Sang Kancil and the crocodiles

There was this Sang Kancil who liked to wander around the forest. Although a bit cunning, he always abided by the laws of the forest set upon all animals since time immemorial. He kept to himself as what he wanted was to be able to eat and drink in order for him to survive.

One day, as he was wandering around the forest, feeling hungry, he came across a river full of crocodiles. On the other side of the river was an orchard full with ripe fruits, ready to be eaten. He knew that the river was full of crocodiles which would just eat him if he was to fall into it.

After doing some thinking and understanding the nature of crocodiles, he called upon one of them. Being the leader of the crocodiles in the river, Buaya came over and talked to Sang Kancil. Sang Kancil told him that he was asked by the great Lord of the Jungle to count the population of crocodiles in the river.

Buaya went to get all his brethren and they lined up across the river. They let Sang Kancil climb on top of them one by one in order for Sang Kancil to do his counting. While he did that, he sang “Satu dua tiga lekuk, jantan betina aku ketuk”. He did this until he crossed to the other side.

As smart as Sang Kancil was, as he came down on the other side of the river, he immediately told all the crocodiles in the river that he had just pulled a prank on them as there was never such instruction from the Lord of the Jungle.

Now, change the scenario. The river is the country that we are living in and lovingly call Malaysia. Change Sang Kancil into the rakyat who are only trying to make a living from the bounty of the land. Then imagine the leaders of this land as the crocodiles who control the river. Everyone must go through them to get to the fruits of their labour.

Imagine how we have to think every minute of the day to get some benefits from the river. We have to outsmart the guys who are supposed to be the guardians of what are rightfully ours. These leaders do let us have a taste of these benefits in so many forms but never the whole of the benefits so that you will understand who actually rules over you.

These benefits come in so many forms. Affordable housing, scholarships and sometimes when we are lucky, cash, such as was offered under BR1M. When it is given, we take it and we spend it. Then we come to the river again and bow our heads before we can drink from it or outsmart the crocodiles again to be able to eat the fruits....

I wonder how we have come to this....

Originally published in Malaysian Insider at this link : Sang Kancil and the crocodiles

Household debt clean-up : A personal journey

Personal financial stability is not something easy to resolved. If you were ever in an economy classroom, either during high school or as part of your college or university degree, no matter how much you understand the concept of 'want' and 'need', believe me, you will never get to feel the 'forcefield' pulling you to spend on the unnecessary thing in life, until you have 'disposable income'.

Whoever invented modern credit is evil. Financial institutions, be it banks or cooperative or finance companies, is always on the prowl for you to take whatever they can give you in the form of credit cards and personal loans before you have even step out into the real world and become part of the 'workforce'.

However, how else can you afford the basic thing in life if not for credit? It is a Catch-22 situation as most of the basic needs like food, a place to live and transportation cost money. Coupled that with the self-appointed financial guru who propagates the need to own your own place and transport (though this now seems to have been losing steam), you will feel left out if you don't own a house or a car by a certain age. Then to make matter worse, you live in a world where everywhere you turn, you are bombarded by advertisement promoting so many things like a brand handphone, a computer, a tablet, the need to travel to see new places and more expensive version of your need.

That was what happened to me.

In my years of living, I have bought more than one house, sell a few, kept a few; bought a few cars, sold a few, had two cars at one time, one car at another time, owned cheap cars, owned expensive cars; bought more than one personal computer for my house, left it dusty before buying a newer version; owned a tablet; a few smart phones. All this thanks to the supposedly disposable income I have which I increased to more than 10-fold thanks to the easy approval of credit cards and personal loans. Some are obtained through 100% loans which allow me to buy cars and houses (it doesn't exist for awhile in Malaysia but it is making a comeback through various affordable housing scheme)

When 2012 arrived, I am more than a few hundred thousand Ringgit Malaysia in debt. One thing I have always made sure is to never have any arrears in any of my installments. My business helped me to make sure of this but it is not a perfect personal financial stability that I aspire to have. So, I started to get my personal finance in order.

I listed out my debts which include a car, a house, an Amanah Saham Bumiputra (ASB) loan, a personal loan and a few credit cards which when tabulated comes up to more than RM100,000-00 disposable income but are mostly maxed out. Some of the credit cards are there as I have taken a balance-transfer credit card to lower down the interest charged on my other credit card debt. I was surprised that more than half of my drawing from my businesses goes to paying the credit card debt. And yes, the first thing to a cure from an addiction is to admit that you have a problem. Then, look for a solution.

Another myth in this modern age is to make sure you have savings for your old days. Yes, that is not bad advice. However, how about living your old age without debt and having a stream of cash supplementing you? That is equally important right? Without delay, I listed my assets and see whether I can match my liabilities.

My assets seem to be part of the problem too. A house still under a mortgage. An ASB certificate which is not mine. A few unit trusts. The car is never an asset as it is always a liability. After calculating all this, I find that it is easier for me to cancel a few loans such as the ASB loan and the few credit card, especially those which have high interest charged to it every month. Then I decided to sell my car which was already 6 years old this coming May and bought a cheaper car. I then did one of the most surprising decision ever, even to me. I put the current house I am living in on the market. At a very steep price. Canceling the loans allow me to be liquid as dividends are paid for the ASB for 2011, unit trusts are sold with cash as payment and the car was sold at a good price.

The journey is not over yet. I have only cleared 30% of the debt I have. I still have to see whether I can get the price I want for my house. What I do after will require another entry. As I cleared a few of the credit card debt, banks which always on the look-out for someone who has more than he can spend is already calling more offering me new loans. Then, my feet, knowing me, starts to itch to travel somewhere far. 

Let us see how much of the 'want' I can resist so I can totally clear up the debt.

Social media ROI : A personal experience

As a lawyer and an author, I use social media extensively to promote my service and my only book. As lawyers in Malaysia are not allowed to advertise their service conventionally through mass media like in the newspaper or the local television, social media is a blessing. 

I always read on so many publication, articles by social media practitioners and experts, about the return on investment (ROI) when you invest in social media. There are so many ways for you to invest in social media. You can do it yourself. You can have a staff within your company to update your social media pages. You can contract it out for a company which claims to know how social media work. You can even spend millions of Ringgit to try to get new clients through social media.

Yes, social media's ROI is about how much time you spend on a FREE platform in order for you to get some form of returns. Amazingly, people who use social media seems to always keep on protesting when any form of change happens to this free media. A few years back, you can only get to be well-known if you work hard and pay. Social media still requires you to work hard but rarely do they ask you to pay, except for the data usage bills either through your handphone network or fixed line connection.

Here are my social media connection. As a person, I am on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and Google+. My book and my legal firm have pages in Facebook and Google+. I also have two blogs. One is where I write about legal issues and property, which I use nowadays as a place to draft writings which I then submit to magazine, newspaper and even will form part of my next book. The other is my personal story about life, marriage, holidays, travel and such. 

If you ask me, I believe there is no boundary between the either blogs as I never believe what you did at work or in business will not affect your personal life or vice versa. So, type my names   : Khairul Anuar Shaharudin or my internet name : kruel74, in Google or whatever your favourite search engine, you can find me in either one of the listed social media (or maybe a website or two). Oh, I utterly believe in social media that all my businesses (I have a few) do not have websites.

Now that you know where you can find me on social media, let me tell you how much I gain from social media. In a nutshell, I gain more than 50% increase in 2011 in comparison to 2010, from the investment I made through social media. I got businesses from people who know me as a blogger, I got business from people who know me by chatting with me on Twitter, people ask me through Facebook about property issues and then ask me to take care of their legal matters and the blogs contribute by getting editors and producers to feature me either by asking me to write or being guest in radio show.

Last year alone, I was writing for the local daily, the Sun newspaper as I was 'found' in a Facebook group which consist mainly of young people who invest in property, Property Talk and Lifestyle, by a member who is a sub-editor; and that entry resulted in me being on BFM Radio talking about the article which was first an entry in this very blog, after the producer of the 'Property Show' found me through a connection in LinkedIn, Niki Cheong, who is a columnist in the Star, another local daily, who is now in England pursuing his study. Can you see how social media plays as an investment which in turn may (or may not) resulted in you getting rare opportunity.

However, as much as you invest in social media, if you only writes and sit behind the screen and hope to be discovered, you are wasting your time. All the social media cannot help you achieve any returns if you don't meet people, talk to them and let them know who you are and what you can do.

BFM Radio interview No. 2

My second interview on BFM Radio was done on 27th December just after the Christmas holiday but was aired on BFM Radio on the last day of business in 2011, a Friday, 30th December 2011. I hate the fact I used the word 'actually' too many times. That seems to be my nervous tick but all in all it was better than my first interview in 2010 where I seems to be banging on the table a lot (you can't really hear it in the recording). 

You can hear the recording in 2010 in four segments here on various topic :

Broadcast on 24-04-2010

Broadcast on 01-05-2010

Broadcast on 22-05-2010

Broadcast on 12-06-2010

The topic this time around was on Bumiputra property with some pointers on Malay reserved land too. Here is the link :

Investing in Bumiputra lots

Biggest property news in Malaysia in 2011 Part 2

This is the continuation from my first blogpost on the 'Biggest Property News in Malaysia in 2011 Part 1'. In the first part, the issues were about affordable houses; the effect of MRT on the land cost and the tussle between the landowners and the MRT Corporation on the land acquisition process. The second part covers some of the news affecting investors in 2011 and the few mega property projects in the Klang Valley announced by the private sectors.

Here are four other property news in the limelight in 2011 :

5) 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) in the news

Announced in 2010 as a fully government-owned sovereign wealth management fund with various fingers in various pies including; a joint-venture with PetroSaudi International Limited to invest in oil and gas and real estate which has since made 1MDB, according to their website, RM425 Million profit through part divestment; the building of Kuala Lumpur International Financial District (KLIFD) in the 30 hectares of the Imbi area bordering Jalan Tun Razak, Jalan Sultan Ismail and the MEX highway and the building of Bandar Malaysia at the current Sungai Besi airport which will offer affordable houses.

1MDB was in the news at the end of 2011 due to the funding that they were said to have received from the government a subsidy of RM1.11 billion in the 2012 Budget although they raised a sukuk worth RM5 billion in 2009; the lack of work on KLIFD; and the acquisition of the 495-acre land parcel which was the Royal Malaysia Arm Force (RMAF) Sg. Besi airport which will be turned into Bandar Malaysia. 

The first news is opposition's fodder which claimed that 1MDB seems to be getting funding which it does not need. The second news was finally put to rest with the tender process announced by 1MDB for major foundation work for KLIFD due to take off in early 2012. The last news ran smack into the competitive nature of other government agencies which have already been tasked with building such houses as the price of houses at Bandar Malaysia was announced to be between RM220,000-00 and RM300,000-00.

Here are links you can go through about 1MDB :

- 1MDB official website

- News about Bandar Malaysia in Sg. Besi

- News on the tender process on KLIFD

- The need for fund for 1MDB

6) Return of the mega property projects

At the start of 2011, the mega projects seem to have lost some steam due to the property slowdown within the well-known area of the Golden Triangle of Kuala Lumpur, or so it seems. This happened even when someone bought a RM38 Million penthouse condominium at The Binjai on the Park near KLCC in middle of 2010. It seemed then that the days of the launches of mega property projects in Malaysia are numbered. Then a few announcements which made headlines dispelled this notion. Some of these property developments were old news with new owners or new managements. Some were new projects which seemed to have been planned a long time ago but were just recently launched in 2011. Here are two of the most notables mega property project launches in 2011.

There seemed to be a lot more of property launches as we entered the middle of 2011 as opposed to the quiet 2009 and 2010. It is so much so that banks have started to be choosy in giving out loans. One of it those that made the news was the launch of a new mega development project by NAZA TTDI of their KL Metropolis at where the Matrade building is now situated. Spanning 75.5 acres, it is envisioned itself as the new international trade and exhibition district. Developed in the span of 15 years, it will be done in 3 phases. The gross development value is estimated at RM15 Billion and was launched by the Prime Minister in October 2011.

SP Setia, once a favored property counter on Bursa Malaysia, has finally launched its long awaited KL Eco City in November 2011, which is located at a narrow piece of land at the former Kampung Haji Abdullah Hukum. Located at the opposite of the always busy Midvalley City, one can just imagine the hectic traffic situation of the area bordering Bangsar and the New Pantai Expressway, once it is completed. It will comprised of mixed-used commercial and residential properties which will be placed in a few towers within the 10.1 hectares of land. It is also said to be the first mixed-used commercial property to receive the currently sought after Malaysia Green Building Index (GBI) standard and will be completed in 10 years.

Links on the projects stated above and news on mega property projects :


- KL Metropolis website

- News on launch of KL Metropolis

- KL Eco City website

- News on the launch of KL Eco City

- Wrap up on mega property launches for 2011

7) Real Property Gain Tax

The tax treatment on the disposal of property was changed in 2010. Between April 2007 until the end of 2009, the Real Property Gain Tax (RPGT) was given a holiday. Due to the property market condition within those year, the move was done to fire up a lackluster property market as the world's economy took a tumble. When it was reintroduced in January 2010, the tax treatment for RPGT was totally a different animal than what it was  before April 2007.

Before April 2007, RPGT was tiered according to how long you have owned the property. RPGT is calculated based on the profit you make when you dispose of a property at a maximum of 30% within the first year of ownership but becomes 0% on the sixth year of ownership. This only applies to residential property. With commercial property, the amount of 5% from the profit will have to paid as RPGT even after the fifth year.

When it was reinforced (the law was never abolished but was just put on hold) in 2010, the tax treatment for the disposal of property was given a flat 5% tax from the profit you make if the sale was done within the first 5 year of ownership of the property. The way RPGT is collected also differs with a 2% of the transacted price has to be paid before being refunded by Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri once it is checked and cleared.

Now, in 2012, after it was announced in the 2012 Budget in October 2011, the RPGT was changed again. Starting from January 2012, RPGT will now be two-tiered. within the same vein when it was reintroduced in 2010, RPGT, which is taxed on any profit gained from the sale of a property will beat the rate of 10% for any disposal below 2 years of ownership. Any property disposed after 2 years of ownership but less than 5 years will still have a 5% levy but none will be levied after 5 years of ownership.

Links on the issue of RPGT :

- My blogpost on RPGT in 2012

- Official portal of LHDN

- Online brochure of RPGT by LHDN

8) Regulation for banks in giving out property loans

In 2011, as announced in Budget 2011, in order to slow down the overheating property market and to stop property speculator in damaging the economy of scale for genuine buyers, especially those who are in need of affordable houses, the government changed the rule on the amount of property loans given by financial institutions at any one time. Using Bank Negara Malaysia as the enforcer, financial institutions can only gives out housing loan in the margin of 70% for anyone who has more than 2 properties. It means that if someone who already has 2 properties bought using housing loans, the next property loan he takes will be limited to a margin of 70%. This does not deter anyone who is cash rich to buy more than two houses and still speculates.

The rule had affected sales of properties as only genuine buyers may now buy property and not speculators. The news of the change of how housing loan is given out by banks through a new ruling by Bank Negara Malaysia did not help, either. It was decided in not so many words, the criteria on the margin of loan and maybe the interest rate levied on a property loan will now change due to the way a housing loan application is calculated. On the table but not yet announced or implemented is the new rule where the calculation for an application of a housing loan will be based on nett income of a borrower and not the current usage of gross income. It may even means that one person or one household with incomes below RM5,000-00 can now only own one property below the price of RM300,000-00. It will be in line with the promotion of affordable houses by the government though.

The links on this not yet determined its accuracy news can be found below :

- News on the nett income calculation for housing loans

- Banks may offer more competitive home loans

- Round up of Budget 2012 on property and construction sectors



These are all the news I consider worthy to be mentioned as the biggest property news in Malaysia during 2011. Some are already being implemented and some are coming days. From what I see, there are only a few keywords to the news : Affordable houses and Curbing Speculations.


HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!