Foreign Land Deals-Silly Risk Taking?

Investing in land is a very good move towards developing a nest-egg. Remember, location of your land is very important if it is to appreciate in value.

Strangely, many Malaysians have invested much of their hard-earn money in overseas property from USA, Australia,UK to Canada.

There were a number of issues with regard to these overseas land investment. Some people are of the view that this type of investment is illegal and disallowed by Bank Negara Malaysia. A few years back, a local company dealing with UK land was in the lime-light. This land investment was advertised widely on Malaysian radio stations then but I do not know whether the issues were amicably resolved with BNM.

Buying land overseas is very risky. You do not know the laws in that foreign country. You can likely fell prey to sundry risks from illegal activities to misrepresentation. There are loop-holes just like what Edgeworth took advantage of, for their own nefarious leverage purposes or even those that constitute downright cheating of the gullible.

In many overseas land sales, foreign buyers have been duped to buy non-residential or commercial land with the most remote hope that it will be converted in due time. Sadly, not all such lands may be allowed to be converted and may be land to be reserved for 'green lungs'. After all, agents are just interested in their commision and not in after-sales service. They convince you to get your sale in grand style by giving you a hard talk,lunch at a 5-star restaurant as well as complimentary shopping vouchers. So, caveat emptor when approached by any such agents.You may just be the 'sucker' that they are waiting for!

When I read about the plight of Malaysians who fell prey to the Canadian land scheme sold through Edgeworth Properties, I remembered all too clearly my experience with one such company a few years back.

I do not know about anyone getting super returns from their risky investments but my investment forays overseas have been bitter sweet,at best. My investment in an overseas insurance policy in an off-shore facility was disappointing and that pertaining to an Australian scholarship trust was really not worth the while.

A friend of mine who invested in a piece of land in Florida had so much anxiety woes that he visited the land physically in the USA and seeing that there was no' safety net' in the investment, he sold it. Thank God, he did it before the sub-prime fiasco.

Some people are really gutsy. Investing RM750,000 in parcels of land overseas through dubious companies and agents.They dared to invest in the 'unknown' overseas and yet not invest in blue chips on Bursa KL or land in their back yard in Malaysia.These are definitely less risky, for sure!

I wonder why the so called investors are attracted to the remote, 'potential gains' from such land purchase overseas?

Gullibility, again, financial adventurism or just plain silly greed.

Return to Sender

It has been a long time coming.The payments finally ended!

I started investing in the Australian Scholarship Fund when my daughter was 2 years old in 1992. The guy who introduced the scheme to me was one smooth operator. He promised me the sun and the moon just to get his commission. Being oblivious of downsides, I agreed to subscribe to the fund.

It started innocently with paying a mere initial AUD40 which silly me thought is well within my means. Never did I know that it will move up from year to year. My last payment was AUD150. Then there was the foreign exchange losses and the drop in Australian interest rates that made the fund too small to eke out a reasonable scholarship quantum to support even 18 months of tertiary education (which has inflated crazily upwards)

If I had put the money into a property, it could have given me much more in returns by now. Too bad, poor choice of investment. Gotta live with it.

So next time, if you should be approached by such smooth-talking snake oil sales people, keep away from them. Investing in Bursa shares now is much less risky!