Category: Enterprise

Renting vs buying is one of the hottest topics around town. This is for those who can’t decide whether to purchase a house in 2023 or keep renting until you can afford a home!

Purchasing your own home or property is one of the biggest achievements in life. The concept of putting a big amount of money into such an asset is overwhelming, and it is something that requires careful consideration.

Economists anticipate a contraction in the global economy in 2023, although most economies worldwide have largely returned to normal operations since the COVID-19 epidemic.

It’s also important to consider the costs associated with purchasing a home, which include mortgage payments, stamp duty, legal fees, valuation fees, mortgage insurance (MRTA), and real estate agent fees.

Yet, on the other hand, like most Malaysian millennials, you are probably sick of paying a sizable portion of your monthly rental income. And wouldn’t it be lovely to own your home, which could lead to a future period of strong capital growth?

Read: Is Malaysia Property Still Worth To Invest In?

Nonetheless, there are several grey areas in the renting vs buying decision. In the end, everything relies on the situation and future goals of the individual.

Did you know that based on the recent findings by National Property Information Centre (NAPIC), Malaysia’s median house price is RM320,000? But as you can see from the photo below, there is a huge median price difference across states in Malaysia.

According to NAPIC, the median home price in Malaysia in 2022 was RM320,000, up from RM305,000 in 2021. However, it fell to RM295,000 in Q1. The most expensive states to own a home in are Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur, and Selangor, but this price differs. The median home price in Kedah and Melaka is RM220,000, which is half that of Kuala Lumpur.

Does it also depend on your location and whether you should rent or buy a house? There is no accurate answer to that. It all depends on you.

Yes! Every one of you has different life commitments, needs, and others.

Read: Do You Have The Patience To Make Money In Property?

Renting Vs Buying: Is Owning a Home Cheaper Than Renting?

We’ll use a renting vs buying calculator to estimate how much renting versus buying will cost.

Consider that you have decided to purchase a condominium at Setia Alam in Selangor for RM560,000. You will need to pay

• 10% upfront as a down payment
• 4% as a closing fee (legal fees, stamp duty and valuation fees)
• 3% Home Insurance
• Monthly payments of about RM2,500
• RM250 maintenance fee

The following are used to compute this:

• 10% down payment
• 4.25% interest rate
• 30-year loan term.

In contrast, the identical unit will cost you RM2,100 monthly to rent. You must pay the following before committing: RM5,750 as a down payment (equivalent to 2.5 monthly rent)

The renting vs buying Calculator makes the following assumptions:

• Property values grow by 2% year over year.
• Rental rates for the same properties increase at a 2% YoY rate.
• 4.0% as an investment yield (the percentage of annual earnings from investment in FD, stocks etc.)

Renting VS Buying: Cost

After 6 years, your total cost of homeownership (down payment, mortgage, taxes, etc.) for an RM560,000 home in Malaysia would be RM829,577. Renting leaves you with RM616,246 in your pocket (including the money you didn’t spend on a down payment).

Renting VS Buying: Gain

After 6 years, if you buy, your home will have RM181,393 in equity (available to you when you sell). However, if you instead rent and invest your down payment and the other money you save, at a 4% return rate, it will earn around RM17,602 in 6 years.

Looking at your gross costs, equity and investment potential, buying is better for you to buy than renting if you plan to live in your home for more than 6 years.

As a result, it is better for you to only invest in a property that you are positive will meet your and your family’s needs over the long run. Dont forget about RPGT!  It must also be considered by buyers who intend to upgrade in 5 years or fewer.

Remember that this is only an example for us to understand and see the whole picture. Prices for buying and renting property can vary significantly depending on the type of dwelling, the age of the property, and the location.

There are many other factors in deciding whether buying or renting is better for you. However, one of the easiest and fastest ways to do it is by using a renting vs buying calculator.

You should experiment with the renting vs buying calculator to determine whether buying your property right now makes sense.

In conclusion, the decision to rent or buy property in Malaysia ultimately comes down to one’s circumstances, financial status, and market trends. For those not yet ready to make a long-term commitment or who need flexibility, renting may be a better option.

On the other hand, buying a property may be a better choice for those looking for stability and long-term investment. It is important to consider all factors and make an informed decision based on needs and circumstances.

Read: How To Save 50% Of Your Housing Loan Interest In Half The Time, And Get Your Dream Car For Free

Bintang Capital Partners Berhad (“Bintang” or the “Firm”) announced its second investment under its maiden fund, BCP Asia Fund I L.P., into Involve Asia Technologies Sdn. Bhd. (“Involve Asia” or the “Company”) to support the Company’s expansion across Southeast Asia and Australasia, as well as the development of a new product suite to cater to its customers’ increasing digital marketing needs.

Involve Asia is a Malaysian-based marketing technology company that operates a performance-based marketing technology platform, providing a single platform to help brands market digitally through advertising attribution, partner workflow management, and creative distribution. Involve Asia partners with content creators, influencers, developers, and affiliate partners worldwide. The platform tracks and manages returns on these digital marketing partnerships for global brands. The Company operates in 6 countries, catering to over 500 brands and over 4,000 offers with more than 400,000 affiliate partners on its platform, driving over USD1.5 billion in transactions since its inception in 2014.

The USD10 million investment round was led by Bintang, and supported by co-investors Orbit Capital Malaysia, 500 Global, and Monumental Productions. Fundraising proceeds will be utilised to fuel the Company’s recent expansion into Vietnam and the Philippines, as well as to continue cementing its footprint across Southeast Asia and Australasia. Involve Asia also plans to put part of the proceeds to use in catalysing its in-house development of a new product suite. This intends to meet the demands and needs of clients with a solution to track and attribute their business in the global online commerce industry. Amongst these include creating an in-house business intelligence team to provide its stakeholders with detailed insights into consumer purchasing patterns and developing a novel content management system for its marketing partners to manage their multi-channel promotions on a single platform.

Bintang’s investment into growing the Company’s burgeoning Southeast Asian presence underscores the Firm’s belief that the long-term prospects in Southeast Asia continue to outweigh growing uncertainty and global headwinds. A growing working population and expanding upper-middle class underline the strong demographic trends that fortifies Southeast Asia’s position as an appealing consumer market and attractive investment destination.

The investment in the Company was driven by the extraordinary shift in Southeast Asian consumer behaviour towards digital consumption, with more than 80% of Southeast Asian consumers expected to have transacted online by the end of 2022. Bintang believes that the increasing internet and mobile penetration in Southeast Asia would also provide significant long-term opportunities for value creation on a regional scale.

“Bintang believes that Involve Asia is well-positioned within Southeast Asia’s fast-growing and rapidly transforming digital marketing and digital commerce space. Its’ highly innovative business model also has great potential to catalyse positive social impact by providing opportunities for individuals and small-to-medium-sized marketing companies to harness their networks by partnering with global brands,” said Bintang’s Founder, Johan Rozali-Wathooth. With that, Johan adds, “Bintang believes that this can create new jobs and provide economic uplift opportunities for individuals in the process. These aspirations are very much aligned to Bintang’s philosophy of ‘Investing in Impact and Innovation.’”

Jimmy How, CEO of Involve Asia shared, “The team is thrilled to join forces with Bintang, Orbit Capital Malaysia, and Monumental Productions, and fortifying our partnership with 500 Global further. These partnerships and their long-term backing allows us to continue growing our platform to better serve brands, publishers, and affiliates, as well as to double down on growth.” He adds, “After closing 2022 with a record revenue of RM90 million, we’re confident this momentum will make 2023 a really significant year for Involve.”

About Bintang

Bintang is the private equity arm of AHAM Asset Management Berhad (“AHAM”), a leading independent Malaysian asset management group. Bintang further benefits from a parentage that includes leading global investment managers including CVC Capital Partners and Nikko Asset Management.

Bintang focuses on deploying capital into fast-growing mid-sized ASEAN companies with proven track records: we back visionary entrepreneurs who are aligned to Bintang’s twin core investment philosophies of Innovation and Impact. Bintang is a signatory to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investing (“UN PRI”). The Firm is also the first Malaysian signatory to the Operating Principles for Impact Management (“the Impact Principles”), an initiative whose development was led by the International Finance Corporation (“IFC”), a member of the World Bank Group.

The Firm’s maiden fund, BCP Asia Fund I (“BCPAF I”) is anchored by Dana Penjana Nasional, an investment fund under the Malaysian Government’s Ministry of Finance aimed at catalysing the country’s post Covid-19 economic recovery whilst supporting the local private capital industry.

BCPAF I invests in high performance, high impact and high innovation companies who are well-placed to meet the challenges, opportunities and disruption brought about by rapid advancements in technology, as well as who are committed towards delivering impact from environmental, community, employee, customer and governance perspectives.

Further information about Bintang is available at www.bintangcapitalpartners.com.

About Involve Asia

Involve Asia is a global marketing technology company that provides a platform for advertisers to measure, manage and scale their marketing partnerships by automating workflows and providing attribution to marketing campaigns. Using its proprietary cookie-less tracking technology for highly accurate, future-proofed digital marketing.

Involve has tracked over USD1.5 billion in transactions for multinationals such as Lazada, Shopee, Grab, Marriott, Malaysia Airlines, Air Asia, Nike, Citibank and over 500 customers across E-commerce, Travel, Finance and Services sectors.

Founded in 2014, Involve Asia has been backed by major venture capital firms such as 500 Global, OSK Technology Ventures, and Cradle Seed Ventures and has an established presence across Asia with offices in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

60 hawkers from Hulu Langat, Selangor joined the latest session of the Selangor Micro Hawkers Development Training Programme held on 27 January to gain digitalisation skills organised by Platform Selangor (PLATS).

A total of 708 hawkers from across Selangor’s 12 districts have been trained about the impact of digitalisation on the economy by Platform Selangor (PLATS) since August 2022.

PLATS is an initiative of Permodalan Negeri Selangor Berhad  (PNSB) and Menteri Besar Selangor Incorporated (MBI), and arranging the training is a proactive step by the state to help citizens elevate their business through a digital community platform. It aims to mobilise the merchants, hawkers and grocers.

The half-day long training – typically conducted with local partners including Maybank, OCBC and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) – counsels these vendors about the benefits of digitalisation to their business.

To date, it has benefited individuals from the Selangor Micro Hawker Development Training Programme from Kuala Selangor (80), Subang Jaya (100), 109 individuals from the Kajang programme, and 177 people from the Shah Alam branch. All individuals have received certificates from PLATS to help boost their business.

In its most recent session, around 50 people from the Kuala Langat Micro Hawker Development Training Programme were involved. In the near future, more trainings will be held in Majlis Perbandaran Klang (MPK), Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya (MBPJ) and Majlis Perbandaran Selayang (MPS).

“PLATS helps provide a platform for these individuals to grow and move towards the digital world. In doing so, we are confident that these merchants, hawkers and grocers can be more sustainable in the future,” said Y.M. Raja Ahmad Shahrir Iskandar bin Raja Salim, Chief Executive Officer of PNSB.

He adds that the training programme serves as a foundation for these small business owners to learn – hard skills as well as soft skills – and is the best avenue for them to raise questions in their quest to gain clearer knowledge about digitalisation.

PLATS’ training comprises topics of managing social media accounts, basic editing of social media posts, management process of online orders, adaptation of Cashless Transactions, basic digitalisation of business, and an introduction to PLATS. There are 12 sections during training and attendees gain awareness and information on their journey towards the modernisation of the economy.

Y.M. Raja Ahmad Shahrir Iskandar emphasised that PLATS prioritises the growth of merchants and grocers in the state. In future, he said, the programme targets to improve its website: to make it easier and more convenient for merchants and users, as well as trainers and speakers for the training.

About PLATS

Platform Selangor – PLATS – is the initiative of the Selangor State Government to support and promote the businesses of hawkers and other small merchants. This digital directory of merchants was mooted in 2020 with the launch of the PLATS e-bazaar, Malaysia’s first ever digitalised Ramadan bazaar.  Following this, the PLATS 2.0 efforts in 2022 has seen it become Selangor’s digitalisation platform catalyst for small business owners. 

For more information on PLATS, visit the website at www.platselangor.com

About Permodalan Negeri Selangor Berhad – PNSB (www.pnsb.com.my)

Permodalan Negeri Selangor Berhad, or as it is more widely known, PNSB is a Selangor State Government subsidiary, under the supervision of Menteri Besar Selangor (Incorporated) or MBI.  As a subsidiary organisation of the Selangor state government, PNSB focuses on real estate development as its core business, developing residential and commercial property as well as housing estate and townships that are sustainable and affordable in Selangor and the Klang Valley.

Through its subsidiary, PNSB offers insurance service via PNSB Insurance Brokers Sdn. Bhd. (PIBSB), project management consultancy services via PNSB Management Consultancy Sdn. Bhd. (PMC), mining activity through PNSB Trading Sdn Bhd (PTSB) and aeronautical exploration services via PNSB Aero Frontier Sdn Bhd. With its mission to diversify its business, PNSB also intends to seek opportunities to work with investors through its subsidiary, PNSB Investment Venture Sdn. Bhd. (PIV).

PNSB also plays a vital role in carrying out corporate social responsibility obligations as it is a government subsidiary with conscience taking an active role in corporate social responsibility (CSR) on behalf of the Selangor state government and as well as for PNSB itself.

About MBI

Menteri Besar Selangor (Incorporation) was established under the Selangor Menteri Besar Enactment (Enactment No: 3 1994) on 21 September 1994. MBI Selangor is a body established specifically to administer the management of assets and investments belonging to the State Government in carrying out activities business that is outside the jurisdiction of the State Government. MBI also plays a role in promoting and supporting the development efforts of the State of Selangor in addition to fulfill social responsibility obligations to the community For more information on MBI, visit the website at https://www.mbiselangor.com/ms/

Mr. Jake Yamashita, President and CEO of RICOH, paid a visit to RICOH Malaysia’s newly renovated headquarters in Shah Alam today. This marks a number of milestones for the company, including Ricoh’s smart office transformation, which has catapulted the company into a new era of digitalization, as well as Yamashita’s first visit to Malaysia from Japan. To acknowledge this gracious occasion, RICOH Malaysia held an exclusive roundtable discussion for the media to highlight the importance of digitalisation and Environment, Social and Governance in the workplace.

Accompanying Jake on the panel was Joji Takunaga, Managing Director of Ricoh – Asia Pacific + Latin America and Steven Burger, General manager of Ricoh – Asia Pacific + Latin America. The afternoon was addressed by Alice Lee, Managing Director of Ricoh (M) Sdn Bhd.

Many topics were touched during the panel discussion which included Ricoh’s new approach to the ever-changing world which is to assist businesses make a seamless digital transformation towards their goals in achieving genuine ESG. 

Jake’s visit to Malaysia is intended to address several issues that RICOH and the majority of companies globally are facing – the need for digital transformation. RICOH Graphic Communications, RICOH Industrial Solutions, and RICOH Futures are all important players in the digitalization of workplaces, because these business sectors frequently engage in advanced technological and conceptual areas.

Jake claims that many people associate Ricoh with copiers or the environment. He stated that he appreciates this because it demonstrates the collaborative efforts of RICOH management and employees over the years. Since 1998, RICOH has advocated environmental management, and its cumulative efforts in a progressive approach to environmental, social, governance (ESG) have been the reason customers and dealers worldwide choose RICOH as their preferred partner. Because of this, RICOH refers to ESG as future finance.

The adoption of digital technologies and their potential to influence ESG priorities are becoming increasingly convergent. Improved data collection, reporting, and analysis will have the biggest impact right away and will benefit every part of the business. Additionally, finance and treasury organisations are adopting next-generation technology, including cloud infrastructure, robotics for shared service centre operations, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and blockchain to digitise supply chains. They are also deploying new data and collaboration tools to achieve important objectives like regulatory compliance, data protection, workforce productivity, and much more.

The secret to effectively using digital technology as an ESG enabler is to ensure that a comprehensive strategy is in place with collaboration across an ecosystem of partners, including businesses, governments, banks, multilateral organisations, and other third-party providers, who can offer solutions and share information in pursuit of important goals.

“When we decided to become a digital services company focused on the world of work, some people wondered if we were abandoning our manufacturing roots. Some businesses have undoubtedly adopted a strategy of outsourcing hardware production and focusing on services. Our approach, on the other hand, is to collaborate with customers. Edge devices are critical to achieving our objectives,” Jake explained.

People generate a wide variety of data at work. It is crucial to extract the required and important data from the massive volumes that are produced. The effectiveness of analysis and artificial intelligence-based work is increased by high-quality data. Jake continued, “It will be challenging to create an ecosystem where data can add value. Even if you build a great platform, without good edge devices, you will only get meaningless information. This is where the RICOH Smart Integration co-creation platform comes into play.

Jake believes that people must be innovative, generate useful ideas, and broaden their perspectives because they are at the centre of all work processes. It is essential to make artificial intelligence, systems and networks, and other digital platforms more approachable, accessible and user-friendly for people because they are analogue beings living in a world that is becoming more and more digital. “I think the Ricoh Group can pull this off”. Although AI and other machines have historically had limited capabilities, Jake suggested that as they have advanced quickly, the possibilities have greatly increased too.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) was implemented by RICOH in 2018. They started re-evaluating the duties that employees should carry out as they overhauled their business processes. Consider the possibility that one business process can be automated by a single robot. Will the other 50 workers be idle if 70 robots and 50 employees can complete the work that 100 people previously handled? Should we be pleased that we can reduce labour costs by half?

“No. We should be delighted to have freed those people up to take on new and creative work. We should invest in educating and reskilling these people accordingly”, affirmed Jake.

“I would be thrilled if customers were to realize that Ricoh is always there for them, willing to assist them with their work needs. Of course, we take pride in the fact that we have always supported our clients, and we intend to keep doing so while harnessing the power of digital technology to address their issues and remain accessible to them, assisting them with digital transformation and their advancement towards their ESG practices. We will make an effort to focus all investments, development of human resources, and management decisions on achieving that objective, and we will keep working to provide top-notch goods and services.

We are boldly taking on new challenges with our eyes fixed on the opportunities that lie ahead precisely because we are all generally going through a difficult time. The Ricoh Group will keep working to achieve Fulfilment through Work so that our stakeholders will continue to hold high expectations for our efforts”, Jake concluded.

About Ricoh

Ricoh is empowering digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services that enable individuals to work smarter from anywhere. With cultivated knowledge and organizational capabilities nurtured over its 85-years history, Ricoh is a leading provider of digital services, information management, and print and imaging solutions designed to support digital transformation and optimize business performance.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group has major operations throughout the world and its products and services now reach customers in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ended March 2022, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 1,758 billion yen (approx. 14.5 billion USD).

For further information, please visit www.ricoh.com