Before Chinese New Year, hubby told me he had prepared new banknotes and red packets like what he did every year. I also passed him the red packets from my relationship manager. “We can’t use those. Mine are special ones. I have to schedule an appointment at their priority banking branch in Orchard to collect these. See, they are all printed with the name of their priority … [Read more...]
6 gimmicks agents use to sell foreign properties
I watched a recent Hong Kong TV programme about buying properties in Malaysia’s Penang. It was a big surprise to see real estate in Penang being positioned as investment properties. To Hong Kong people, Penang is a beach holiday destination in Southeast Asia similar to resort places like Phuket or Bali. Foreigners go there to buy their holiday or retirement homes. How … [Read more...]
Forest City proves buying an overseas home is to buy a cat in a sack
Malaysia leader Mahathir Mohamad organized a five-day official visit to China. Besides asking China to withhold two major Chinese infrastructure projects, an agreement was reached to directly import whole fruit of Malaysian durians to China. As early as 2019, thousand tons of Mao Shan Wang will be exported to different provinces in mainland China. Foreigners are not … [Read more...]
4 things Country Garden’s hiccups tell us about developers
Does the name Country Garden (碧桂园) sound familiar to you? If you have watched my youtube video “Mahathir, China Projects and Forest City”, you can probably recall that Country Garden is the developer behind Danga Bay and Forest City - the two controversial Johor Bahru projects in Malaysia. For the last two weeks, this largest and most aggressive property developer in … [Read more...]
4 burning property investment questions answered
There are four commonly-asked questions often raised by followers of my blog at PropertySoul.com and readers of my book No B.S. Guide to Property Investment. So I decided to give some quick answers here for easy reference. Q: Is it a good time to buy properties now? A: It depends. If you are a savvy property investor with many years of experience, if you have the financial … [Read more...]