If you are looking for a ready, more secure and less speculative type of property, you would probably look at the secondary market first rather than those that are still under construction offered by housing developers. While the costs of entry are higher in the secondary market compared to buying from housing developers (for a start, immediate payment of stamp duty on transaction rather than issuance of the title later), the legal documents and processes are different as well.

When Colin Tan took over a company called Lianbang Ventures in 2005 in order to revive an abandoned shopping mall project in Melaka, his friends used to tease him about the firm’s name. That was when Tan decided to choose a company name that will endure.

Although the overall transaction volume has fallen, Penang’s housing market looks more resilient than other major markets such as Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Johor, based on transaction volume, said TheEdgeProperty.com product and business development director Alvin Ong.

FROM charity scams to love deceptions, crooks have devised more gimmicks in cheating you out of your earnings. One of the latest on the list are rental scams, targeting those who are in a hurry to lease out their properties or are unfamiliar with renting procedures.

While many are familiar with the decades-old terraced housing estates here, they may not be as familiar with the more exclusive sections of Cheras.

Last year was a challenging one for the ­Singapore retail market. The island-wide vacancy rate for retail space climbed to 8.4% in 3Q2016 — the highest level in more than five years since the time series commenced in 1Q2011. Meanwhile, for the whole of 2016, rents in the Central area slid 8.5%, according to statistics from URA.

This was largely due to weaker-than-expected industrial and logistics performance coupled with continued weakness in the local property business.

Sunway recorded RM1.2 billion new property sales in FY2016 (+0% y-o-y), underpinned largely by sales from Sunway Mont Residences (RM219 million), Singapore (RM184 million), Iskandar (RM128 million) and China (RM188 million).

If there is one thing the global financial crisis taught us, it is this: When you lend money to cash-strapped individuals, time bombs can and do explode.

The property market in Johor will remain challenging this year and developers will focus on clearing stock and selling products priced below RM700,000.