KUALA LUMPUR: Have you been holding out on a property purchase because your friends tell you that property prices will go tumbling down next year?
According to real estate specialists at least, you shouldn’t wait anymore.
They claim you should start buying properties as soon as you can afford to because property prices will keep on spiralling upwards.
For young people, the earlier the better as the costs of construction, labour and material would consistently go up over time.
FAR Capital founder and chief executive officer Faizul Azwan Ridzuan said it was unlikely for housing prices to go down and since housing was a basic need, it was important to know how to buy and invest in properties.
“I bought my first property at 24, a few years ago, at RM140,00 but the property is valued at about RM450,000.
The cost of developing properties will always go up according to inflation,” Faizul said at a press conference on the MyRumah Property Showcase here yesterday.
Faizul, who went from a fulltime employee to being a real estate success story with his bestselling book on property investment within two years, is one of the speakers of the showcase.
Apart from sharing his experience in property investment, Faizul wanted to help clear misconceptions among the youth who tend to shy away from property investment due to low purchasing power.
For one, he said the government was not to blame for the rising cost of properties.
“The reality is that political uncertainty is not the only factor.”
New Straits Times group editor Mustapha Kamil Mohd Janor said the showcase’s focus was not on selling properties, but more towards educating the public on nitty-gritty issues that could help them make property investment decisions.
“Property is turning into a viable investment option, hence, the public should know the rules, regulations and strategies in property investments.
“NST is glad that we are collaborating with Andaman Group, who has arranged a wide range of topics that would be presented by the selected speakers to help the public arrive at their investment decisions,” Mustapha said.
Andaman Group managing director Datuk Seri Vincent Tiew lauded the New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd group for making the public aware of choices in property buying and investment.
“If this showcase only had money-making purposes, it would be a commercial and conventional property exhibition that features hundreds of booths.
“There are not many seminars or exhibitions that offer talks from these many speakers. “Apart from all the channels that allow for affordable property buying and investment, such as 1Malaysia People’s Housing Programme and other affordable home schemes, the public could learn more about other options in property purchase and investment,” he said.
Tiew suggests visitors to pick the topics they are interested in as they are myriad of topics to be presented, such as feng shui, land matters as well as how to reduce existing loans.
A non-commercially driven programme, the inaugural MyRumah Property Showcase is organised by NSTP in collaboration with Andaman Group and targeted at firsttime home buyers.
The three-day event, which will be held from Jan 8 to 10, is open to the public from 10am to 6pm at Balai Berita, Bangsar, in Kuala Lumpur.
Admission is free and there will be ample parking spots.
Aimed at making NSTP a leading print media for property consultation, the showcase involves 12 exhibitors along with talks from 19 speakers and real estate experts beside other activities.
Visitors stand to win 50 ICE Watches worth RM450 each at a lucky draw during talk sessions, as well as 10 IKEA gift cards worth RM1,000 each.