Malaysia's high property taxes may not stop prices going up, sub-sales residential houses likely to soar!

The increase in Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT) will dampen speculation but it is unlikely to stop house prices from escalating and may even lead to a rise, say developers and consultants.

Real Estate and Housing Deve­lopers Association (Rehda) president Datuk Seri Michael K.C. Yam said the drastic increase to 15%-30% from 10%-15% previously would discourage any would-be speculator.
 
“Having said that, I have no strong evidence that speculation was one of the main reasons that pushed up property prices. There were some hot spots but it was definitely not on a nationwide basis,” he told The Star.

Property prices in the sub-sale market, added Yam, could increase if homeowners decided to defer selling to avoid the new tax rates.

The sub-sale market, he said, comprised 70% of residential transactions and a decrease in market supply would be inevitable if homeowners delayed selling.

“This means buyers will move to the new properties market and further increase the demand-supply imbalance there. So, a possible side effect is that it could even move prices higher,” he said.

The flat rate of 30% RPGT for six years on foreign-owned properties, said Yam, would also hurt developers during their promotions abroad.

CH Williams Talhar & Wong Sdn Bhd managing director Foo Gee Jen said the doubling of RPGT to 30% would lessen or stop speculation but that in the long-term, this would only make the market more manageable instead of stopping prices from going up.

However, he said limiting foreigners to buying properties worth RM1mil and above should only be applied to major cities like Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Penang.

Khong & Jaafar Sdn Bhd managing director Elvin Fernandez said increasing the RPGT at this stage would also arrest undue price hikes, which was usual before the implementation of Goods and Services Tax scheduled for April 2015.

Deloitte Malaysia RPGT leader Tham Lih Jiun said property price escalation was due to other factors besides speculation, including rises in construction cost and building materials as well as land scarcity.

However, Johor Rehda branch chairman Koh Moo Hing said the increase in the ceiling price for foreigners was expected to have a “negative impact” on the state’s property market, calling it “not good news” for Iskandar Malaysia.

 Value of sub-sales residential properties likely to soar

THE market value of sub-sales residential properties is expected to increase in Penang this year.

ERA Malaysia president Dr Lee Ville said this was because there was still a gap between sub-sales pricing and pricing of properties in the primary market.

“For example, the price for a sub-sales condominium in Gurney Drive area is 20% to 30% lower than that of new properties in the neighbourhood.

“Therefore, there is still room for sub-sales pricing to increase,” he said.

Dr Lee added that the sales of most ERA associate members were registered in the sub-sales segment.

He said there was a need in Penang for more properties with 1,300sq ft to 1,400sq ft in built-up area, priced at around RM400 per sq ft.

Dr Lee spoke at ERA’s Malaysia 2013 Business Conference & Gala Dinner held at Flamingo Hotel in Penang recently.

Also present was ERA Malaysia managing director Christopher Lim.

Dr Lee said the demand for properties in Penang had not softened.

“It appears to be so because bank loans are more difficult to secure these days. Some one-third of the housing loans get rejected, affecting the transactions of properties in 2012,” he said.

On the 2014 budget, Dr Lee said ERA hoped the Federal Government would leave the real property gain tax (RPGT) alone.

Meanwhile, Lim said there was no overbuilding of residential properties in Kuala Lumpur.

“There is still a strong demand for properties priced between RM600,000 and RM1.2mil.

“The population in the Greater Kuala Lumpur area, presently standing at about six million, is growing. It is expected to reach 10 million by 2020, so there is a need for more housing,” Lim said.

Sources: The Star/Asia News Network

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Malaysia Tax Budget 2014 Updates

Malaysia's government moved to allay concerns over its fast-rising debt on Friday, announcing a new consumption tax at a surprisingly high rate, abolishing subsidies on sugar and hiking property taxes to dampen a surge in home prices.

Prime Minister Najib Razak, in his annual budget speech to parliament, announced his government would bring in a goods and services tax (GST) in 2015 at a rate of 6 percent, above market expectations of 4 or 5 percent.

The ringgit currency gained against the dollar in late trade as investors welcomed the tax, which is aimed at broadening the revenue base in a country where only about 10 percent of citizens pay income tax and most of the government's money comes from oil and gas.

Otherwise, Najib announced few major steps to cut subsidies that take up about a fifth of government spending, or deeper reforms such as reducing a bloated, but politically influential, civil service.

Once a high-flying "tiger" economy, Malaysia has become heavily dependent on commodity exports and struggled with low private investment since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, despite a partial revival in recent years.

"The government has decided to implement a fair and comprehensive tax system that benefits all Malaysians," Najib said. "The government believes that this is the best time to implement GST as the inflation rate is low and contained."

Najib was under pressure to take bold steps after Fitch ratings agency in July cut its outlook on Malaysia's sovereign debt to negative, citing poor prospects for reform following a divisive May election.

Malaysian markets suffered a bout of turmoil over the summer as the country's shrinking current account surplus left it vulnerable to fund outflows driven by an expected tightening of U.S. monetary policy.

Most economists said Najib's budget had gone some way to restoring confidence in the government's political will to improve its finances, which has been shaken by a rapid rise in debt in recent years.

"The fact that they took the bold step to introduce 6 percent at the start shows a lot of commitment in reining in the fiscal deficit," said Irvin Seah, DBS economist in Singapore.

"You won't see the full benefit of the GST on the fiscal position at the outset... But in the longer term it will help bolster the fiscal position."

Najib announced a raft of steps to offset the impact of the GST, including exemptions on basic food items and transport and one-off payments to poorer families. He also announced a cut in corporate tax of 1 percent to take effect in 2016.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's called the budget "a step in the right direction" though it added that the budget proposals did not fully address the weaknesses of high subsidies and poor revenue structure.

"We would have preferred more clarity on say fuel subsidies such as details and timelines," said Selena Ling, head of treasury research at Overseas-Chinese Banking Corp in Singapore.

After securing his power base last weekend in ruling party elections, Najib had appeared to have a freer hand to tackle a high fiscal deficit with unpopular steps.

But having trimmed fuel subsidies by 3.3 billion ringgit ($1 billion) per year shortly the Fitch announcement, Najib only pledged to gradually restructure the subsidy policy.

COOLING PROPERTY BOOM

The government's economic report, released just ahead of the budget speech, said that spending on subsidies, including fuel, would total 39.4 billion ringgit next year, down from 46.7 billion ringgit in 2013.

The abolition of the 0.34 ringgit per kg subsidy on sugar was justified as needed to combat rising rate of diabetes.

In the report, the government maintained its commitment to steadily cut the budget gap, from 4.5 percent in 2012 to 4.0 percent in 2013 and 3.5 percent in 2014.

"We believe that the government has paid heed to increasing criticism by markets and rating agencies, and has followed through after the aggressive fuel subsidy reduction in September," Barclays Capital economists wrote in a note.

The economic report forecast a slight pick-up in GDP growth to 5.0-5.5 percent in 2014 from 4.5-5.0 percent in 2013, underpinned by strong domestic demand. The government expects to narrowly stay within its self-imposed debt limit of 55 percent of GDP next year, forecasting a ratio of 54.7 percent.

To cool a surging property market, Najib announced that the country's property gains tax would be doubled to 30 percent for real estate sold within three years. The minimum value of a property for foreign buyers was doubled to 1 million ringgit.

Malaysian property prices have risen by about a third in the past three years, with even bigger rises in hot spots such as parts of southern Johor state.

The government forecast private investment would rise to 17.9 percent of GDP in 2014, with funds going into oil and gas, textiles, transport equipment and real estate development.

Private investment remains well below levels seen in the 1990s, when it averaged 22.9 percent of GDP annually, but it is recovering from an average of 11.8 percent between 2001-2011.

Following are highlights from Najib's ongoing speech to parliament:

CIVIL SERVICE

* Pensioners will receive a special financial assistance of 250 ringgit to assist them meet the rising cost of living. * Government to give a half-month bonus for 2013 with a minimum payment of RM500 to be paid in early January 2014.

CASH HANDOUTS
* Cash handouts to households with a monthly income of below 3,000 ringgit will be increased to 650 ringgit from 500 ringgit.
* For individuals aged 21 and above and with a monthly income not exceeding 2,000 ringgit, cash handouts will be increased to 300 ringgit from 250 ringgit.
* For the first time, cash assistance of 450 ringgit will be extended to households with a monthly income of between 3,000-4,000 ringgit. rising cost of living borne by the lower middle-income group.
* To implement all cash schemes, government will allocate 4.6 billion ringgit which is expected to benefit 7.9 million recipients.

REAL PROPERTY GAINS TAX
* For gains on properties disposed within the holding period of up to 3 years, RPGT rate is increased to 30 percent.
* For disposals within the holding period up to 4 and 5 years, the rates are increased to 20 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Malaysian property firms with exposure to this tax change include UEM Sunrise, Mah Sing Group and Tropicana Corp .
* Raise the minimum price of property that can be purchased by foreigners to 1 million ringgit from 500,000 ringgit.
* Prohibit developers from implementing projects that have features of Developer Interest Bearing Scheme (DIBS), to prevent developers from incorporating interest rates on loans in house prices during the construction period.
* Financial institutions are prohibited from providing final funding for projects involved in the DIBS scheme. Malaysia's top three banks are Maybank, CIMB and Public Bank.

AFFORDABLE HOMES
* To further increase access to home ownership at affordable prices, an estimated 223,000 units of new houses will be built by the government and the private sector in 2014.
* Companies that specialise in affordable housing development include Hua Yang Bhd.
* Government to allocate 578 million ringgit to the National Housing Department (JPN) for low cost flats consisting of 16,473 housing units.
* Malaysian's government to provide 80,000 housing units with an allocation of 1 billion ringgit under affordable housing scheme. The sales price of the houses will be 20 percent lower than market prices.
* Introduce the Private Affordable Ownership Housing Scheme (MyHome) to encourage the private sector to build more low and medium-cost houses. The scheme provides a subsidy of 30,000 ringgit to the private developers for each unit built.
* Preference will be given to developers who build low and medium-cost houses in areas with high demand and limited to 10,000 units in 2014.
* The scheme is for housing projects approved effective from 1 January 2014 with an allocation of 300 million ringgit.

TAX RELIEF
* Government proposes a special tax relief of 2,000 ringgit be given to tax payers with a monthly income up to 8,000 ringgit received in 2013.

GOODS AND SALES TAX
* To implement goods and services tax (GST) on April 1, 2015 - 17 months from now.
* GST rate fixed at six percent, the lowest among ASEAN countries.
* GST replaces current sales tax.
* Basic food items, transportation services, highway tolls, water and first 200 units of electricity for domestic users per month to be exempt from GST.
* Sale, purchase and rental of residential properties as well as selected financial services are exempted from GST.
* PM Najib: "The reality is that inflation now is low at around 2 percent. The government is confident this will be the best time to impose GST as inflation is minimal and under control."
* Training grant of 100 million ringgit will be provided to businesses that send their employees for GST training in 2013 and 2014.
* Financial assistance amounting to 150 million ringgit will be provided to small and medium enterprises for the purchase of accounting software in 2014 and 2015.

CORPORATE TAX
* corporate income tax rate be reduced by 1 percentage from 25 percent to 24 percent.
* income tax rate for small and medium companies will be reduced by 1 percentage point from 20 percent to 19 percent from the year of assessment 2016.

INCOME TAX
* government to give one-off cash assistance of 300 ringgit to low income households
* personal income tax rates be reduced by 1 to 3 percentage points for all tax payers.
* individual income tax structure will be reviewed
* chargeable income subject to the maximum rate will be increased from exceeding 100,000 ringgit to exceeding 400,000 ringgit.
* Current maximum tax rate at 26 percent to be reduced to 24 percent
* measures to be effective in 2015

SUBSIDIES
* Subsidy programme to be "gradually restructured"
* A portion of savings from restructuring to be distributed in the form of direct cash assistance with the other half to finance development projects.
* To abolish the sugar subsidy of 34 sen effective October 26 2013.

IMPROVING BUDGET MANAGEMENT
* committed to reducing the fiscal deficit gradually, with the aim of achieving a balanced budget by 2020.
* to ensure federal debt level will remain low and not exceed 55 percent of GDP.
* government to conduct audits on projects valued at more than 100 million ringgit during its implementation.

ISLAMIC FINANCE
- Securities Commission to introduce the a framework for Social Responsible Investment (SRI) Sukuk, or Islamic bonds, to finance "sustainable and responsible" investment initiatives.

AGRICULTURE
- Government to allocate six billion ringgit allocated for agriculture programmes.
* Says to 243 million ringgit allocated for rubber, palm oil and cocoa replanting as well as forest plantation programmes. Main plantation companies in Malaysia include Sime Darby , IOI Corp and KL Kepong.

LOGISTICS
- Government to allocate 3 billion ringgit in soft loans under the Maritime Development Fund through Bank Pembangunan Malaysia.
* The fund is to provide financing to encourage the development of the shipping industry, shipyard construction, oil and gas as well as maritime-related support activities.

AVIATION
- To replace existing air traffic control and management system in Subang, a new air traffic management centre costing 700 million ringgit will be built at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).
* Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Miri, Sibu and Mukah airports in Sabah and Sarawak to be upgraded with 312 million ringgit allocation.
- Malaysia Airports manages and operates all airports across the country except for one in Johor.

PUBLIC INVESTMENTS
* Public investments to reach 106 billion ringgit. Projects to be implemented include:
- A 316-kilometre West Coast Expressway. Locally listed Kumpulan Europlus Bhd owns 80 percent of the project, while IJM Corp owns the balance 20 percent.
- Double-tracking rail project along west coast Malaysia. The project is carried out by as a joint venture between MMC Corp and Gamuda.
- Various projects from state oil firm Petronas under its 300 billion ringgit capex programme, including a petrochemicals plant in southern Johor state.

INTERNET ACCESS
- To carry out second phase of high-speed broadband project with the private sector involving 1.8 billion ringgit investment. State-linked telco Telekom Malaysia Bhd is involved in the project.
- To increase Internet coverage in rural areas, 1,000 telecommunication transmission towers will be built in the next three years, with an investment of 1.5 billion ringgit.
- To increase Internet access in Sabah and Sarawak, new underwater cables will be laid within three years at a cost of 850 million ringgit.



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How To Launch A Startup Without Writing Code

There is an unspoken rule: to launch a startup, you need to build a product, and to do that you need someone that can write code.

Whether that means chasing down a technical co-founder, learning to code, or even building that "Lean MVP" - the conventional wisdom is that without tech abilities you're nothing more than a dude (or dudette) with a Powerpoint.

A growing number of startups, however, are quietly disproving this assumption.

They're getting their first customers with minimal technology, and often no code at all. Instead of building fancy technology from the outset, they're hacking together inexpensive online tools such as online forms, drag-and-drop site builders, advanced Wordpress plugins, and eCommerce providers.

They're jumping right in to serve customers in any way possible - heading right for their first paying customers.

Most importantly, unlike the majority of their peers, by the time they start building a product, they already have a humming business.

How are they doing it?

Focus on Serving Customers Instead of Building a Product

Successful founders all know one thing: it's more important to serve a customer than it is to build a product.

This is the mindset you must get into when you start out. Most entrepreneurs are narrowly set on building a product that they lose sight of the real goal - to solve a problem for a customer.

Or, as Ben Yoskovitz eloquently put it,

"Customers don’t care how you get things done – just that you get it done and solve their pain."

Replace Technology with People

Think about the hardest part of the business you want to build. The part that would require the most complex development - the true innovation that no one else does.

Can a real person perform these tasks manually?

For many startups, this was the secret to massive success:

David Quail is a super talented software engineer, with one exit already under his belt. He wanted to solve his ultimate annoyance: scheduling meetings over email.

David's original idea was to build an artificial intelligence tool that could read an email chain and automatically schedule the event. But this would take months if not years.

His shortcut to launching a business ASAP? He simply set up an email address for his customers to "CC" that forwarded to him, and did the work manually at first to prove that customers were willing to pay.

Over time he automated more of the service - but not before he already knew there was clear demand and was making revenues.

Another example - a marketplace:

Tastemaker is a marketplace connecting interior designers with homeowners for small design gigs. They started by contacting interior designers and building a physical list of those interested in extra work.

They then asked their network who needed help with interior design - and made the connection, processing payment themselves.

The Tastemaker founders used pen and paper to solve their customer's needs and prove the market. They then built their online platform in parallel (which eventually became their core business).

You've probably heard many famous stories like ZenLike and Tastemaker. They range all the way from companies like Groupon or Yipit (raised $7.3M), to Aardvark (acquired by Google) and Diapers.com (acquired by Amazon).

What did they have in common starting out? At the core of many businesses, instead of fancy algorithms, you would have found the founders themselves, like the "man behind the curtain" in the Wizard of Oz, working hard, acting as the secret sauce.

Use These Off the Shelf Solutions

While your core tech might in fact be a service starting out, you can wrap it with an online presence, digital interactions, and the administration of a true technology business.

In short, you can act, look, and smell like a fully automated online company that employs a posse of software developers and an in-house graphic designer.

* Use e-commerce services to accept payments and even subscriptions using "hosted payment pages" - requiring zero code.

* Let your customers interact with you through sophisticated online forms you can publish (and brand) using drag-and-drop editors.

* Build a support knowledge base and community forum with Zendesk, Uservoice, or GetSatisfaction

* Use copy-paste widgets from around the web like contact forms, Skype buttons, live chat, etc.

* Use simple-yet-sophisticated website creators to publish your central website and glue together all the tools into one presence. Strikingly and Unbounce are great for beautifully designed landing pages.

I could go on listing these forever (well, I did here). As you can see, the web is full of tools that let you conjure entire features with the click of a mouse.

The key is to always search for what you want before reinventing the wheel. Chances are someone has already thought of how to make your life easier.

The Hidden Treasures of Wordpress

To most of us, the Wordpress brand connotes a free blog, or a simple way to create a content website for non-technical folks.

But the true magic of Wordpress is the ability to extend its functionality to create many kinds of web platforms - while keeping your hands (mostly) free of code.

Wordpress itself is free, and you can purchase inexpensive plugins that automatically transform your website into a membership site, ecommerce portal, social network, and even daily deals site.

Instead of spending thousands on a designer, you can buy a high-end theme for around $40 and customize it to your brand. If you have a bit more saved up, you can hire a local Wordpress expert for a few hours of their time for small custom tweaks and a personal tutorial. And, if you don't want hosting headaches, you can use WPEngine (hi, Jason!).

Wordpress is one of the most incredible tools on the web for non-technical entrepreneurs. There's a bit of a learning curve, depending on how you want to use it, but definitely a faster option than finding a developer or learning to code.

It puts fate into your own hands.

Put It All Together

Go back to that core customer need, and think of how to satisfy it by any means. Now how can you make that solution accessible? What would the process be for finding you and reaching out? How can you charge and provide support?

Chances are good that you can pull it all off yourself. If not, consider starting a bit smaller than you originally imagined, if only to start generating revenues today and fund your development.

Once you have your first few customers, you'll have a very good picture of where your business is going, and what technology you absolutely need to build - and very clear motivation.

Does working this way pay off?

Tech companies started this way have sold for between $50-$540 million, or have gone public. They are growing at double digit rates. And they launched in a matter of weeks or months - not years.

If this approach makes you uncomfortable - that's great. It's a sign that you're learning to think differently. However, entrepreneurs presented with this approach often have similar gut feelings:

What Will Investors Think?

They will think you are clever, resourceful, flexible, persistent - and know how to focus on the right things.
To quote one of our investors, Len Brody, on his portfolio: "I call them the workaround culture... [they] just work around anything - and you have to."

If for any reason they are put off by your creativity and resourcefulness, then you're not talking to the right investors.

What About Scaling?

This is a very understandable fear. It's a scary situation to think, "Great, we got our customers, and now we're going to disappoint them."

Don't let that thought paralyze you. Growth is rarely if ever a black and white, rocket-ship-spike. It's a steady process that leaves you plenty of time to transition between solutions.

In other words, there's a spectrum between do-it-yourself and full-robot-revolution. You might hire a few people in the meantime (with the revenue that their hire would naturally generate) while also developing a scalable technology.

As most entrepreneurs will tell you the way you get your first 50 customers certainly won't be the way you get your first 5,000.

For those of you feeling held back by your lack of technical skills - or deep in development muck  - ask yourself, what can you do *today* to get your first customer.

Give it a shot. In contrast to paying a developer, you don't have a lot to lose. Do whatever you need to do to get your business going.

Remember: you're not here to build a product - you're here to solve a problem. And you certainly have the skills to do that.
***
Want more specifics, examples, and tools? Check out my newest Skillshare course, How to Launch Your Startup Without Any Code (use code ONSTRTPS for %15 off)

This is a guest post by Tal Raviv.  He is the co-founder of Ecquire.

Posted by Dharmesh Shah 

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