Young professionals in Malaysia struggle to own property

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-g On Jul 14, 2013

With the oversupply of high-end condominiums shadowing the property market, fresh graduates and young professionals may have to either send out an SOS to their parents for cash or live at home because having “my own space” just got a little tougher.

Christina Chin, The Star/Asia News Network

Malaysia – Wanting and actually being able to afford your own place are two very different things.

Fresh graduate K.T.S. Chua, 23, who recently took out a RM30,000 personal loan to start a hotdog business, is relieved at narrowly missing the July new personal loan cap ruling but the shorter home loan repayment period has dampened the budding entrepreneur’s plan for a bachelor pad.

He currently lives at home with his parents and two brothers.

“I was looking to get a place of my own; unfortunately, the new ruling will gravely affect my plans to purchase a home. Without the new cap, it is already so hard for me to buy property and I will have to put it on hold.

“Needless to say, I am really concerned about the higher monthly repayments and qualifying for the housing loan,” he sighs.

Most of his friends who have just started working are “fuming” over the new ruling, the Penangite shares.

Unless you are from a rich family, plans of owning a home will have to be put on the back burner, they feel.

“Those from wealthy families can ask their parents to support them in purchasing a house. But I think it’s safe to say that many more fresh graduates will be staying with their parents until they are more stable and able to move out on their own,” he says.

At the end of the day, he cites high property prices as the biggest problem, not the new ruling.

He laments how property prices keep increasing but the salaries of the fresh graduates and even those who have been working for years have not.

Lecturer Cheryl Withaneachi, 30, agrees.

The Teluk Intan lass, who currently lives in Petaling Jaya, says the new ruling makes it difficult even for professionals to consider buying a house.

On top of rising house prices, the situation becomes practically impossible, as though housing is only meant for the urban rich these days, she grumbles.

She says that with higher repayments, it would be more practical for her to continue renting despite having “seriously considered” putting the monthly rental towards purchasing a house.

Cheryl started working almost eight years ago and is currently renting a house for RM1,500 – not inclusive of utilities which, she says, is pretty high.

“Many of my friends who are around my age cannot afford a house and this is not only due to the ruling of late but the exorbitant house and apartment prices.

“I dread to think how fresh graduates or those who do not earn very much cope,” she says, adding that fresh graduates who are based in the same location as their parents will definitely opt to stay in the family home due to the increasing living costs of transportation and housing.

“The rest of us who are not from the city have no choice but to struggle.

“The only way to buy a house is if it is jointly bought. So if you are married, the combined funds allow for more flexibility to purchase your first home but in my case (being single), it is a whole different ball game,” she says, before calling on the government to look into house prices, instead of car prices, as a person can live without the latter.

“Paying through our nose for accommodation without actually owning the property is painful,” she adds.

Single mother Fatimah Zakaria, 34, is also feeling the heat,

The frustrated civil servant, who currently lives with her adorable six-year-old daughter in Shah Alam, has been scouting around for a place in Selangor for some time now but it keeps getting harder due to high prices “that just keep rising”.