, forums) of some housing projects. Useful if you are buying 2nd hand property and wish to find out info or existing problems of that housing estate/project. Useful also if you have problems related to your house and wish to join forces with others in the same housing estate/project.

4. Useful Links
These links are extremely useful. We can find links to many real estate industry participants here. Explore..

5. The Laws/Guidelines
Laws like:

• Building and Common Property (maintenance and management) Act
• Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act,
• Strata Titles Act,
• Street, Drainage and Building Act,

Court cases are also available here.

6. Experts’ views