Property gain tax won't hurt genuine buyers

Banning DIBS is the right move

FOR many years, the National House Buyers Association (HBA) has been urging the Government to take measures to stem the steep rise in property prices to avoid a “homeless generation” as current property prices are far beyond the reach of many low and middle-income families in urban and suburban areas.This is a ticking time bomb that will result in many social problems if left unchecked.

Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT)

The announcement of the revised rate of tax on gains made in the disposal of properties, namely, the Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT), formerly known as the Anti Speculation Act, under Budget 2014 is far more superior to what had been proposed under Budget 2013 (See table above)

This is because, typically, if the property is purchased directly from the developer, it takes two years (for landed properties) and three years (for strata properties) to be completed.

Hence, under the previous RPGT, speculators could purchase properties from property developers upon their launch and then flip these properties on completion (after two years) and having to pay 10% (i.e. within the 3rd to 5th year).

It is hoped that the revised RPGT rate will deter speculators and, at the same time, not punish genuine house buyers who buy for their own stay or long-term investment. It is worth noting that buyers of residential property could seek a once-in-a-lifetime exemption from the tax.

Budget 2014 is best described as an “excellent mathematical formula” to curb the unbridled escalation of house prices, which has in the last three years skyrocketed. The Government has taken a step in the right direction with measures to slow down the steep rise in property prices due to false demand caused by excessive speculation fuelled by easy housing loans and the previously low RPGT.

Foreign purchasers to pay more

HBA applauds the move to increase the minimum price of property that can be purchased by foreigners from RM500,000 to RM1mil. Foreigners must be prevented from “snapping up” property meant for the lower and middle income.

This artificially inflates prices and creates a domino effect which can result in higher property prices across the industry. This is especially true for development corridors such as Iskandar Malaysia which has seen foreign purchasers arriving in droves and scooping up properties with their advantageous exchange rate.

Banning the Developer Interest-Bearing Scheme (DIBS) 

DIBS is popular with speculators as they pay nothing to make a profit. Their initial down-payments and deposits are sometimes factored into the purchase price by the collusive developers, and some unethical financial institutions do not even require that the developer collect the deposit that has to be paid by the so-called purchaser.

This is one of the factors which induces “bogus” house buyers (which I have written about in this column on Aug 31 entitled: Of Speculators and bogus house buyers) who merely flip the property at the right time.

Kudos to Bank Negara for heeding our call and banning DIBS. It may be worth noting that Singapore banned DIBS in 2009.

Considering the deep pockets of property speculators, the effectiveness of these measures remain to be seen. However, they are expected to make speculation unworthwhile. HBA praises the Prime Minister for putting a stop to DIBS, which is one of the reasons attributed to the steep increase in property prices for three reasons:

1. DIBS encourages speculation as the house buyer does not need to “service” any interest/instalment during the construction stage. This will “lure” and tempt many house buyers to speculate and buy into DIBS projects hoping to flip on completion and make a quick profit with little or no capital upfront. Connivingly, the interest element is “serviced” by the participating developers.

2. DIBS artificially inflates prices as all interests borne by the developer are ultimately imputed into the property price. This in turn creates a domino effect which pulls up property prices in surrounding locations.

3. Bank and financial institution staff conniving with developers using the DIBS model should be investigated on their “modus operandi” in financing those artificially inflated prices (DIBS + sales price) and ignoring guidelines on prudent lending.

Banks and financial institutions are to be prudent and only provide mortgage financing up to the fair value/market value of the property. In this respect, a benchmark of fair value or market value is the current properties available. Somehow, properties sold under DIBS are always priced much higher; 15% to 20% higher compared with those without DIBS.

For standard condominiums costing RM500,000 without DIBS, should the developer market such properties under DIBS, the selling price could be as high as RM650,000. This creates a potential property bubble should the developer default in “servicing” the interest and the borrower/purchaser also defaults. The bank would only be able to recover up to RM500,000 if the said property is auctioned at market value.

In the event of an economic downturn, banks saddled with too much DIBS end-financing could collapse as the losses from such DIBS end-financing will erode the banks’ capital.

The collapse of just one bank/financial institution could cause a systemic collapse of the entire financial industry.

Bank Negara should take action against such bank and financial institution staff who have provided both project financing and end-financing to DIBS projects under the newly-minted Financial Services Act, 2013.

With the RPGT increase, banning of the DIBS and the Government’s aspiration to supply more ‘ownership housing schemes’ at affordable pricing, it is hoped that speculative demand for properties will stabilise to a more realistic level. I have heard that many businessmen do not do business anymore but indulge in property speculation as a livelihood and for income.

It is akin to the stock market dealings that were rampant during a ‘bull run’. Certain things have to be stopped before they become worse like the sub-prime crisis in the US.

If readers were to take a drive around completed projects, they will find signboards advertising units for sale upon the delivery of keys. If the purchaser is purchasing for his own occupation, why is there this need to put up these signboards or appoint estate agents to dispose of the units? It goes to show that some purchasers are merely speculators (not investors) from day one and the banks and financial institutions choose to “close one eye” despite knowing this.

Have the banks ever gone to the ground to check whether the units purchased and financed are actually “owner occupied”? If the property is “owner occupied”, the risk rating is lower and thus, he enjoys a lower interest rate. But if it is non-owner occupied, it should have higher interest rates. Borrowers of “owner occupied” properties are normally required to make a declaration to that effect to enjoy a lower interest rate.

But does the bank participate in this booking of credit risk?

If the property is non-owner occupied, the lending will fall under ‘real estate classification’ and not ‘housing’.

So, there may even be misreporting to Bank Negara and subsequent national statistics.

This column continues next week.

- Contributed by Chang Kim Loong

CHANG KIM LOONG is the honorary secretary-general of the National House Buyers Association (www.hba.org.my), a non-profit, non-governmental organisation (NGO) manned by volunteers. He is also an NGO Councillor at the Subang Jaya Municipality Council.

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Anonymous hackers has begun the cyber war on Singapore

 

Singapore's internet and phone regulator said it was investigating the hack

Anonymous hackers have declared war on Singapore with a pledge to hit at official infrastructure. This has left Singaporeans with a sense of foreboding about what is to come.

AN aura of uncertainty, even fear, has crept into this intelligent island where the computer widely affects every home, office and school.

Since an anonymous network of hackers threatened war on the government and its infrastructure, many official websites – including the Prime Minister’s Office – became inaccessible for a long period.

Others included the police force and internal security department and ministries like finance, home affairs and national development as well as Parliament and the Cabinet.

Many citizens are not sure whether there had been a cyber-attack or, as officially explained, the outage was due to a planned maintenance that hit “routing and hardware”.

“At no point were these websites the target of cyber-attacks,” insisted the authorities.

But an e-mail purportedly from “The Messiah”, an alleged hacker who is part of an international network, said several members had worked together to put them down.

The declaration of war with a pledge to hit at official infrastructure last Saturday has placed Singapo-reans with a sense of foreboding about what is to come.

Singapore – its economy and education system – has been heavily dependent on the Internet for two decades.

After four days of silence, a defiant Prime Minister vowed to track down the anonymous hackers and bring them to justice.

Lee Hsien Loong told reporters: “Our IT (information technology) network, the Internet, our communications have become an essential part of our business and our lives now.

“...When somebody threatens to do harm to it ... we will spare no effort to try and track down the culprits and if we can find him, we will bring him to justice and he will be dealt with severely.”

The response is not surprising. Few people had really expected the authorities to give in.

A day later, the PM Office website was mockingly hacked by Anony-mous, saying “It’s great to be Singaporean today”.

Singapore may be entering a new era of IT threats where unidentified foreign predators – for good or bad reasons – can wreak chaos to their lives.

“These may be the good guys. What if they were followed by the really bad ones with destructive ideas?” asked a political analyst.

Since the harm of computer warfare is unimaginable, most people tend to oppose its use to achieve social and human rights, the declared aim of the anonymous group.

Even within the Internet community, which is traditionally anti-government, the reaction has been mixed.

“I love these guys for fighting on our behalf but am afraid they may actually inflict harm on Singapore,” a netizen said. “We will have to fight the government our way, through elections.”

Therein lies the government’s dilemma. It is facing a dangerous new threat with some younger Singaporeans less than supportive of it.

The anonymous group is not without problems, too. It can only win if it gets the Singapore public on its side.

This is unlikely to happen if its hacking activities are stepped up to a level where people’s welfare is harmed.

This could swing Singaporeans behind the government and turn against them – which is not what they want.

Observers notice that of all the closures, the Central Provident Fund website was unaffected.

The trouble began last Saturday when an anonymous hacker wearing a Guy Fawkes mask demanded the Singapore government, over YouTube, to withdraw its recent laws to licence online news.

Economists fear that a prolonged digital war may undermine business confidence and affect the economy, particularly e-commerce here and in the region.

Singaporeans are by nature not aggressive. Some see it as Hobson’s choice, between supporting the anonymous group’s “noble objective” and their own jobs and careers.

The public stayed largely away from the hackers’ call for a general protest on Nov 5. So did most bloggers, although some Facebook users had blacked out their profile pictures as a sign of support.

Since many Singaporeans are not tech-savvy, they tend to worry about the worst of a cyber-war – chaotic roads and airports, missing bank accounts, etc.

The government, however, has insisted the websites were closed for a pre-planned maintenance which was aggravated by “routing and hardware glitches”.

The episode showed the government was apparently unprepared to meet a major hacking threat.

It signifies that defence of Singapore now goes beyond the need for national service and a people’s army, missiles and jet-fighters.

Recently, the government announced a new S$130mil (RM332mil) budget to be spent in the next five years for research in countering cyber-warfare.

The hacking began last December, when the websites of the government People’s Association and 16 related bodies were hacked and closed.

A number of assaults followed, including the town council of PM Lee’s constituency.

The hackers putting pressure on the People’s Action Party (PAP) government will likely see some long-term impact.

The ever presence of a global group of high-powered hackers, and their threat, will likely make the policy-makers a lot more cautious in the future.

 By Seah Chiang Nee
> The views expressed are entirely the writer’s own.

Youth addicted to computer games died in front of his computer!

 

Ong Yee Haw, 23, (pic) was found slumped over the keyboard in front of his computer monitor in a room by his uncle at about 4pm.

 GEORGE TOWN: A youth addicted to computer games died of a heart attack at his home in Bandar Baru Air Hitam here after apparently playing continuously for over 15 hours at a cybercafe nearby. 

He was said to have been at the cybercafe from 10pm on Sunday until 1pm the next day before returning home to his own computer.

However, it was not known which computer game Ong had been playing before his death.

His mother Chew Qun Juan, 62, said her only son had been addicted to computer games ever since he stopped working at a restaurant five months ago following a motorcycle accident.

“He injured his right hand and had to stop working. I constantly told him not to spend too much time on computer games but he never listened.

“I single-handedly raised him after my husband died of cardiac arrest 15 years ago. Words cannot describe my sadness now. I only hope that others, who are also addicted to computer games, will learn something from this.

“I hope this will not happen to anyone else. My son was still so young,” she said in between tears when met at the Penang Hospital mortuary yesterday.

A post-mortem report, she said, confirmed that Ong died of a heart attack.

Ong was cremated at the Batu Gantung crematorium yesterday afternoon. The case has been classified as sudden death.

On Dec 27 last year, a 35-year-old broker was found dead inside his home, supposedly after playing video games.

A video game console was found in front of Liu Peng Han’s body. When his body was discovered by his uncle, Liu was lying on the sofa in the living room.

There had also been several media reports of deaths due to computer addiction in China, South Korea, Vietnam and the United States.

It was reported that in 2005, a man in South Korea went into cardiac arrest and died after playing StarCraft almost continuously for 50 hours. Two years later, a 30-year-old man in Guangzhou died after playing video games continuously for three days.

Contributed by Winnie Yeoh The Star/Asia News Network

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Dubious qualifications, Will the real doctor please stand up?

 Many resort to buying academic qualifications and degree or diploma mills

SEVERAL years ago, I met a Penang businessman who had a ‘Dr’ title to his name. When I asked him in English about his field of study, he hesitated.

Pressed for an answer, he gestured with his hands and made drilling sounds to depict the act of digging a road. I then realised he was trying to tell me that his doctoral degree was in civil engineering.

Later, I heard about another Penang businessman who was asked by an air hostess to assist in a medical situation on board a plane because of his ‘Dr’ title.

The businessman hastily clarified in Hokkien to the air hostess, who was also from Penang: “Wah si kim siew eh loh koon. Beh heow kuah lang.” (“I am an animal doctor. I can’t treat humans.”)

The public must be getting used to reading about individuals whom they know did not attend a single day of tertiary education — and can hardly string together a sentence in English — being awarded doctoral degrees.

Instead of gaining respect from their peers, those who pay for their doctorates from degree (or diploma) mills become the object of scorn when they flash their ‘Dr’ titles.

As Penangites become more affluent, they seem to think they can buy anything including educational qualifications.

But no genuine institution of higher learning will confer degrees on ineligible individuals, no matter how much money is given.

So people turn to degree mills, those unaccredited education institutions that offer academic degrees and diplomas for a fee.

Degree mills look impressive and genuine because they often claim to be recognised by Unesco, an agency of the United Nations that promotes education and communication. However, the Unesco website states clearly that it does not have the mandate to accredit or recognise higher education institutions.

People who buy from diploma/degree mills know exactly what they are paying for and probably think they are not committing any crime. But they should be aware that the authorities will not hesitate to act.

Last July, it was reported that the police were tracking 525 people who allegedly bought fake degrees and certificates from non-existent international universities.

Some 40 individuals, including a Tan Sri and several politicians, had their statements recorded as part of the police investigation into fake academic degrees bought from an education institute in Selangor.

If Penang is serious about developing itself into an educational hub, the state government should ensure that it does not appoint individuals who have dubious doctoral degrees to sit in the various bodies set up to look into improving aspects of the economy, education, transport and tourism.

It may be customary for institutions of higher learning to confer honorary degrees on individuals for their contributions to society. It is equally customary for the recipients to refrain from using the ‘Dr’ title.

Some of these people think it is fashionable to use the ‘Dr’ prefix, but in reality it can be misleading.

Universities are concerned that the public may be confused by an honorary doctorate and the doctorate awarded to those who meet the academic requirements.

Therefore, some universities have begun awarding such honorary degrees as LittD (Doctor of Letters), LHD (Doctor of Humane Letters) and ScD (Doctor of Science) instead of the usual PhD to avoid further confusion.

- Contributed by David Tan, Pinang Points

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You are being snooped on, Malaysia views US-NSA spying seriously!

Asia being snooped on, too 

Spying by foreign intelligence agencies is also prevalent in Malaysia and other regional countries via the Internet or spying equipment located in embassies.

SO last week it was the turn of Asians to learn that their region was also the subject of foreign spying.

This was no surprise. If American intelligence is spying on Americans, on Latin Americans, and on Europeans (including its top political leader, Angela Merkel of Germany), it is a foregone conclusion that Asia would not be left out.

There is no revelation yet that Asian prime ministers and presidents have had their personal mobile phones and e-mails tapped.

But it is also a foregone conclusion that these things are happening. Be prepared, therefore, to read in the coming weeks about famous Asian leaders, opposition stalwarts, journalists and celebrities being the subjects of snooping.

Nevertheless, the news that American and Australian embassies are being used to snoop on Asian countries justifiably caused outrage in our region. The Australian surveillance is reportedly in cooperation with the United States.

Malaysia is one of the places where Australian intelligence operates to spy, according to reports in the Der Spiegel and Sydney Morning Herald. They revealed that the spying takes place from the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur.

Other Asian countries where the intelligence collection is conducted is the Australian embassies in China, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea.

The news reports also revealed that the US embassies have also been conducting surveillance activities in many Asian countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Malaysia last Friday registered its protests in official notes handed to the Australian High Commissioner and the US Deputy Chief of Mission who were summoned to Wisma Putra. The notes warned that surveillance of close friends could severely damage relations.

Indonesia warned the United States and Australia that the continuation of surveillance facilities inside their embassies threatened to derail years of trust built up between countries.

China also responded to the report that the American embassy in Beijing and consulates in Shanghai and Chengdu operated special spying facilities.

Its Foreign Ministry has demanded an explanation from the United States, saying that “foreign entities must not in any form engage in activities that are incompatible with their status and that are harmful to China’s national security and interest”.

Also last Friday, Brazil and Germany introduced a draft resolution to a United Nations General Assembly committee calling for an end to excessive surveillance.

The press reports on spying in Asian countries are based on information leaked by Edward Snowden, a former contractor with the US National Security Agency.

Newspapers and magazines had previously revealed that the personal phones of the German chancellor and the Brazilian president had been tapped. Both leaders have registered protests directly to US President Barack Obama.

Last week also saw revelations by the Washington Post that the US and British intelligence agencies had found a way of intercepting communications from Google as well as Yahoo as the data were being passed between their data centres.

“We are outraged at the lengths to which the government seems to have gone,” said Google’s chief legal officer.

The Internet giant companies have found that their encryptment system protecting e-mail and other information flowing through its data centres is not secure after all.

The technology companies are worried that their millions of customers will no longer trust that their privacy will be protected.

How will this affect the use of browsing, e-mail, Facebook and other facets of the Internet technology?

US companies and entities currently dominate the global Internet business. Much of the world’s flow of data go through Internet companies based in the United States.

The US administration had projected itself as an honest host of the Internet centres, respecting the rights and privacy of the world’s Internet and e-mail users, and a champion of Internet freedom.

That image has been shattered by the series of revelations emerging from Snowden’s leaked files. The opposite image has replaced it, of a government that has used high technology to gather billions of bits of data on practically all Internet users.

If counter-terrorism was the official reason, this now seems to be only a pretext for also spying on any important person, including one’s closest allies.

Now that they have lost confidence that the United States or other countries will respect privacy of the politicians, companies and citizens of their countries, some governments are now planning to limit the reach of American-based Internet companies.

The Financial Times reported that Brazil is planning regulations that would force technology companies to retain information on the Internet about its citizens and institutions within Brazil itself.

It also said that European officials are discussing the need to have stronger cloud computing capabilities in Europe to protect their citizens’ privacy.

Brazil is also planning to bring up in various UN agencies and fora the need for a global framework to respect and protect privacy on the Internet.

Contributed by Global Trends Martiin Khor
The views expressed are entirely the writer’s own.

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Malaysia views spying seriously

KLUANG: Spying activities on Malaysia by its allies is a serious matter, says Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

This is because it can cause relations between Malaysia and these countries, long established based on trust and sincerity, to be tense.

“I believe if this (spying) is not fully explained, our long-established good relations can be adversely affected. Therefore, we need a full explanation on the extent of the spying activities and for what purpose.

“Tensions can be avoided if the allies involved uphold the trust and sincerity in their relations with Malaysia,” he said.

Hishammuddin said this to reporters after attending a Deepavali open house hosted by Johor Unity and Human Resources Committee chairman R.Vidyanathan here yesterday.

The spying issue arose following media reports on the claim made by intelligence informant Edward Snowden that the United States had 90 electronic surveillance facilities throughout the world, including at its embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

In light of this, Hishammuddin wanted a detailed explanation on the matter as such activities could threaten Malaysia’s security and its other interests.

The US ambassador to Malaysia, Joseph Y. Yun, was reported to have explained on the spying claim to Wisma Putra.

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said Yun had stated that all surveillance activities by the United States throughout the world were specifically for security, to detect threats of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

On his trip to China last month, Hishammuddin said it was aimed at enhancing cooperation in the area of defence, especially through joint exercises, exchange programmes involving navy and other military officers, establishing cooperation between the defence industries of both countries, and efforts to combat terrorism and transnational crime.

Meanwhile in Yan, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said they would arrest any foreign diplomat found to be involved in spying activities.

“We will not hesitate because spying is a threat to the country’s sovereignty. In the 1980s, we have arrested foreign diplomats involved in spying activities.

“We will do the same again if there is proof of such activities,” he told newsmen after a briefing on the Sungai Limau by-election at the Yan police headquarters yesterday.

- The Star/Asia News Network Monday Nov 4, 2013

New tax rate on property to keep away flippers

 

Profiteering nipped: Flip-happy property ‘investors’ – or rather, speculators – are not laughing now with the new stringent government measures to rein in excessive speculation.

Property prices have been spiralling and Budget 2014 introduced tough measures to cool prices down.

AHYAT Ishak was in the midst of selling off a property when Budget 2014 was tabled which saw hikes in the Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT).

It was higher and tighter than he expected. “Because of this announcement, I would have to make several different decisions. I bought that house less than three years ago.

“Previously, I would have been taxed 10% as RPGT, but with the recent announcement, I would need to fork out 30% of my profits for the RPGT.

“So right now, I am thinking that I should not sell it,” says the 30-something Ahyat, who has been investing in properties for the past 10 years and also runs workshops for wannabe property investors.

“If you have been strategic about investment, you would have known that the RPGT can go up anytime and you would have taken that into account in your investment plan. The worst strategy is when you have only one strategy,” he stresses.

Change of strategy: Property investor Ahyat is having second thoughts about selling a property he bought less than three years ago because of the higher RPGT. >

So he is not worried about hanging on a bit longer to the property that he had originally wanted to sell, because one of the rules he goes by is to make sure what he buys is an “investment-great asset”.

For him, this means two things – that the property is “tenant-able” and that it has good potential for capital appreciation.

As a player, he also makes sure he has the holding power to hang on to a property and service the loan.

“But it’s seen as uncool and yucky to talk to young investors about tenant-ability and capital appreciation. ‘Buying for rent’ is so old school to them. I’ve had people calling me a ‘sissy investor’ .

“Everyone was talking about ‘I buy, I get the keys, I flip’. How can that be sustainable?

“When I advocate responsible and sustainable investment, it is like a joke,” he says.

But those flip-happy property “investors” – or rather, speculators – are not laughing now with the new stringent government measures to rein in excessive speculation.

Other than the higher RPGT, the government is also prohibiting the developers interest-bearing scheme (DIBS), making developers spell out details of the house price and all the so-called “freebies” included, as well as making it a regulation that foreigners are only allowed to purchase properties that cost RM1mil and above.

Viewing the budget announcement as “very positive”, marketing and strategic consultant for developers Dr Daniele Gambero thinks this is what the market has been looking for.

“It is necessary to curb completely the investment of investors or speculators who are using property as if it is a forex or stock exchange market (where there is massive buying and selling in a short period).

“Property is not an asset for the short term. It is for the medium or long term, otherwise it becomes unhealthy and the market blows up,” he warns.

Gambero, who has been in the business for 15 years in Malaysia, says the kind of packaging housing developers have been offering over the past five years has been “ridiculous”.

“They are offering renovation packages, ‘free’ trips to, say, China and some even had a lucky draw for a Mercedez Benz.

“It’s ridiculous because these are actually not free. It is factored into the pricing and this is what has been pushing house prices up by a good 20%,” he says, stressing that developers are not angels and are merely responding to what the market is asking for.

He also takes to task the buyers for their “short-sightedness” in following their “emotions” instead of using practical and logical consideration when they buy property.

“If the value of the house is RM400,000 and these ‘free, free, not-so-free’ things bring the house price up to RM500,000, do they calculate how much this extra RM100,000 will cost them at the end of the loan tenure?

“At the end of the 35-year period, they might end up having paid RM180,000 extra in loan for these ‘free-free, not-so-free’ things the developer has thrown in to sweeten the deal. Don’t look at how much you are paying today but how much it will cost you in 20 to 30 years’ time,” he advises.

Besides, Gambero’s personal feeling is that most of the renovation offers built into the house price in fact ends up going down the drain, because about 40% to 50% of buyers end up having to renovate again because they want something that suits their personal taste.

One other thing that people should really sit up and take notice of is that with developers having to come clean with all the pricing, how will this impact on the amount of loan they can get to buy a property.

Both Ahyat and Gambero talk about the repercussions from banks.

“How is the banking industry going to react to this?

“When it is stripped bare and developers have to be transparent with details of the pricing, such as club membership, aircon, renovation and so on, the banks are going to be looking at that RM600,000 house and saying ‘Hey, this property’s value is actually RM500,000’ and that extra RM100,000 is just ‘fluff and whip cream’.

“Valuers from banks would give ‘zero’ value to those elaborate plaster ceilings, aircon and chandeliers. In the world of valuers, it is a big sin adding on all these add-ons.

“You can’t give loans on something that is inflated. You give loans based on the fundamental value,” says Ahyat, warning that the repercussions could be massive.

Concurring, Gambero says, the purchaser is at a “double losing end”.

“Say you bought the property for RM600,000 and a few years down the line you want to sell it for RM800,000, and find someone willing to pay that price.

“But when that person goes to the bank to ask for financing, the bank will look at the sales and purchase agreement and get their valuer to do a valuation and the valuer will give a value for the bricks but ‘not the plus, plus free-not-so-free’ package added in by the developer.

“And that real value of the house might only be RM700,000, so the bank will slash the margin of financing. So you might not be able to sell the house at RM800,000,” he says.

But will these new measures bring down the price of property?

Adrian Un, the founder and CEO of a property education arm, says the Budget announcement brought in the first wave and caught new young investors, aged 25 to 35, who came into the market with minimum downpayment, by shock.

The second wave, he believes, will come in when the details of the actual guidelines are spelt out.

“What has been announced is very general and the tip of the iceberg. Investors want to know in detail ‘if I do this or that, do I get a waiver’,” he says.

He thinks seasoned players will wait for a while and that after the Chinese New Year, when the news sinks in, they will continue to buy.

Un notes that developers with new launches planned will have to launch “no matter what” and they will now strategise on how to innovate and find new ways to entice people to buy.

“When they do away with the DIBS (a scheme where the developer bears the interest during the construction period and buyer pays nothing because that interest had already been factored into the price of the house), people might now be asking if it is worthwhile to buy the property.

“Developers might find a way to reimburse the buyer on the interest in a different way. For example, they may ask the customer to pay it first and then give a rebate or reimbursement every quarterly,” he says.

Un says it’s hard for house prices to come down.

“The cost of raw material has gone up, developers are going to have to pay GST from April 2015 (on supplies and material), the cost of labour has gone up, inflation is going to creep up with the introduction of GST and land cost is not getting any cheaper.”

Coming back to Ahyat, he says he doesn’t disagree that the property market is overvalued and that DIBS, among other things, had helped fuel speculation.

And he wonders too if other fiscal policies might be in the offing, like a hike in interest rates.

“We are in a low-interest environment right now and cheap credit fuels speculation.

“If there is a rise in interest rate, some say it would signal the bursting of the bubble because more people would die standing as their holding power would reduce significantly. And people can’t get loans or buy too if interest rates are too high.

“My question is, can Malaysia afford to let the development and construction industry contract and cool down? This is a very scary question to ask,” Ahyat notes.

Contributed by Shahanaaz Habib The Star

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Malaysia's Goods and Services Tax (GST) a boon to IT firms

Malaysia's new consumption tax is a boon to IT companies that stand to win infrastructure contracts and fees – provided they can convince people to switch to electronic payments in a country where 91% of transactions are in cash.

The 6% goods and services tax (GST) that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak announced in his budget speech last Friday is aimed at narrowing a budget gap that is expected to hit 4% of gross domestic product this year.

Cash payments are harder for tax collectors to track, so the government is encouraging e-payments as a way to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

For companies such as Censof Holdings Bhd and GHL Systems Bhd that specialise in creating electronic payment and software systems, the initial benefit will likely come well before the tax is implemented in April 2015.

These companies, along with privately held Brilliance Information Sdn Bhd and Revenue Harvest Sdn Bhd, are seen as front-runners for government contracts to build the necessary infrastructure, because Malaysia has a procurement policy that favours local companies.

That potential has caught investors' attention. Censof's shares are up 64% in the year to date while GHL's have jumped more than 160%, both out stripping the broader market's 7.7% gain.

"To impose GST, you need to capture sales accurately and it needs to be done electronically. You need payment infrastructure in place," said Raj Lorenz, group CEO at GHL, Malaysia's largest e-payment firm by market share.

"The business is very bright but there are a lot of people using cash, so they (the government) have to make them all use e-payment. In the end, the only guys who can get away with it are those in the night markets," he said.

Censof executive director Ameer Shaik Mydin concurs, adding that all his company's systems are GST-ready and waiting to be implemented on clients' sites.

"We've done it in Singapore and Australia. It definitely has to be electronic. If not, I have to say it'll not work," he said.

Accounting for GST is especially tricky in a cash economy. Businesses might understate sales to lower the tax bill. But for cash-only companies, making the switch will be costly.

"Big boys can afford it but what about eateries and sundry shops? Do you expect them to pay for such machines and issue receipts (on GST)?" said Kuala Lumpur-based business consultant John Yong.

"If they don't buy and issue receipts, then the 6% GST is not going to be remitted to the government. Some industries are just not ready for GST," he added. – Reuters/theSun

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NSA secretly hacks, intercepts Google, Yahoo daily

The United States’ National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers worldwide. That’s according to documents released by former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, The Washington Post reports.

Video: NSA intercepts Google, Yahoo traffic overseas report | The Nationalhttp://www.thenational.ae/article/2013110
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According to the documents, the agency and its British counterpart GCHQ, through a project called MUSCULAR, collected data stored on Google and Yahoo servers. That allowed both governments access to hundreds of millions of user accounts from individuals worldwide.

“From undisclosed interception points, the NSA and GCHQ are copying entire data flows across fiber-optic cables that carry information between the data centers of the Silicon Valley giants,” RT cites the Post’s Barton Gellman and Ashkan Soltani.

A January 9th document says that in the preceding 30 days, collectors had processed over 181 million pieces of information, including both metadata and the actual contents of communications.

The government can already request information from phone or data through the FISA Amendments Act but this data collection would ostensibly take place without Google and Yahoo even being aware of it.

When you send email or store files with an internet company, that data is regularly shared among servers around the world, in order to ensure quick access to your information from wherever you happen to be. Google and Yahoo run customized private networks to shuttle that information around, passing between and within countries, as the Post indicates in a graphic. To move that information, the companies use fiber optic connections, light-speed networks running over thin glass cables. According to the Post, it’s those connections that the NSA is able to monitor. None of Yahoo’s inter-server traffic is encrypted. Not all of Google’s is either.

The MUSCULAR program, according to Wednesday’s leak, involves a process in which the NSA and GCHQ intercept communications overseas, where lax restrictions and oversight allow the agencies access to intelligence with ease.

“NSA documents about the effort refer directly to ‘full take,’ ‘bulk access’ and ‘high volume’ operations on Yahoo and Google networks,” the Post reported. “Such large-scale collection of Internet content would be illegal in the United States, but the operations take place overseas, where the NSA is allowed to presume that anyone using a foreign data link is a foreigner”.

The Post points out that company staffers were surprised and angry to hear that their their networks had been compromised. Google said that it was “troubled by allegations of the government intercepting traffic between our data centers”.

The report comes amid a storm of protest about NSA surveillance both at home and overseas of phone and Internet communications.

On Tuesday, US officials said reports that American spy agencies snooped on millions of Europeans were false.

Alexander told lawmakers that in many cases European spy agencies had turned over phone records and shared them with US intelligence.

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