Tag Archives: Sibu

Worrisome Trend In Real Estate

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Real Estate bubble

Price of houses and shophouses have been sky-rocketing and there is no indication that it is caused by high demand of residential and commercial building.

Some blamed it on the increase in material cost while other suggested that money-laundering may be the cause of price-hike.

Real Estate Bubble

The land value and material cost could never justify present terrace house price of RM380,000 or more and shop house price of RM950,000 or more. While other said the Association of developers agreed on such prices. If it is true, under the newly implemented Competition Act, such agreement on price is now illegal and punishable under the ACT.

Real estate prices have been increasing at such rate that it is no longer worth buying in Sibu if it is for investment purpose. With such price one can easily get a better deal in Kuala Lumpur, Johor bahru and Kuching as the population there is much bigger than Sibu therefore giving you better potential in term of investment.

Will such ‘high-price real estate’ bubble burst in 6 month time; especially when those buyers find it hard to make good each month installment or when base lending rate increment later on making it impossible to pay new installment? Will it affect banking industry subsequently? Bank Negara Malaysia ready for such possible undesirable outcome?

5 – Star Facilities Asked and Given. What is next?

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vandalism1

vandalism2

Recent renovation of shopping mall public toilets at level 5 invited more ‘shit’ as even ground floor tenants go all the way to level 5 to do their ‘business’ there. The management is proud to deliver the 5-star toilet for the tenants as well as public. It is classified as 5 star toilet because of marble floor tile and wall and new water tapes and toilet water jet system that help to clean your ‘secretion’.

However, one has to doubt the durability of the 5 – star toilet in view of die-hard habit of destroying something that come into their sight and touch of certain saboteurs of public facilities.

Frequent damage to traffic light, public toilets and playground facilities are very good evidences of kind of mentality of certain public. A few years ago, I saw a teenage girl using her index finger trying to ‘drill’ a hole into an office high-back chair; asking her why she tried to make a hole in the chair. She answered back : “Mana Ada?” while her index finger still digging into the chair. Will proper education do the job of removing such vandalizing mentality?

Last Sunday, I visited a kopitiam cum restaurant in Sungei Merah area intended to have a late lunch with my wife and noticed someone had made a hole at the seat of all the good chairs there. I felt sad for such a sight. Throwing Chewing gum on carpet and sticking used chewing gum to chairs are common in Sarawak.

If education will make a difference perhaps we have to start from pre-school to inculcate that vandalism is wrong and hopefully after 10 years of such education we will see noticeable reduction of all these vandalism.

Competition Act is losing its teeth?

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Competition Act Waiver Application

Competiton Act

Competition Act is taking effect from 1 Jan 2012 to ensure competition existed in all sectors of services and products retail/distribution outlets for the benefit of rakyat/consumers.

Yesterday, Star newspaper business column caught my eyes with the front page header Waiver Sought by 4 parties applying for exemption from Competition Act.

They are The Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM), Association of Malaysian Hauliers, a joint application by the Malaysia Shipowners Association, Shipping Association of Malaysia and federation of Malaysian Port Operators Council. The sole individual – Nestle Products Sdn Bhd.

Many could not see the reasons behind such waiver application and there is no reason to consider such application if waiver would put consumers/customers at disadvantage.

For an example, Life Insurance companies have been deciding jointly to extend the critical year of insurance policy citing financial downturn and hence the lower return of insurance companies investment as the main reason. This has put their customers in a difficult position as many of insured prompted to surrender their insurance policy for cash in view of continuous payment of insurance premium with no definite date of last payment. When misfortune do happen to this group of people; their family has no insurance protection to ensure their livelihood not affected by the untoward incidence. Hopefully the Competition Act will put a stop to this misery but now if the waiver application is approved it will be back to square one.

There is an annual fee of RM10,000 for the waiver application and RM20,000 block exemption. These companies willing to pay for such annual fees shows that their interest is affected by the Competition Act and such waiver is not necessary beneficial to their customers and consumers.

The authority should ensure that any waiver is for the benefit of raykat/consumers/users or else Competition Act will be redundant and serve no purpose.