The Malaysian property outlook in 2016 is either “affordable” or “flat” depending on the experts.
Those who want to get their first house are struggling to find the best one in the location of choice, unless the FAMA (fathermother) funds are flowing. But let me stress that Bangsar people are so rich they can house their workers in million-ringgit houses. Yep.
There’s one 24-hour mamak corner shop whose workers live in a single-story corner lot. The corner land has not been built up so the 10 or so workers (maybe 15) cram into three bedrooms, and the living room. You know how they are put up – double-deckers and bunkers. They work in shifts, so the beds rotate among them.
I feel sorry but I really salute the house owner because when Malaysians are struggling to find a house – let alone in Bangsar – his workers get to stay in a so-called upmarket area where the cukai pintu (quit rent) was upped in 2014. A s/s corner lot would be charged about RM700, only. About, not exactly. And, only, for sure.
But look at the maintenance! The rubbish like Styrofoam packets and plastic bags are all over the garden which grass surely has some wonderful ecolife. The clothes are hung over the knee-high lallang.
The workers supplement their income with can collections, which they keep at the side of the house. Why not? They don’t have time to grow their own vegetables, for sure.
And, they know about recycling but hang the separation of rubbish ruling. Or rather let the landlord pay the fine?
Malaysian employers have the noose tight around the necks of us working Malaysians with unions getting fewer by the year, the RM900 minimum wage, the glass ceiling for non-Bumiputeras and the tag that we don’t do the 3D jobs – dirty, dangerous and disgusting.
So, fast-food outlets employ only foreign labour while school-leavers and those awaiting exam results must work in small kedai runcit far from their family home. I know of two already. So, retirees like me can’t get a part-time job in Starbucks – you know the book, How Starbucks Changed my Life? (and only in America!) – or a mall because it’s really who you know. Never mind old people, the OKU also find it so difficult.
I obviously don;t know rich people who join property investor clubs that eye million-ringgit haunts.
Ah, to be an employer in Malaysia, or someone who has rich pals. 