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    • Home Construction Progress Report

    time Posted August 24, 2007 * Comments(2)

    Oh wow, time flies! Been so long since we have updated this Home in Malaysia property portal.

    Let’s fill you curious people out there on the progress of the construction of our home in Penang, Malaysia.

    At this moment, the skeleton is already up, even the roofing.

    Since picture speaks a thousand words, here’s some pictures of the housing development. We went to recee the place about two weeks back and getting my new black shoe filed with dust, making it white!

    See the effort we put in to bring you the best coverage, hehe :P

    Ok la, less of those crap and back to the photos!

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    The overall view of the housing estate.

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    These are the three-storey semi-detached houses by the same developer, Metrio Jaya Development.

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    These are some of the double-storey semi-detached houses facing the three-storey semi-detached houses you see above.

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    And this one, very near ours! :D so this is the progress of our house right now.

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    And this, the back view of the house. Can see the progress of the roofing. I guess by now, the roofing would have been completed.

    If you have noticed, the sky seemed to have become darker from the first to the last photo. Yup, you are right, we were there in the evening and managed to snap a few pictures before the sky turns dark.

    Oh.. and we observed many other things inside there too, such as Read more »

    Filed under: About the House

    Schedular Home Loan Drawdowns 1

    time Posted August 5, 2007 * Comments(0)

    What’s next after SnP? Well the situation varies depending on whether or not the property you have bought is under construction or is already completed. In this article I will only cover property that is under development. For fully completed properties, usually upon signing SnP, the previous owner will hand over the keys to the unit to you once the property is fully paid up in cash or by the bank.

    For property under construction, (provided you are taking a bank loan), the developer will write in to your bank at certain intervals to request for a drawdown of the Loan amount. Below is a table of the allowed schedular drawdowns as stated in your generic SnP agreements.

    1

    		 Immediately upon signing Sales and Purchase Agreement (SnP) 10%
    2 Within 21 working days after receipt by the purchaser of the vendor’s (or Developers’) written notice  
      a)      The foundation and footing works of the said building 10%
      b)      The reinforced concrete framework of the said building 15%
      c)      The walls of the said Building with door and window frames placed in position 10%
      d)      The roofing, electrical wiring, plumbing(without fittings), gas piping (if any) and internal telephone trunking and cabling to the said building 10%
      e)      The internal and external plastering of the said Building 10%
      f)        The sewerage works serving the said Building 5%
      g)      The drains serving the said Building 5%
      h)      The roads serving the said Building 5%
    3 On the date the Purchaser takes vacant possession of the said Building with water and electricity supply ready for connnection 12.5
    4 Within 21 working days after receipt by the Purchaser or the Purchaser’s Solicitors of the separate document of title to the said lot with a valid and registrable Memorandum of Transfer duly executed by the Vendor or on the date the Purchaser takes vacant possession of the said Building, whichever is later 2.5%
    5 On the date the purchaser takes vacant possession of the said Building as in item3 and to be held by the Vendor’s solicitors as stakeholder for payment to the Vendor as follows  
      a)      2.5% at the expiry of 6 months after the date the Purchaser takes vacant possession of the said building 2.5%
      b)      2.5% at the expiry of 18 months after the date the Purchaser takes vacant possession of the said Building 2.5% 
      TOTAL 100%

    Note that the above schedule only applies to Landed properties under construction. To counter check the developer, a third party architect is hired to audit the work that has been done on your property. Upon obtaining the required certification from the architects, the developer will send a letter to the bank, your Loan Lawyer and yourself requesting for the drawdowns as per the table above.

    Lastly, Read more »

    Filed under: Key Learnings, Sales and Purchase (SnP), Home Loans

    Key Learnings - Lawyers Lesson 4 (Continue)

    time Posted August 4, 2007 * Comments(2)

    Hi all,

    Welcome to my third and last installment on Lesson 2. This last instalment is on the Land title transfer charges as well as tranferring the Title Deed to the bank as charge.

    • Lesson 2.3 - Title Transfer

    Land Title transfer is the most important as well as the most expensive legal process in your home buying process. It involves the division of the Master Title (as held by the developer) into individual land titles/deeds for the individual house buyers.

    For the case of Condominiums/Apartments or Flats, individual Strata titles will be issued to all house buyers of the mentioned property.

    In Malaysia, individual property owners would need to pay a Stamp Duty on the Title transfer. The total stamp duty is calculated based upon the purchased price (Price as documented in the SnP Agreement) and the amount payable can be calculated using the guidelines below

    •  For the 1st RM100,000      –>  1%
    •  For the next RM100,000 to RM2,000,000 –> 2%

    Take for an example a property worth RM300,000. The Stamp duty for the title transfer will amount to almost RM5000.

    As for the lawyer fees for this process, typically you will have to fork out roughly ~1/3 the amount that you have paid for your SnP Lawyer fees earlier.

    Having Individual or Strata titles as soon as possible is important Read more »

    Filed under: Key Learnings, Taxes, Lawyers