Actually one way to invest in KL but yet have someone maintain it for you will be to buy/invest into a service apartment type private development. Though this may or may not pay-off given that a service apartment is subjected to the rules of the service provider.
I went to check out a few some years back, notable ones were my habitat and myhabitat2 (
[ myHabitat2 ]) The build quality was fantastic, facilities were also great, my friend bought but I didn’t though. Last I heard he was making a good income flow but not sure about capital gains cause it was quite pricey when they wanted to sell it to us then.
Advantages of KL needless to say are stability and attraction to the capital for regular Malaysians looking to move to the city from the smaller towns, its an increasing number from what I know.
But if you are comfortable with JB I suggest you go for it and look into it seriously, the upfront entry is quite low at this moment so good to strike even if the prices are north of what you may have saw, regulations in the future may damper your plans. And I agree with your points about worse case the market takes a hit bad lose 50% at most you lose 100 -150K SGD, not small sum but compared to SG market where 75K could already be your stamp duty its not a life impacting crisis for yourself I am sure.
After the new cooling measures I think my plans for now are to focus on the SG market, just like 97 where a slew of measures came in to cool the market I am curious if this round will tip the market over, although with such low interest rates I am guessing not. However if interest rates go to say 2% I would think we’ll be in for a wild ride, if that happens you definitely wanna have some liquidity.
I checked out the area around great world as you mentioned but not Jln Mutiara area as I thought it to be a bit far from the
MRT and the units there are bigger so it went outside of my quatum (need to put 40% downpayment now probably more). I saw some units nearer to Kellock Road (very small ones) which had a very good rental yield (4%) I will look in this area again if the market were to dip.
On your point about the cooling measures agreed that the latest rounds will lokc out PR and foreigners. With regards to financing I believe anyone who had paid 40% down in the previous measures would be quite comfortable in managing the outlay for the mortgage (assuming the 40% did not come from re- mortgaging his first property using increased valuation). Interest rates increase should be manageable for a few years assuming no tenancy (worse case they can slash rentals by half). If the values start falling badly then they might get hit if the bank ask to top up assuming the government don’t cut back on the measures first.
Another scenario would be once they initial mortgage on the investment property runs out and they have to refinance would they be subjected to the new terms? If so they may have to do a quick sell.
And with additional units hitting the market (according to govt) 200K units by 2016 it could also impact the market.
Too many points to consider and monitor.
I found a property blog about a lady who invested in property and apparently is very succesfful (small scale) very interesting read, check it out.She seems to organize meetups and such, might attend if it happens and time permits of course.
www.
Property Soul