Buying in England and Wales

The last couple of years, British house builders and developers have been making regular visits to Malaysia to promote and sell their properties. Some of them sold off plan, others offered completed projects.

Sales and marketing director Paul Bennett of St James Urban Living says England and Wales has three models when selling residentials. The Scottish system is totally different and not covered here.


St James Urban Living sales and marketing director Paul Bennett

St James Urban Living is part of The Berkeley Group Holdings plc, one of Britain’s largest house builders and in the FTSE 250 top UK companies by market value. It has various brands Berkeley Homes, St George and St Edward and has been marketing properties in Asia for over a decade.

● To buy off plan

When buying “off plan” you pay a Reservation Fee (normally £500-£2,000) to secure your property. At this point, you will be given a date when the developer expects the property to be completed. You have the opportunity to choose your kitchen design, bathroom tiling, accessories and finishes.

You appoint a solicitor to work on your sales contract.

Once the contract is agreed between your solicitor and the developer you can exchange contracts with a 10% deposit payable by the purchaser on exchange of contracts (normally three-four weeks after you reserve) with the remaining 90% being paid in one payment when the property is completed and ready for occupation.

Buying off plan allows you to take advantage of market growth during the construction process.

● Buying a completed unit

The process is the same as above: you pay a reservation fee; 10% when you exchange contracts; the remainder to complete the sale and you will then be handed the keys to your new property.

The main difference being you do not get the early choice of the prime plots and you have to accept the builders pre-selected kitchen and bathroom selections.

● Trust funds

In England and Wales, solicitors have special, secure client accounts specifically for holding funds from mortgage lenders or individuals between exchange and completion. The solicitor transfers the funds to the developer’s bank account.

By The Star

New residential property prices to go up 13%

KUALA LUMPUR: The average prices of newly developed residential property this year is expected to grow by 13% against last year in line with the increase in raw materials cost, according to a survey by Real Estate & Housing Developers' Association Malaysia (Rehda).

The survey showed that the average terrace house in Malaysia last year had gone up to RM176,590 in the third quarter from RM168,667 in the first quarter.

High-rise property price in the same timeline had gone up to RM165,530 each from RM163,300.

Rehda president Datuk Seri Michael Yam said since a year ago, raw materials prices such as steel and cement had increased significantly.

“Generally, the majority of the survey respondents are optimistic of the property market for the next six months as the overall sentiments governing the market are positive,” he said at a media briefing yesterday.

Meanwhile, for new properties in the Klang Valley, Rehda national treasurer Teh Boon Ghee said they might rise around 15% this year.

“But, it is also interesting to look at this price increase from a different angle as 88% of the transactions in 2009 were from the secondary market and only the remaining 12% came from new development. The 13% and 15% expected increase only applies to new homes while the momentum for secondary market is slower than that,” he said.

On the new home loan guideline by the Government under My First Home Scheme, Yam said although Rehda supported the move, it would be challenging to develop houses priced between RM100,000 and RM220,000 in the Klang Valley and Penang.

“In these developed urban areas, it would be impossible to develop anything below RM200,000.

“This is because the land costs in these areas are very high. The land component out of the total development cost in these areas may be around 40% to 50%,'' he said.

For comparison, the land cost per sq ft in Sungai Petani is RM1.30, Cyberjaya RM36 while in Kuala Lumpur, it could be as high as RM2,000.

But due to the new guidelines, Yam said developers might have to relook at their unit size if the development was in the Klang Valley.

“At the average price of about RM400 per sq ft, they can develop a 500 sq ft studio unit or a one-bedroom apartment. This is actually the trend in most developed cities around the world. But to enable developers to embark on this, the Government must encourage local authorities to review their Planning Act as it is now based on number of units per acre.

“Let's say, the authority allows a developer to build only 50 units per acre. Would it build 50 units of 500 sq ft houses or 50 units of 2,000 sq ft houses?” he said.

The survey were answered by 135 or 14% out of 972 Rehda members that comprises of housing and property development companies from all 12 states in Peninsular Malaysia.

By The Star

ETP will boost property mart, say developers

Property developers are upbeat that they will do better with hints of better market conditions ahead due to the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).

More developers will be launching new projects nationwide in the second half of the year, findings by the Real Estate and Housing Developer's Association Malaysia (Rehda) showed.

These include terrace houses, condominiums and apartments priced from RM100,000 to RM500,000, and service apartments, semi-detached houses and bungalows worth RM500,000 to more than RM1 million.

The survey showed developers will raise the prices for new houses by an average 13 per cent this year.

Some have indicated their prices may rise by 20 per cent to 50 per cent, depending on the locality of the projects.

Rehda president Datuk Seri Michael Yam said while the housing market may have strong underlying demand due to the country's demography, young population, and now the ETP, the pressure of increased building materials, labour costs and land prices pose huge challenge to industry players.

The survey had 135 developers responding to market conditions in 2010 and their outlook for 2011.

Fifty-nine per cent of them said the ETP is expected to add value to their developments.

Rehda national council member NK Tong said despite the price rise, he believes demand for new houses will be higher.

"People will buy in anticipation of a brighter economy. People who are trying to predict the property market will have to view the local and global economy, which for this year looks positive," Tong said.

The ETP aims to generate RM76 billion for the country by 2015. Since the launch in October 2010, the government had announced 60 projects, including the Mass Rapid Transit and the greater Kuala Lumpur Light Rapid Transit extension.

The government is aiming for a population boom in Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley (Greater KL/KV) to 10 million by 2020 from the current six million, with foreigners making up some 20 per cent of the population. Tong said the additional 1.6 million foreigners expected in Greater KL/KV by 2020 from the current 540,000 will help boost property sales.

By Business Times

New Project launch!

Dear all,

We are very pleased and excited to announce our new project launch of Pavilion Resort.


Please refer to the link above to get more information about it.
We are planning the launch by next week 7th April . Venue and Location of the launch is still under discussion and we will let you know as soon as possible.

Thanks and please stay tuned for more updates on this :)

Thank You !!

Hiii!

Thank you everyone one for the overwhelming support at the recent Penang International Property Fair @ PISA (Penang International Stadium)

We hope that we have giving you guys our best service and hope you also take advantage of the deals that was offered.

For those who were there to work with us, Well done and we appreciate you efforts.

Okay...that was for the formal part....

And...For those who have partied with us at the Full Moon Party..! Your pictures can be found on Facebook.

1. www.facebook.com/pscfullmoon
2. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=1883086486116&id=1509980793&aid=2105458
3. http://apps.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=10150109475986404&id=692381403&aid=276264&ref=notif&notif_t=photo_album_reply

Thank you everyone.