Immigration & education drive property prices; Secondary property sales may take lead

Immigration and education are two drivers of property prices in cities in the next 10 years to 2024, said property consultancy Knight Frank International.

Its Asia-Pacific reaearch director Nicholas Holt said up to 76,000 Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWI) from China have immigrated the last 10 years - the highest - while up to 72% of Malaysia’s UHNWI send their children abroad, the highest. (See graphics below).

The cities include London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Holt was presenting his Wealth Report 2015 updated till third quarter 2015 at the 25th National Real Estate Convention in Kuala Lumpur.

He defined UHNWIs as those with US$30mil and above in investible income excluding their primary residence.

In an Attitudes Survey involving 600 advisors of UHNWIs by Knight Frank, the advisors - bankers included - said about 10% of their Malaysia’s ultra-high net worth clients were considering changing their domicile in the earlier part of this year.

“This compares with an overall 12% in Asia who are considering changing domicile,” said Holt.

Data show drop in primary market transactions

SUBANG JAYA: The ongoing slowdown in the local property sector could see transactions in the secondary property market overtaking that of the primary market.

Citing data from the National Property Information Centre (Napic), PPC International Sdn Bhd managing director Datuk Siders Sittampalam said the economic slowdown has affected transactions in the primary property market this year.

"Siders: ‘Total volume of transactions in the primary market has dropped, and this has also resulted in values dropping. >>

“Total volume of transactions in the primary market has dropped, and this has also resulted in values dropping.

“As such, there will come a time when the secondary market will lead the primary market,” he said at a press conference after the launch of the 25th National Real Estate Convention (NREC) 2015 yesterday.

Siders said it was difficult to provide a specific timeline on when he expected transactions in the secondary market to exceed that of the primary market.

“In terms of value, the primary market will find it harder to match the secondary market due to rising land and building costs,” he said.

Siders said he expected transactions in the primary market to improve once cooling measures imposed on the local property sector have been relaxed.

“Once the economy picks up and Bank Negara backs off on its cooling measures, the primary market will pick up again.”

He also said a drastic hike in interest rates will have an impact on the property sector.

“Over the last few years, the property market had been steadily growing due to various measures such as the developers interest bearing scheme (DIBS). Because of these measures, pricing in the market has been distorted.

“Now, when people have committed to their loans, especially youths and first time buyers, and there is a sudden hike in interest rates, there will be a dip in the market.

“Loans go bad and many properties will go under the hammer. This will not be a healthy market.” Siders said he was hopeful that any interest rate hike by the central bank would be a “sustainable increase.”

Bank Negara maintained its overnight policy rate in September at 3.25%.

The NREC was organised by the Royal Institution of Surveyors Malaysia and the Association of Valuers, Property Managers, Estate Agents and Property Consultants in the Private Sector, Malaysia.

The event highlighted major concerns for the future of the real estate industry in Malaysia during the current economic period.

BY EUGENE MAHALINGAM

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Ma'sian immigration blacklists: PTPTN loan defaulters among 1.14 mil barred from travels

PUTRAJAYA: A wide net has been cast on those barred from leaving the country by the Immigration Department.

And it is not just tax offenders and those with criminal records who face a rude shock at border checkpoints or at the airport.

The latest figures show some 85,000 National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) beneficiaries who did not repay their loans on the department’s travel blacklist.

They are among 1.14 million people on the list which includes 701,266 Malaysians.

The department has advised Malaysians to check their Immigration status prior to making holiday plans overseas to avoid problems.

“It is the responsibility of the traveller to first check if they are cleared to leave the country.

“It doesn’t matter if you are planning to leave by flight, road, rail or sea.

“As long as you are on the blacklist, you will not be allowed to pass the Immigration checkpoint, even if you have a valid flight ticket,” Immigration security and passport division director Ibrahim Abdullah told The Star.

As of Sept 3, the department’s overseas travel restriction orders included those who have been declared with outstanding debt issues. There were 277,693 such Malaysians named by the Insolvency Department.

Malaysians who have violated a foreign country’s immigration laws, such as by overstaying or abusing their travel visas, are also not spared.

Ibrahim said the countries concerned may bar the defaulters from re-entering the country and this information would be shared with the local Immigration department, such as Malaysia’s, which would then put the defaulter on a watchlist.

A total of 32,516 Malaysians were in this category for having overstayed in another country, alongside 115,803 foreigners who have similarly overstayed in Malaysia and are now barred from leaving the country.

“If any Malaysians on the watchlist try to leave the country, they will be stopped and taken in for an interrogation until it is satisfied that they will not commit the same act in another country again,” said Ibrahim.

Stubborn tax defaulters make up a sizeable group on the travel blacklist, with 135,111 persons named by the Inland Revenue Board.

The Star has reported on Aug 26 that defaulters will not be allowed to travel abroad until they have settled their tax obligations.

The treatment will be the same for those with outstanding issues with the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), such as those who failed to file their EPF contributions. There were 10,219 Malaysians and 532 foreigners listed under this category.

Another 133,314 non-citizens have been barred from leaving the country for having their citizenship revoked or application rejected by the National Registration Depart­ment.

This is on top of 88,830 foreigners who had entered the country illegally and have been classified under the Immigration’s Kes Tanpa Izin.

An unusual cluster of 210 Malaysians were also placed under this category which, according to Ibrahim, had referred to those who have been identified by the Home Ministry as having been involved in activities involving illegal foreign workers.

Several other categories were criminally-linked, including those under police observation (15,699 cases) and for drug-related charges (7,673 cases) or crime (5,090 cases).

There were also 4,953 Malaysians barred from overseas travel for violating Customs regulations.

To find out if you are barred from travelling abroad, one needs only to enter the MyKad number on the department’s travel status check portal at http://sspi2.imi.gov.my/

“If they have been barred, they must be present in person at the nearest Immigration passport and security division, where they will be told why they are not allowed to leave.

“This is to avoid identity abuse by a third party as we do not want private information to be divulged to an impostor,” Ibrahim said.

Almost 85,000 PTPTN study loan defaulters barred from leaving Malaysia

PETALING JAYA: Almost 85,000 National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) recipients have been barred from leaving the country to date.

PTPTN chief executive officer Agos Cholan said the corporation had to resort to barring the defaulters from leaving because they had been ignoring repeated reminders to repay their loans.

He said the corporation would send borrowers a reminder to begin repaying their loans six months after graduation.

“If there is no payment after two months, the first notice would be sent,” he said.

This, he added, is followed subsequently by a second and third notice if there was still no repayment.

Agos said after this, the corporation would send a legal notice and subsequently blacklist the borrowers.

To lift the travel ban, Agos said they would need to make some payment immediately, depending on their income.

“They would also need to sign papers committing to pay monthly instalments and arrange for a bank’s standing instruction or salary deductions. Restructuring is allowed if they wish to vary instalment amount,” he said.

Agos said the number had reduced from some 130,000 in 2007 who were barred.

Since Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s announcement that borrowers could expect a 20% discount if they repay their loans in full by March 31 next year, Agos said there had been a few enquiries on the dates.

Najib, when tabling Budget 2015 last Friday, said borrowers who were unable to do so could still get a 10% off their loans if they made continuous payments for 12 months until Dec 31, 2015.

Borrowers were given similar discounts under the Budget 2013.

The travel ban is also imposed on 277,693 Malaysians listed under the Insolvency Department for failing to settle their debts.

Tax defaulters are also on the blacklist, with 135,111 persons named by the Inland Revenue Board.

Another 32,516 Malaysians who have violated laws in foreign countries, including overstaying, have also been barred from leaving the country.

Also blacklisted are 115,803 foreigners who have overstayed in Malaysia.

Immigration's security and passport division director Ibrahim Abdullah told The Star that as long as a person was on the blacklist, they would not be allowed to pass the Immigration checkpoint, even if they have a valid flight ticket.

"It doesn't matter if you are planning to leave by flight, rail, road or sea," he told The Star.

The report added that the travel ban will also be imposed on those with outstanding Employees Provident Fund issues, including those who had failed to file their EPF contributions. A total of 10,219 Malaysians and 532 foreigners are listed under this category.

Meanwhile, The Star also reported PTPTN chief executive officer Agos Cholan as saying that they had to resort to barring the study loan defaulters from leaving the country as they had ignored repeated reminders to repay their loans.

Agos had also reportedly said that to lift the travel ban, defaulters would need to make some payment immediately, with the amount determined by their income. – October 14, 2014.

Source: The Star/Asia News Network

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Migrant wives kept like slaves by Aussies

By GLENDA KWEK

 

Looking out for them: Case worker and former child bride Eman Sharobeem says victims are reluctant to pursue justice through legal means. - AFP

Unhappily married - In Australia, migrant wives in abusive marriages are all the more vulnerable as they are dependent on their husbands. 

KANYA thought she was starting a new life in Australia after arriving from India to marry her husband, but it quickly turned into a nightmare.

She was barred from going out on her own, forced to cook and clean for her partner’s family, and made to sleep outdoors if she did not complete her tasks.

The fate of the 18-year-old, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, mirrors that of others in “slave-like” relationships that Salvation Army worker Jenny Stanger has taken in at a Sydney refuge for trafficked people in recent years.

The women came to Australia under the promise of a happy marriage, only to be exploited by their partners.

“It’s an absolute deception on the part of the perpetrator,” said Stanger of a problem involving nearly a quarter of her safehouse’s residents. Immigration figures show women in such situations come from China, India, the Philippines and Vietnam among others.

“Marriage was the tool that was used to exploit the women for profit, gain or personal advantage.”

“In a typical case, the migrant wife would face extreme isolation, extreme denial of their basic rights around freedom of movement, possibly an exploitation of their labour ... and being denied money,” she said.

Getting a sense of how many marriage visas under Australia’s partner migration programme are used to bring women in for exploitation is difficult. Social workers say victims are often deliberately isolated and threatened if they seek help.

Researcher Samantha Lyneham, co-author of the first Australian study looking into the exploitation of women through migrant relationships beyond forced marriages, said the reluctance of victims to report crimes was a problem – such is their dependence on their abusers.

Lyneham said the fear of being deported, which stemmed from the “precarious immigration status” the women faced, was a key barrier, along with language and also mistrust of police after bad experiences in their home countries.

An inaugural Global Slavery Index published by the Walk Free Foundation in October said roughly 30 million people were living in modern-day slavery, of whom up to 3,300 were in Australia.

Lyneham’s new Australian Institute of Criminology report recorded the experiences of eight female victims – including Kanya – aged 18 to 49, mostly from South-East Asia, but also the Pacific, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

They found that while some women moved to Australia on marriage visas in search of economic opportunities, others did so for love and to start a family.

All the women had consented to their marriages, having met their spouses through arranged situations, family links, online dating sites and chance encounters. Seven of the women said they married their husbands outside Australia.

Case workers said the husbands – half of whom were from the same countries of origin as the women – were most likely to be dual-citizens.

One woman told of how her husband would lock her out of the house at night. “I would have to stay in the tree overnight,” she said.

Others told of sexual violence and coerced pregnancies, according to the report. The women said their passports were taken and they were blocked from using telephones or having access to money.

Clandestine crime

Lyneham said although the interviews showed cases had been “happening for some time”, it was also clear when she raised the issue with authorities that some were not aware of it.

“It’s a clandestine type of crime that people mistake for domestic violence,” Lyneham said.

The use of domestic violence laws to address cases highlights the difficulties in identifying and prosecuting such crimes, which cut across legislation separately targeting human trafficking, slavery and domestic abuse.

Official Australian data between July 2001 and June 2011 showed 337,127 people were granted partner migration visas, with Britain, China and India the most common countries of origin.

Between July 2006 and Dec 2011, 3,654 people on the visas obtained protection under the Family Violence Provision.

This allows them to apply for permanent residency if they or a family member are subjected to violence. About 12% came from China, 10% from the Philippines and 8% from Vietnam. Others came from India, Britain, Thailand and Fiji.

Lyneham said while the numbers appeared low, previous research showed under-reporting, particularly in migrant communities.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott in June announced more than A$100mil (RM298mil) to fight domestic violence, and vowed a “particular focus” on women from culturally diverse and indigenous backgrounds.

Forced marriages were criminalised and laws against forced labour were strengthened in 2013.

Case worker Eman Sharobeem, a former child bride who was abused during her marriage, said some women who approached her for help were not comfortable pursuing their husbands through the legal system.

While she worked with politicians to help formulate the 2013 laws, what “we are really interested in is educating the community more than just having a law to guide them”.

Her views are echoed by Salvation Army worker Stanger, who praised the legislation but added: “They (victims) are looking for a way out, so ... the more doors we can open, the more likely someone is going to step through that door.” – AFP

Unhappily Married



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