Penang is best for property investment in Malaysia

Penang has dislodged Kuala Lumpur's Golden Tringle as the top investment choice

GEORGE TOWN: Penang has now overtaken the Klang Valley as the most attractive place for property investment.

In its Malaysia Commercial Real Estate Investment Sentiment Survey 2016, global property consultancy Knight Frank Ma-laysia said the state had dis-lodged Kuala Lumpur’s Golden Triangle as the top investment choice.

Penang garnered 67% of the overall responses while the Golden Triangle slipped to fourth position with 49%, finishing behind KL Fringe/ Klang Valley (56%) and Johor/Iskandar (55%).

The survey took litmus test for insights and preferences of key players namely fund managers, developers and lenders in the commercial sector for the Year 2016.

It targeted 700 respondents in senior management levels across the property industry.

Half of them (55%) were deve-lopers while the rest were commercial lenders (24%) and fund or real estate investment trust managers (21%).

Last week, George Town was picked as the sixth ‘Best place to retire abroad in 2016’ by CNN Money.

Source: Knight Frank Malaysia/The Star

That’s Right, Penang Just Beat KL To Become The Top Choice For Investments

 It appears that more people are keen to invest in Penang than in Kuala Lumpur, as a survey by Knight Frank Malaysia shows that Penang garnered over 67 percent of the overall response.

The survey also revealed that Kuala Lumpur Central Business District (CBD) (Golden Triangle), which was the top investment choice in 2015, was dethroned and dropped to the fourth ranking with 49 percent of the responses, coming after Kuala Lumpur Fringe/Klang Valley (56 percent) and Joh

• Penang was also voted as the most attractive investment region for hotel or leisure and healthcare or institutional developments, possibly due to George Town being inscribed as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites and the popularity of the state for medical tourism
  

  • 
    • Image via Travel2Penang George Town is recognised as one of Unesco’s World Heritage Sites. 
  • 
    Penang garnered the highest vote from respondents by getting 86 percent of the votes for most attractive investment region for hotel or leisure and 79 percent of votes for healthcare or institutional developments.
    
    Kota Kinabalu came in second for the most attractive investment region for hotel or leisure with 67 percent while Johor clinched the third spot with 59 percent.
    
    As for the healthcare or institutional developments, Klang Valley and Johor gained 72 percent and 69 percent of votes respectively to be the second and third most popular region.
    
    
    
• These results came from the Malaysia Commercial Real Estate Investment Sentiment Survey 2016, which was conducted by global property consultancy Knight Frank Malaysia
  • • Image via Knight Frank Malaysia
       
  • The Malaysia Commercial Real Estate Investment Sentiment Survey 2016 was conducted using an e-survey mechanism distributed throughout Knight Frank’s vast database as well as in-depth interviews with key players in the local commercial sector.
    
    There were some 700 respondents in senior management levels this year, with 55 percent of them being developers, 21 percent fund or real estate investment trust (REIT) managers and 24 percent lenders.
    
    
    • Home of a UNESCO heritage site, Penang's landscape is the perfect blend of old and new. Take a look at how the city has beautifully transformed over the years!
      

      • Penang Then And Now: 35 Photos That Show How Much Has Evolved In The Past Century

        From one of the region's first trading ports to home of a UNESCO heritage site, Penang manages to preserve its old-wo...
        

        says.com 

        
        
    • Making a trip to Penang? Don't forget to check out these places!
      

      • 15 Heritage Boutique Hotels That Add to The Unmistakeable Charm Of Penang

        Come for the food, stay for the hotels. You probably won't bear to leave by the end of your trip!
        

        says.com 

        
        
    • Born and bred in the Pearl of Orient? You'll know what we are talking about! ;)
      

      • 15 Things A #PenangKia Has To Say About Other States (And Their Food)

        Penangites are really proud of their island, aren't they?
        

        says.com

Information is power, overloaded, who and where can we trust?

A global survey gauging trust in society finds that people of a feather really do flock together.

THE person you see in the mirror is the most trusted.”

No, that is not a self-help mantra or nostalgia for Michael Jackson’s old hit Man in the Mirror.

Rather, as the 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals, that is a common belief in the world when it comes to trust.

People now are increasingly reliant on a “person like yourself” (rising 6% in trust) more than the “leaders” of society like CEOs, government officials, technical experts or even academic experts, according to global communications firm Edelman’s annual survey that measures trust levels in the world.

Says Edelman Malaysia managing director Robert Kay, it reflects the way people in Malaysia are increasingly sharing and weighing information and opinions online.

“When it comes to information on social networking sites, content sharing sites and online-only information, Malaysians trust friends and families more at 74% compared to a company CEO at 57% or elected officials at 53%,” shares Kay at the launch of the Barometer in Kuala Lumpur last Tuesday.

For its fifth survey in Malaysia, Edelman polled 1,350 Malaysians online from October to November last year.

What some might find surprising is that in today’s celebrity-obsessed world, online personalities rake in only 45% “believers”, while celebrities rank last in their trustworthiness at 30%.

Interestingly, Malaysians’ overall trust in online content, specifically that shared on social media has dipped seven points to 42%.

Kay points to the rampant sharing of misinformation online in the past year as the main reason.

Consequently, search engines hold their lead as the most trusted source for information at 66%, he adds, as people feel they have more control over what they read and see.

The rise in peer-to-peer trust inevitably coincides with the decline in public faith in public institutions and the business world.

Faith in the press among the “informed public”, however, has jumped 13% – from 46% last year to 59% this year.

Asked how much they trust the media – on a scale of zero to nine – to do the right thing, Malaysian citizens say they have a lot more faith in the press than before.

This, says Edelman, puts Malaysia’s more informed citizens’ trust in media at the same level as the elite of the United States.

“Malaysia has one of the biggest rises in media trust among the informed public globally, possibly due to the constant coverage of alleged corruption at 1MDB,” Kay notes, stressing that it is crucial for the media to continue pursuing rigorous, balanced and transparent reporting to maintain credibility.

While the survey did not distinguish between trust in local and international media, the trust in the media in Asia highlights the perceived role of the media in this region, Edelman Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa CEO David Brain reportedly said in Mumbrella Asia, a discussion site on the region’s media.

“The media – through Western eyes – is expected to keep politicians to account, but in Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia, there is ‘a social contract that the role of the media is about nation building’, and less about revealing the truth,” Brain had explained.

In a panel discussion on the Barometer results, The Malaysian Insider CEO Jahabar Sadiq points out that even as trust in business captains and political leaders fell, those who are perceived to be critical and caring of society and are vocal on social media, such as CIMB group chairman Datuk Seri Nazir Razak and former Cabinet minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, are deemed as “trustworthy”.

Comparing Malaysia to Britain and the United States, Umno Youth exco member Shahril Hamdan suggests the dip in public trust towards the government is a natural development as the nation matures.

“As democracy matures, the cynicism level of people toward the government increases.

“Regardless of how the government communicates or performs, people will put less trust in the government and its leaders.”

Maxis Malaysia Head of Consumer Business Dushyanthan Vathiyanathan believes that it is time for public institutions and the business sector to transform and engage more with people.

“People now are interested in knowing what is happening and not in what you tell them.

By Hariati Azizan The Star/Asia News Network

“You have to be transparent with them and inform them of anything and everything. That’s because now they have information and do their checks.”

Related:

Panel Discussion of the 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer for Malaysia



Related post:

China responds to US's militarizing the South China Sea

It is the US that is militarizing the South China Sea The U.S. has recently been hyping the idea that China is militarizing the South ...

Beijing is home to the world's most billionaires, edging New York City out

 

Night view of Central Business District with the new CCTV Tower, right, and other skyscrapers and high-rise office buildings in Beijing. Beijing is home to the world's most billionaires, pushing New York City out of the top slot. [Photo/IC]

Story Highlights:

--Beijing is home to 100 billionaires

--Wang Jianlin of Dalian Wanda is the richest Chinese

--China overtakes the US with the most billionaires

Beijing is home to the world's most billionaires, pushing New York City out of the top slot it had held for years, according to a Shanghai-based research and media outlet that keeps track of the world's wealthiest.

Despite a slowing economy, the Chinese capital added 32 billionaires, bringing its total to 100 and New York added four, giving it 95 billionaires, according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2016.

Moscow came in third with 66, and Hong Kong and Shanghai came in fourth and fifth with 64 and 50, respectively, Hurun said in its ranking of US dollar billionaires as of Jan 15.

Wang Jianlin of Dalian Wanda, one of China's top real estate developers, was the wealthiest Beijing resident with a net worth of $26 billion.

New York's top billionaires were businessman David Koch and Michael Bloomberg, the city's former mayor and media company owner. His wealth increased $16 billion to $37 billion, according to Hurun. Another city resident whose wealth increased is Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump. He added $5 billion to go to $6.5 billion.

While China has passed the US with the most billionaires, the Hurun report noted that none of the richest billionaires are from China. Eight of the world's 11 wealthiest, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world's wealthiest with $80 billion, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg are from the US.

And the combined net worth of US billionaires is still nearly double that of Chinese billionaires, for a total of $2.4 trillion, just a little less than the GDP of France, according to the report.

Rupert Hoogewerf, the founder of Hurun, said initial public offerings are behind the rapid expansion of Chinese wealth.

In October, China overtook the US for the first time as the country with the most billionaires within its borders. About 568 billionaires now live in China and 535 in the US.

Hoogewerf said the number of billionaires for the rest of the world was held back by a slowdown in the global economy, the strengthening of the US dollar and the drop in oil prices. - China Daily/Asia News Network


Related post:

Don’t blame China for global economic jitters; China contributed >25% global growth

Jan 24, 2016 ... Don't blame China for global economic jitters; China contributed >25% .... China's economy posted a 6.9 percent GDP growth in 2015, which is ...