eCdD

Not in the condos, apart from the beach maybe a few meters away. Here in Ipoh the top places have excellent swimming pools and perfect sports facilites, not just gym, also tennis and squash courts. But of cause then you go also here from 350k to over 500k.

The main draw of Penang is of cause the beach and the shopping facilities that match almost KL. Food? Sure, Penang is great, but I don´t miss any of my food court favourites here

bakedbean

What beach ?

eCdD

The one close to your home I guess

bakedbean

No beach near me.

Langkawi good for beaches. I believe east coast of peninsula also good for beaches.

InVinoVeritas

There are two Penangs. The Google one and the real one

stepen

But the ringgit has depreciated a lot, so is there in fact a big different from buying today vs buying 5 years ago (if you have USD)?

eCdD

I know the beaches on the east coast are much much better. But to be fair you must compare Penang beaches to JB beaches, not too much differences.

Hovite

We have some nice beaches here in Sabah (that's if they have sorted out the sewerage problem!) and some nice properties including new condos - About | Spinnaker SOVO Suite @ Likas Bay, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. but they are expensive. The banks are not lending in Sabah too so it is holding back some prices. Developers are required or encouraged to build affordable housing for locals as well as pushing hard for the ex-pat market. https://www.propertyhunter.com.my/ne...sidential-term This our neighbour and the guy who developed our estate. Property Hunter is worth a read

SushiFan

You are correct about this. Although this website is called British Expats, I prefer to look at the EUR/MYR exchange rate. It has changed from approx. 3.8 to 5.1 in the last five years. This will indeed take away a part of the profit.

bakedbean

And there is the rub.... what do you convert back to? especially if you are a wandering expat who hasn't been "home" for a decade and maybe never will.

A little story.... I and my late husband bought and sold many a property in mainly UK then Singapore and always made a decent profit and sometimes a big profit. Then.... we bought a house in Thailand We got fed up with Thailand and sold up and made our first and last spectacular LOSS in Thai baht. However if we mentally (just in our heads) converted back to Sterling bought and sold, we made a small profit So we just thought of it as that.

Ended up buying in Penang with that dosh. So.... house = house = house. And does it matter? It probably does if you are young, or have definite intentions of moving elsewhere later.

stepen

Yes. I am thinking about it more in terms of buying now vs 5 years ago. If you have foreigner currency then the price would be similar today to what it was 5 years ago, so might still be a good buy.

eCdD

OK,you compare the lowest and highest point now. I guess nobody changed like crazy when the MYR was @ 3,8 thanks to big support from Greece.

Actually the MYR was over 5,0 against the EUR already in 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009. Since the big crisis in 2002 and 2003, the main thing was to buy the MYR when it goes to 5,0, live with it comfortable around 4,5 and sell it when it goes in direction of 4,0.

Certainly, this will not last forever. Maybe we go in a new range now, because the Euro troubles finish and Malaysia faces new problems.

SushiFan

I wasn't really looking for the lowest and highest point. I pulled up a chart of the last 5 years. The left hand reading (i.e. 5 years ago) showed 3.8, and the right hand reading (i.e. today) showed 5.1

I guess that most people don't really time their time of purchase to have a optimum exchange rate. The timing of their house purchase is most likely more based on when they need (or no longer need) a house. My guess is that only investors who want to flip houses to make profit time their buying/selling more precisely.

InVinoVeritas

Actually it turns out the levy is still at 3% EXCEPT for strata properties sold for between RM1M and RM1.5M, when it is reduced to 1.5%.

IanBlakeley

Exactly, even the very small places seem to be built with 3 bedrooms when I guess for may 2 would be fine just to meet the requirement of the occasional guest. My BiL converted his smallest bedroom in his original condo into a large dressing room, even that's a bit of overkill if you ask me. I've also seen spare bedrooms converted into passable home movie theaters.