Property Hunter Magazine Property Hunter Magazine Issue 54 - May 2014 | Seite 69

2 # Maps Don’t Lie! I often tell my students that there are only 2 things in the world that do not lie, and they are numbers and facts! In investments, I look into numbers and facts to help me balance emotion in my investment decisions. Numbers and facts do not lie, people do! But there’s 1 more thing that do not lie; maps! And if you can learn the art of map analysis, you are able to now have one more very critical tool to assist you in making property investment decisions. I am not a map expert, but a fan of maps. The real map experts are my friends in Ho Chin Soon Research, who I truly revere and admire for the amazing work that they do with their property maps. I always say that Malaysians do not realize how lucky we are having such maps, which can actually assist us in selecting assets! Because of my love for maps, I spend a little bit more time studying them and along the way have discovered certain powerful techniques in analyzing them. Along the years, I’ve been able to share these simple yet powerful skills with other investors during my workshops and seminars, things like framing or pigeon hole techniques, understanding the galaxy theory, applying the two proximity analysis methods which I call bulleye and rainbow. Having created these techniques, first applying them to analyzing the Malaysian property market, I wanted to see if I could apply it to international markets. To my pleasant surprise, my techniques could be applied in any property market, including that of Spain and Portugal. So I applied it in my analysis of the 2 ghost towns in central Spain and 1 ghost airport in the east. And what I discovered was shocking. Why? Because it made sense why they ended being ghost towns! If only the investors had just taken the extra time to analyze their investments through these simple map analysis techniques, they might have been able to detach themselves with the irrational exuberance, which shrouded the minds of many investors during the boom! Besides avoiding bad asset selection, map analysis allowed me to understand locations better. I applied the rainbow technique on Lisbon, a city that I have never been to and was able to understand the city fairly quickly. With the help of a local investor there, I was able to identify hotspots for potential investments and understand why prices acted the way they do. This was what we also did in Barcelona and Madrid, in such a short time, was able to identify why certain areas did better and why some did not. All I needed to do was to have a local map with me and one afternoon with a local investor over coffee at a Spanish café and I would be able to start framing the potential areas to invest in! 3 # Opportunity in Crashes While I’ve shared seemingly grave lessons from my Spanish and Portuguese property exploration, I do not intend to incite fear. I also do not want to be branded as the pessimist, but rather the opposite, because that is truly who I really am, an optimist. Yes, the crash in the property market in Spain and Portugal is scary. Yes, many property investors there have crashed and burnt with the market. But no, it is not all doom and gloom! There are opportunities anywhere in the world, even in markets where it has experienced glorious boom and followed by a devastating crash, like Spain. Talking about opportunities, I always tell investors one important fact, “Always remain excited!” You know why you need to be excited? Because if you are no longer excited, you stop seeing opportunities. And there is an abundance of them in any market, especially in Malaysia! But don’t get me wrong, I want investors to be excited and NOT over-excited. Being over-excited can mak