Why buying a home during house foreclosure? Foreclosed homes are those homes which are distressed homes which further means that they are not in a condition where one can live.

At the point of house foreclosure, the bank mortgage loan or financial institution has possession of the property and usually deals with it. Ownership is moved to the lender. Most of the time, when the lender takes the property their intent is to sell it in the open market. Some of the property are selling lower than the market value. Property investor who buying foreclosed homes with lower price could maximize the profits of property investment.

The advantage of buying foreclosed homes is that it will be less expensive as it is not good for anything further. Many people in fact sell the homes before the notice of default is issued so that they can get better deals out of it. One should remember that default homes deals are always complicated and the home sellers have rights when it is in foreclosure. Read more »

Malaysia has become the preferred listing destination for Sunway City Bhd’s (SunCity) proposed real estate investment trust (REIT) although it is not ruling out other proposals for reverse takeovers in Singapore and Australia.

From SunCity executive director Datuk Jeffrey Ng, the authorities in Malaysia are very proactive and doing their level best to get the more established companies to list in Malaysia. Malaysia is definitely a preferred destination by SunCity but they are looking to other opportunities as well.

Industry sources added that companies also had a more positive view following the revamp of main and second boards into a unified board, further improvement in processes and procedures as well as liberalisation of the 30% bumiputra quota in 27 service sub-sectors.

If something very firm comes up, SunCity will study it in the best interests of shareholders, how to buying investment property can generate profit. One of which is GIC (Government of Singapore Investment Corp). Early last year, SunCity was reported to be more keen on listing in Singapore where the tax regime is more attractive to REIT investors in relation to withholding tax.

However, the global financial crisis, which erupted in the later part of last year, has changed the scenario and investors turned risk averse. In terms of mandate, this represents a fresh opportunity to select possibly new parties that can give the best terms. Under the old mandate, the global investment banks were Goldman Sachs and UBS while the local investment banks were CIMB Investment Bank and RHB Investment Bank. 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 »

Knowing property investment each asset is unique and has different risk-return profile. Capital growth or rental return should be referrer in property investment? When discussing property investment there are two somewhat conflicting philosophies. Some suggest you should invest in property for high rental return while others feel you should invest for capital growth (the increase in value of the property).

We would all like to buy property that have both great capital growth and a high rental yield. Fortunately this is currently what is being experienced in the North East of England at this present time, Asia country like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Malaysia.

Many new and experienced investors invest purely based on rental yield (the rental income generated over a year expressed as a percentage of the purchase price of the property). In general strong capital growth usually goes hand in hand with a lower rental yield. Read more »