I follow this post with some interests.
I just know that sooner or later, it will degenerate into govt bashing, but I was wrong.
It's now rich folks bashing, or... misbehaved rich folks bashing.
Anyhow, would like to share my 2 cents when we are talking about North Asians, in this case we are generally referring to the China Chinese.
I've been working and station in Beijing and Shanghai for almost 10 years now.
Whenever I talk to my local colleagues about the property prices in Msia, they are all amazed how... "cheap" Klang Valley properties are.
And we are talking about the average folks here in Beijing, you know, dual income, both sides parents own an apartment, perhaps for a total of 3 or 4 apartments since grandparents generation.
Now, say grandparents passed on, leave behind an apartment for their parents, then parents passed on, that household now inherit 2 apartments, from husband side and wife's side, including their own apartment, we have 5.
The average apartment in Beijing is worth around 5 million yuan, that's RM2.5M.
Say they sell off 2 to pay off their housing loan, and then sell off the other 3. They are cash rich of RM7.5M.
They apply MM2H program and come over to Msia, go ahead and imagine how many properties they can buy.
I personally know a handful of ppl (my staff) own 2 apartments (fully paid for) under their name in their early 30s, gifts from their parents...
They are thinking of applying MM2H and come over to Msia, since I keep telling them how good and cheap Msia is compare to Beijing.
So... back to the question : Is property still hot in Msia?
It all depends on what marketing and awareness initiatives our govt is doing to attract foreign buyers/investors.
My take is that govt is (hopefully) walking a thin line between balancing local interests in keeping the property prices down and attracting foreign $$$. How that balance swings depends ultimately on the rakyat.