Bank Malaysia to cut loan repayments to help housing loan borrowers in uncertain market.Several banks have slashed interest rates imposed on housing loans and more are expected to join in the fray.

Four banks – RHB Banking Group, Public Bank Group, United Overseas Bank Bhd (UOB) and Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) – have cut their respective Base Lending Rates (BLR) from 5.95% to 5.55%, following Bank Negara’s move to cut the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) from 2.5% to 2% on Tuesday. RHB Bank and Public Bank will also be reducing their respective Islamic bank’s base financing rate (BFR) at the same quantum.

RHB Banking Group managing director Michael J. Barrett said housing loans borrower would be able to pay less to service their housing loans with floating rates while individuals and businesses would enjoy lower borrowing costs. Bank Malaysia help housing loan borrowers during these challenging times and provide our customers with more financial support. All the news BLR rates would take effect next Monday. Read more »

Property in Malaysia & Malaysia’s real estate investment trusts (REITs) have been sold down and are trading below their net asset values (NAV), made worse by the softening property market and weakening rent yields.

The challenges facing REITs is not only the negative property market sentiment towards equity, but also the inability to raise capital growth due to tightening credit. Despite the challenging economic conditions this year, REIT managers in the country are confident they can mitigate the impact by looking at various options to raise capital, acquiring properties prudently and focusing on existing assets to ensure strong tenancy.

Axis REIT Managers Bhd chief executive officer and executive director Stewart LaBrooy said part of the growth process of a REIT was to continuously acquire properties to enlarge its portfolio.Axis REIT would not discount the possibility of future acquisitions this year although it may not be as intensive as y2008.
But any potential acquisitions will need to be yield-accretion. Read more »

Frequencies ask question (FAQ) for Hong Leong Mortgage Plus

1. What is Hong Leong Mortgage Plus(HL Mortgage Plus)?
Hong Leong Mortgage Plus is a mortgage product that combines a term loan with transactional freedom of a current account.

2. Does it mean that I have to open two types of accounts for HL Mortgage Plus?
Yes. For every HL Mortgage Plus account, you shall open/maintain the following accounts with HLB:-
(I) a HL Mortgage Plus loan account (term loan)
(II) a non-interest bearing current account which is linked to (I) above.

3. How does Hong Leong Mortgage Plus works?
Hong Leong Mortgage Plus link your loan account directly to your Mortgage Plus current account, whereby the credit balance in your current account will automatically help to give you greater savings on interest. Read more »

What is bank mortgage loan? There are 2 basic types for bank mortgage loan, FRM and ARM. Bank mortgage loans is a legal arrangement by which you borrow money from a bank in order to buy a property, reit, land, and pay back the money over a period of years. Some of term and condition apply depending of the borrower.
In other word, bank mortgage loans is a loan secured by real property through the use of a note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan. A home buyer can obtain bank mortgage loan either to purchase or secure against the property from a financial institution.
Two basic types of amortized bank mortgage loans are the fixed rate mortgage (FRM) and adjustable rate mortgage (ARM). ARM or knowing as floating rate mortgages are the norm and will simply be referred to as mortgages in many countries. Combination of fixed and floating rate mean that bank mortgage loan will have a fixed rate for some period, and vary after the end of that period. Floating rate is referring to Base Lending Rate (BLR) from central bank of the country. Read more »