SINGAPORE, 26 MARCH 2014 – The recent Malaysia Property Show, held over the weekend of 15 & 16 March 2014 at the Marina Bay Sands saw a full-to-capacity attendance at the investment seminar held on the first day. Organised and hosted by PropertyGuru, Singapore's #1 online property portal with the most real estate listings, this 8th instalment is Singapore’s leading Malaysia-themed property showcase.
Moderated by Gerard Kho, PropertyGuru Malaysia’s Country Manager, the panel of speakers included Adrian Un – SkyBridge International, Ahyat Ishak – author of The Strategic Property Investor, Dr Daniele Gambero – Rei Group of Companies, Elizabeth Siew – Messrs Iqbal Hakim, Sia & Voo, Veena Loh – Malaysia Property Inc and Yvonne Voon – Credit Suisse.
Insights drawn from the one hour seminar including the following expert views and opinions:
1. ISKANDAR CORRIDOR
- Iskandar has been the hot focal point of investor interest in the last few years and will continue
to do so.
- Never before have Singapore and Malaysia seen such unprecedented bilateral relations with
both Prime Ministers initiating catalytic developments to drive Iskandar towards a weighted,
investable economic sphere.
- With long-term outlay predicated by the sovereign wealth funds of both nations, Iskandar with its readily- available swaths of land bank will be the commerical zone of choice for start-ups and multi-national corporations out of Singapore establishing operations in Johor. Furthermore,Malaysia intends to achieve developed nation status by 2020, backed by strong economic growth.
- The case for attracting the strong Singapore dollar into Iskandar can e attributed to favourable
exchange rate to the Malaysia Ringgit.
- Prospects for Singapore residential investors are high with projected positive rental yields and
long-term capital gains.
- Property sales have been brisk since last year and market pundits estimate that Singapore
investors accounted for one-third of total transaction volumes of new property launches in
Iskandar.
2. FINANCING AND PROJECTED RETURN-ON-INVESTMENT
- Malaysia is the only South-East Asia nation where foreigners can buy freehold property.
- Amid the backdrop of cooling measures introduced to calm Singapore property prices,
foreigners can look to 85 percent financing at low rates.
- As opposed to tight lending regulations which investors can expect to glean an average return
of up to 1 percent, investing in Malaysia property with its easy access to funds can procure an
average return of 3-4 percent.
- First-time buyers into Malaysia should stay away from short-term speculation and look towards
a minimum investment tenure of at least 10 years – the average period of a property cycle – in
order to cull the best returns.
3. MINIMAL PURCHASE QUANTUM
- Whilst the Malaysian Government has announced that foreigners can only purchase properties
of RM1 million and above with effect from 1 March 2014, Singapore investors need to note that
this new ruling has yet to be enforced.
- As such, Iskandar developers are still selling units at the previous minimum price baseline of
RM500,000.
Steve Melhuish, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, PropertyGuru: “Singaporeans are eager to flock to Johor and gateway cities of Malaysia and splash on luxury developments. With the latest cooling measure severely scaling back property transactions in Singapore, this should be the perfect opportunity for Malaysia to reach out to this eager pool of cash-rich investors.”
Exhibitors at The Malaysia Property Show included OSK Property, KIP Group, Astaka, One Medini, GSB Properties, Distinctive Resources and Tiong Nam Group.
- ENDS -
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About us
PropertyGuru is Asia’s #1 online property portal group. Visits to PropertyGuru’s websites across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia grew by 19% to reach 125 million (Source: Google Analytics). Page views increased by 29% to a total of 1.1 billion impressions (Source: Google Analytics). Property listings increased by 69% to 805,060 end 2013. 44% of website traffic across all four countries stemmed from mobile with Singapore leading the pack at 57% and continually rising at one percentage point a month. The Group has developed and launched 16 mobile applications in four countries and three languages. At the end of 2013, the Group recorded 1,357,946 downloaded mobile apps, resulting in a slew of three MOBEX awards sweep. The Group continues on a strategy of innovative product enhancements include further improving consumer experience through additional content add-ons such as videos, micro-site for showcase of luxury developments and a floor plan database for real estate agents out of Singapore. Headquartered in Singapore, PropertyGuru was founded in 2006 by two entrepreneurs with a vision to simplify the property search process and help buyers, sellers and investors make better property decisions faster. Taking advantage of Asia’s growing affluence, property demand and online explosion, the company received its first VC investment funding in 2008 and secured approximately $60m investment in 2012 from Deutsche Telekom, South East Asia’s largest digital investment to date. PropertyGuru was also the first to integrate its website with social media, first to launch Singapore’s only dedicated property newspaper – with over 100,000 copies circulated island-wide every month – and it has also developed a property events platform, with approximately 30 shows held annually across four countries, addressing 30,000 potential property buyers on the ground.
STEVE MELHUISH, CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Steve is an award-winning entrepreneur. In the last two decades, Steve built profitable companies throughout Asia and Europe. In 2006 along with his partner Jani Rautiainen, founded PropertyGuru. Under the auspice of this newly established brand, PropertyGuru provided a one-stop online shop for the listing and sale of residential and commercial properties to individual and institutional buyers and investors. Prior to Steve’s current role, he held executive positions in various venture capital firms including Skype, AOL, Virgin Media, Vodafone, Extreme Media, iPass and Ariadne Capital. Steve’s expertise in leading global teams resulted in a US$500 million turnover for a business unit for Cable & Wireless. In 2007, Steve was awarded the Spirit of Enterprise Award in recognition of his contributions to entrepreneurship in Singapore. Steve is a non-executive director for two other firms, an angel investor and member of the Business Angels Network South East Asia.