Amazing Race Asia 4

Today, I get away from politics and economy and turn to something light like The Amazing Race Asia 4 which is currently showing on AXN , Astro Channel 701.

I have just finished watching the Amazing Race Asia 4 and I am very sad that the Malaysian team of Ethan and Khairi is eliminated from the race. This pair of young man is a very good team with little weaknesses but made a BAD MISTAKE during a DETOUR in Bali when after choosing to carry a basket of vegetables on top of their head,they change their mind and carry out another task that is to find a chinese name written on a chinese tombstone in a cemetery. Finding the right tomdstone among the thousands in a cemetery is a very difficult task as what I have personally experience.Mant years ago during CHENG BENG or ALL SOULS DAY, I and my father was looking for the grave of a relative who passed away and buried at the Kwangtung Cemetery in Cheras.It was a difficult search and after a few hours,we gave up.I think Ethan do not have this experience or else he would not have choose this task.

After spending a lot of time and unable to find the name,they change their task to carry a baskets of vegetables.This caused them to lose a lot of precious time and in the end the phillipines duo was able to overtake them.

Over the years,Malaysian teams competing in the amazing race has performed very well especially Ter Joo Jer and Sabrina Fernandez who was the winner of the first amazing race.The Chong sisters came in second in the secong race with Ida and Tania came in third in the third race.

Hopefully,in the 5th race,a malaysian team will emerge as CHAMPION.

MALAYSIA - PROPERTY BUST.

Recently,Bank Negara imposed the loan to value ratio in which those who purchase a THIRD PROPERTY will only be entitled to borrow 70% of the value of the property.

In my opinion,Bank Negara is wasting its time and effort in implementing this ruling as it does not help to COOL the local property market. In order to avoid a collapse of the property market, Bank Negara should imposed a loan to value ratio of 75% on the purchase of a SECOND property in which bank can only finance 75% OF THE VALUE OF THE PROPERTY FOR THOSE WHO BUY A second PROPERTY.

Thus,this ruling will not penalise the FIRST TIME BUYER and it will cool down the current hot property market to AVOID A SUB-PRIME in Malaysia.

I have a property developer friend who is selling 3 blocks of Studio Apartment totalling 1080 units of 650 sg ft for RM 360,000 each in Jln Kelang Lama.Even without Launching, SEMUA HABIS DI JUAL,all the 1080 units fully sold .

His marketing strategy is that the purchaser only pay RM 5000 on booking. On signing of the S & P agreement, the purchaser need not pay the 10% as required as he is given a 10% DISCOUNT and the balance 90% is finance by the bank and all the legal chargers,stamp duty and other expenses are covered by the developer. The purchaser will start paying the bank when he or she receive the keys to the apartment. The RM 5000 will be use to pay for utilities deposit like water and electricity.

All the purchaser needed is to come up with RM 5000 and this encourage a lot speculators for this property and when the apartment is completed,the value will go up and they will be a lot of speculators ready to SELL for a profit

They are a lot projects in the Klang Valley which is selling like hotcakes and this is due the speculators who are able to get cheap and easy financing from the banks.As the bank have a lot of liquidity,they just lend to cover their interest cost and if Bank Negara is not tough in using its monetary policy to control this HOT property market,Malaysia will face a sub prime mortgage problem like the US.

To all my loyal readers,if you want to purchase a property,make sure that you are investing or staying and NOT SPECULATING as I strongly belief that if things are to continue like this ,our property market will collapse in SEPTEMBER 2011.

DAIM - The MAN behind PAVILION KL.

The owner of Pavilion KL, Urusharta Cemerlang recently created a record by buying a 29,000 sq ft land for RM 210 MILLION for RM 7,200 per sq ft. This piece of land is located just beside the Pavilion shopping center and today it is the most expensive piece of land in Malaysia.

Urusharta Cemerlang bought this land from Singapore Billionaire Quek Leng Beng. A lot of my friends was asking why is Urusharta Cemerlang so brave in buying this land at such a high price and who is the person who is funding Urusharta Cemerlang. As we all know ,Urusharta Cemerlang is owned by Urusharta Cemerlang Development ( 51 percent) and Qatar Investment Authority (49 percent ). The directors of Urusharta Cemerlang are two unknown that is Zainol Mahmood and Shakni .

Beside Mid Valley, One Utama,Sunway Pyramid,Sungei Wang Plaza and KLCC, Pavilion KL is one of the most successful shopping center in KL. To all my readers and friends,the MAN BEHIND PAVILION KL is DAIM.

Selamat Hariraya

I would like to wish all my muslim friends SELAMAT HARIRAYA and hope that after this RAYA,Malaysia will be a better in terms of relation between all the races.

Mokhtar Dahari.

I have just finished watching the documentary about SUPERMOKH Mokhtar Dahari who is the GREATEST AND BEST STRIKER MALAYSIA have ever produced. As a former official of Hong Chin FC,this documentary brought back a lot of memories .Mokhtar started his career with Darul Afiah,a division one team while we were playing in the Selangor Premier League (SPL). At that time ,we try to recruit him but he was employed by PKNS who was playing in the Selangor Govt Dept and Business House (GDBH) league. Subsequently,the management of PKNS decided to put a team in the SPL and they recruited Arumugam,Santokh and Reduan Abdullah from us. As Hong Chin is a private club with little financial resources,we have to let REDOO go to PKNS on a free transfer as he was given a job as a clerk by PKNS. Subsequently, after winning many trophies with PKNS,Mokhtar took up the position of sports coordinator with Kwong Yik Bank (KYB) and became the team football coach when the bank management decided to put a team in the Selangor Dunhill League. The saddest thing I have for Mokhtar is that He did not play in the then English First Division for teams like MU, Liverpool or Arsenal.I believed he would be more successful than Park Ji Sung if he play in England as he has the physique,toughness in taking knocks,the athletic ability to run and dribble plus the POWERFUL SHOT that score GOALS. Until today,I believed that it is a waste that he did not play in England. Together with Isa Bakar,Supermokh was the most fear strikers at that time in Asia. It is with great sadness that after so many years he had passed away,Malaysia have not produced another striker like him. That is why our ranking by FIFA is very low. I always believed that without PKNS and KYB,Supermokh would have play for Hong Chin.I would like to take this opportunity to wish all MALAYSIANS a HAPPY MERDEKA and to all my muslims friends SELAMAT BERPUASA and SELAMT HARIRAYA.