Property Hunter Magazine August Issue 2014 | Page 15

Bintulu Market to Heat Up in Second Half of 2014
“The price for a double-storey
intermediate terraced house
has gone up from about
RM250,000 previously to
RM500,000, while for a doublestorey corner terraced house,
the price has increased from
RM400,000 to RM800,000. The
prices for commercial properties have also increased, but
the increase depends on their
locations.”
Aerial view of The Peak Condominium at Bintulu Paragon by Naim Land

Due to upcoming mega
projects under the Sarawak
Corridor of Renewable Energy
(SCORE), Bintulu’s property
market is expected to become
more vibrant in 2H 2014,
according to CH Williams, Talhar, Wong and Yeo Sdn Bhd
(WTWY).
“Most mega projects in Kidurong and Samalaju may take
off then, and consequently,
Bintulu will experience influx of
the working community to the
town,” said WTWY Managing
Director Robert Ting.

The town’s real estate are
also rising thanks to existing
big projects like Petronas’ gas
pipeline, Borneo Pulp and
Paper plant, Press Metal’s
aluminium smelter plant and
Tokuyama polycrystalline silicon plants.
“From my experience, as compared with five to seven years
ago, prices have gone up by
about 40 percent to 50 percent for residential properties,”
said business owner Lee Khai
Kiong.

In addition, Bintulu’s property
rental market is flourishing.
For instance, two to threebedroom fully furnished
condos could be rented out
for RM2,500 to RM6,000 per
month, noted Ting.
Depending on location, the
current rents of three-storey
shophouses range from
RM6,000 to RM10,000 per unit,
while fully furnished two-storey
semi-Ds are being leased for
RM3,800 to RM4,500, added
Lee.

Property Buyer Beware – It’s Easier to Identify Real
From Fake Now.
The identification tags also
come with security features to
prevent it from being imitated.
This is believed to lead to the
increase of professionalism
of the RENs here in Malaysia.
The surprising thing is, I still
see many ‘fake’ agents in the
shopping malls not wearing
such tags.
Heard of agents who are
unprofessional? Some to
said has taken the deposit or
booking fees and vanished?
Michael Geh who’s the Senior
Partner of Raine & Horne said,
‘to avoid situations where the
agent runs away with your
money, you should issue the
cheque to the agency name
instead of the individual’s
name’.
The reason is simple. It is not
easy to operate an agency
and no one would be running
with your money even if it is
RM50,000 and lose everything
overnight. Recently, the
Board of Valuers, Appraisers
and Estate Agents (BOVAEA)

started a registration of all
Real Estate Negotiators and
this exercise saw 10,000 RENs
registering.
Now, all the negotiators or
even project marketing staffs
who are working whether it
is in sales galleries, shopping
complexes, hotel function
room or exhibition halls are
required to wear the newly
issued tags. These tags
have a specially assigned
REN number and a QR
code, allowing the buyer to
quickly get information about
the negotiator with just a
smartphone.

Renewed Call to Increase
Sabah Oil Royalty to 20%

Seriously, the enforcement
has to be stricter. Why not
make it clear, what the
punishment would be to the
agency involved if the RENs
under their agency does not
follow the procedure? A fine?
A suspension? Sometimes, I
really hate it when Malaysians
complain that the enforcement
is not strict but when it comes
to all these things, they would
prefer to use brokers instead
since brokers are giving them
‘special deals’.
Come on, if all of us are also
serious, these things would
not happen. You are selling a
property, you need a service,
you pay for that service.

Likas Assemblyman YB Junz Wong

The push to increase Sabah’s oil royalties is
not something new but with the impending
implementation of the GST in Malaysia next year,
the urgency to address this issue is being felt more
acutely.
Likas Assemblyman Junz Wong has put forward the
proposal for the federal government to increase
Sabah’s oil royalty from 5% to 20% at the recent
Sabah State Assembly sitting in April. He said that
Sabah needs to have enough funds to build up its
basic infrastructure for industrialisation purposes
and appealed to all Sabah representatives regardless
of political affiliation to collectively make a united
stand to officially demand for this allocation.
Wong had also proposed during the assembly sitting
for Sabah to receive a 50% share of GST taxation
from Sabah contributors to be channelled back to
Sabah’s economic and social development funds.
He said, “Since the GST bill has been passed in the
lower house on April 7, the next best move it to find
an alternative to ensure that Sabah benefits from
this national fiscal policy to improve the lives of the
peop