Imagine this.

It’s a normal Monday and the kids are back from school. Out of curiosity, you log on to your home webcam just to see what they are up to :). There they are, the two kids are up to their naughty mischiefs again. “Ha ha”, you laughed, knowing where those pesky ”booby” traps are that they have “lovingly” set up for you at home.

Next you ”ping” your refrigerator and make a download of a list of foodstuff available. Going through the list, you realised that you may not have enough food for dinner later. As such you make a quick order to your friendly neighbourhood grocery shop or hypermart which then drops off your groceries at your door step as you return from work. Phew, that sure saves the trouble of queuing up at the counter. 

Amazing scenario? Well it may well come true in the township of the future which all Malaysians may one day live. This is provided that all the government efforts to increase the rate of Internet penetration in Malaysia bears fruit.

The foundations for this has already begin to take shape. The government is offering its expertise in a private-public partnership to improve the telecommunications infrastructure to existing and new housing estates. 

Read more »

To encourage Malaysians to have better quality of life as well as to ease the burden of owning a house, the Malaysian government has made provisions in Budget 2008 to allow the monthly withdrawals of the balance in Account II for home loan repayment.

In other words, Employee Provident Fund (EPF) contributors will now be able to make use of their Account II balances to assist them in the Monthly Home Mortgage repayments. For example, an average wage earner earning RM3,000 a month will be able to use his EPF to contribute an additional RM207 a month towards his home mortgage repayments.

To illustrate the above point further, here’s a breakdown on the calculations

Monthly Wage = RM3,000

Monthly EPF Contributions
a. Contribution from Employee (11%) = RM330
b. Contribution from Employer (12%) = RM360

Total Monthly Contribution to EPF (a.+b) = RM690

Hence, Monthly Account II allocation is RM207 (30% of the total monthly contributions)

As such, new and current home owners stand to benefit as follows:

• Qualifying for a higher Home Loan Quantum as the qualifying monthly Mortgage repayment is RM1,207 instead of RM1,000 (Based on the rule that monthly mortgage repayments should <1/3 of your monthly salary)

• Ability to purchase a property at a much higher price range. Current home owners may consider trading their current home for a bigger one

• Or for current home owners on Flexible Home Loan, using the monthly EPF witdrawals to boost the monthly repayments translates to lower interest charges and overall lower cost of ownership.

On the surface, this policy looks like another win-win policy for the people and the real estate industry. However the implementation of this policy from the EPF statutory body leaves a lot to yearn for. Read more »