Cost of living - some points to share

1. Price of food have gone up by 83 % in the last four years. Price of houses have also increased between 20 to 50 percent depending on location, with some at 80 %. These are our basic needs. How much have your salary increased over the period?

2. This happened against subsidies on certain major items like rice, sugar and petrol. Without which we are told would have caused price of food to be higher. Which would have caused more to follow.

3. So how are we going to live with inflation, a phenomena the country cannot solve?

4. Subsidy is not the long term solution to handle the problem of increasing cost of living. It's a temporary measure only. Money is always limited in supply to very country. They have to tax it from somewhere to spend it. If it is spent as subsidy, it cannot be spent for something else.

5. By increasing the salary in both the government and private sector, people will have more disposable income to afford the higher prices. But the increase in salary must be sustainable. Money must come from somewhere in the sense that it cannot fall from the sky.

6.On the part of government, prudence must be the order of the day. Certain old ways of running things must be stopped. Certain new ways of management to reduce wastage must be implemented. Ways where things can be done more cheaply and not so much have to be spent must be put in place. There is much truth in the saying that it is increase in efficiency when wastage is cut!

7. Oil accounts for 40% of Malaysian government revenue. Imagine what will happen if Malaysia runs out of oil to pump one day. How then is the government going to sustain the subsidy being undertaken, increasing the salary of the civil servants?

8. On the part of private sector, salary increase cannot be 100 % matched with the increase in the cost of living. Salary is one portion of the product or service cost that will invariably be passed down to the consumers IF it's not sustained by increase in productivity. Increase in real productivity will result in lower cost, better profit without price being higher, higher salary to the employees. Only in this way, salary increase is sustainable.

Projek perumahan terbengkalai di persekitaran Shah Alam / Klang dan Klang / Kuala Langat

1. Ada projek perumahan terbengkalai di Johan Setia, Sijangkang, Jalan Kebun, Jalan Kampung Lombong, Kampung Batu Sembilan dan Sepuluh Kebun Baru dan juga di persekitaran Teluk Panglima Garang, Jenjarom dan Banting? Memang ada!

2. Ada projek perumahan yang nampak tiang konkrit sahaja. Ada projek perumahan yang sudah siap bumbung baru jadi terbengkalai!

3. Punca utama projek rumah baru terbengkalai :

3.1 Masalah aliran kewangan syarikat pemaju - wang yang patut dibayar untuk A digunapakai untuk B

3.2 Kajian pasaran yang tidak terperinci - atas salahtaksiran bahawa rumah baru mesti boleh dijual tanpa ambilkira lokasi, kemudahan persekitaran, permintaan pasaran dan keadaan ekonomi semasa.

3.3 Masalah teknikal - butiran infrastruktur yang tidak mengikuti undang undang atau langsung tidak disediakan kerana kurang pengetahuan.

Property development - sharing of thoughts (2)

Writing down what I concur for my record and also just to share - what it takes to succeed in property development?

1. Good land bank for consistent and uninterrupted project development.

2. Vision and entrepreneurship.

3. Specialization that will lead to market research for innovation and product differentiation.

4. Leadership that can develop a strong specialized management team that are result and goal driven.

5. An organization with working environment that has the speed to decide and execute.

6. An organization that's slim, lean and mean. That's the way to go.

7. Number got powers! But that cannot be be accepted in totality. If there is no specialization, no vision, no entrepreneurship, size can be a great burden. In the globalized world, businesses need to be slim, lean and mean and also FAST.

How to have that kind of environment that sustains and nurtures entrepreneurship in property development?

1. No creation of monopoly of any sort.

2. Government should not condone any sort of monopoly in the industry. The government should not even be perceived so! 

3. Competition should be encouraged. Competition is the key to success to any market. They say competition will bring out the best of an enterprise.

4. Government should facilitate and make things easy for businessman and entrepreneur to do business. But the government should stay out of business. Business and politics are bad mix. The world has seen this - red tape and government hand in the business are VERY BAD for business.

5. The route of property development should not be hindered by logs in the highway where the driver of the vehicle is on the wheel, if there is already highway in existence!