Rising Property Prices. Guess who else is to blame?

We have been going through a really tough period in which property prices are so unrealistic that young people like me can only dream to own a property within the next 10 years. I was reading an article in some news channel (I forgot which news channel it is), and there was an ugly looking wooden shack which is listed for 1 million Australian Dollars in the Sydney city center. When a wooden shack is listed for 1 million dollars there is something extremely wrong with the economy. Dont give me crap that property is all about supply & demand anymore because it is not. These days property is determine by demand, supply as well as speculation.

The government & the central banks of the world should've done a lot more before we came to this level. They should've charged high property taxes for foreign investors, make second home buyers pay higher deposit (I would make a 50% deposit requirement for any 2nd home buyer if I am a Prime Minister), build more affordable houses, apply rent control, and so much more. There is no such thing as a government could not control property prices because disrupting the supply/demand theory would be catastrophe for the economy. I really hate hearing this theory over & over again. Well, let me tell you this, with our current non intervention from the government on our property market, is it really doing that well. It looks like shit to me. The government must intervene in our economy to a certain level. Not just for property market, but on a lot of other stuff as well. What we need is more intervention and regulation. Not less intervention, deregulation & global casino economy.

Anyway, as much as I am disgusted by the fact that our government is pathetic, I also hate the fact that most of the ordinary people on the street are hypocrites. We hear constantly with people complaining about the unrealistic property prices, we demand the government to make changes, etc. But people seems to forget that they themselves are the reason why there is a bubble at the first place. I have an acquaintance who bought a property 10 - 15 years ago. Pays something like 10-20% of downpayment, rent the property to someonelse and never used a single cent to pay for his mortgages (other then the meager 10% deposit) and after 15 years, he sold the property 3 times higher then the original value. This is the thing that we dont blame enough. Why are there people out there who is so greedy. Those who have extra money are the biggest contributor to property bubble and those who are poor and dont have money (the person who complains the most), well if they have the money, they would've done it anyway. So lets not play the pity cards, because human being are all selfish and we only care about ourself. We only care about what could benefits us the most. It doesnt matter that the future younger generations (including your own sons and daughters), are struggling to the verge of bankruptcy just to pay off their mortgages. It doesnt matter what happens to their kids and younger generation, what is most important is that they can get money, money and more money.

I also feels really sick with the idea that we should buy property for investment purposes. Property should not be for investment. Property should be for people to live in. You want a safe investment go to the bank, go to pension funds, go and buy gold, play the stockmarket, whatever you want just do it. As long as you dont mess up with people's live, fine by me. I do get sick when you greedy property investors out there are making property as an investments because you want 300-400% return on your investment, something that you dont get by investing in banks or pension funds. Here again, there goes your greediness. You know, we hear a lot of complaints from the poor and middle income, that the rich are gambling with our economy, they are the one who are making inflation grows to a double digit rates, blah3. Hey I got news for you. You too are one of the greedy bitches out there. As I've said before too many middle income people and higher income people these days are investing in properties and selling it at unrealistic prices, and for the poor, they would've done it as well if they were to have the money.

So yes, I blame the government for 70% of the reason why property prices is unrealistic. But I also wanted to blame the older generations both middle income and higher income people. Because of you guys and your greediness, young people like me could not afford to buy a home. Stop blaming everybody else and save yourself from criticism. We are all apart of this disease and we all need to put a stop to it. I would like to end this article by stressing again that "Property should not be bought for the purpose of investment, it should be bought for a person to live in".

UNREALISTIC DEMAND BY EMPLOYERS

These days there are many employers who complaints that young people these days are making unrealistic demand. That is not entirely true. I am a recent fresh graduate and unemployed. Whenever I open jobstreet.com and other job advertisement websites I found that employer themselves are making unrealistic demand. I open a lot of job advertisement titled "Junior Executive" but required experience of at least 3 years. This is absurd, because anyone who have 3 years of experience should entitled to be senior already. Also, most of the job "Junior Executive" ad's which requires 3 years of experience are offering salary RM 2500 and sometimes even less. RM 2500 are among the average level of fresh graduate pay, how come you expect someone who have 3 years of experience to be paid the same level as a fresh graduate. Sometimes, even lower.

I also am dissatisfied with many big multi national companies who mostly pay RM 2500 to fresh graduate. I have a friend who work with an a SME company and yet he could make RM 2400 per month. How come big MNC could not afford to pay a little higher then RM 2500. In fact, they really should've been paid higher then that because the work load of SME and MNC are hugely different.

I really am unsatisfied with the must know Chinese policy. This is strictly racism, especially when most of the company listed on the job ads are SME with no export market at all. The majority of non Malay in Malaysia could already speak Malay(fluent or broken) therefore there is no justification for the must know Chinese policy. Some of them even went as far as typing it in capital letter and bold the words saying "Chinese speaking candidate are encouraged to apply". Chinese people must realize that if they want equality they themselves must practice equality. I am a huge supporter of meritocracy and equality in Malaysia, but when things like this happens, it really makes me have second thoughts.

Some companies went even as far as not providing any increment at all. I have some acquaintances who are working in SME's in which their company have never gave them any increment at all even after 3,4 years of working. What is even worse, one of my friend told me that when he got a new job offer and he had to inform his boss that he got an offered, his boss asked him, why does everybody works here for only a short period of time. She really have no idea why nobody want to leave her company. Well, u cant expect people to stay there when you have never provide any increment or bonuses at all.

Last but not least, I wanted to share an experience of one of my friend. She just finished her studies and receive an interview as a junior executive in KL. My friend wrote RM 2500 in the expected salary field. The company's owner who interviewed her said, that my friend is too demanding. She said that for a fresh graduate it should not be more then RM 1800. This too is a pathetic figure and this is what we called an abused of human rights. RM 2500 is not demanding. That is basic necessity for survival. We all know how tough and costly it is to live in KL. Anything below then RM 2500 is really a struggle to live in KL. Business owner makes tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousand or millions of profits yet they cannot even show a little bit of sympathy and give young people like us the basic necessity wage. Businesses have become too greedy. They expect us to do this, to do that, but they themselves dont want too pay a reasonable salary. They themselves dont want to pay increment. They themselves dont want to pay overtime payment. They expects us to be their slave. I wouldnt mind working hard at all, but as a human being, I want to be rewarded as what I am supposed to be paid. That is all what we young people want. We dont want to be treated in a wrong manner anymore.

The view written is entirely my opinion and based on real life experience by some of my acquaintances. The whole situation and scenario is happening in a country which I resides currently and in this case Malaysia.