Malaysian lawyers and loan officers to report dubious housing projects, other news

For PropertyGuru’s news roundup today, there’s a call for Malaysian lawyers and loan officers to report dubious housing projects, five charts that show why real estate in Australia is a long-term play, and five books that teach engineering lessons to children.

Lawyers, loan officers should report on dubious housing projects in Malaysia

The Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (REHDA) has called on lawyers and loan officers in Malaysia to play their part by reporting any dubious housing projects to authorities, particularly those built under the pretense of self-dwelling purposes.

In a report by iProperty Malaysia, REHDA president Datuk NK Tong said these housing projects are often offered by individuals masking as developers in the rural and suburban areas, as well as in pocket developments where the scale of the project is small and may go undetected.

5 charts show why real estate in Australia is a long-term play

When owning a property, it can be easy to focus on the short-term changes in value and forget that prices are likely to rise over many years of ownership.

In Australia, home prices have fluctuated wildly over the past few years, with values in most cities staging a surprise recovery last year after interest rate rises triggered a downturn in 2022.

The charts presented in PropTrack show that home prices have increased, regional areas have experienced stronger price growth than capital cities (with Adelaide and Brisbane experiencing outstanding growth since 2014), and houses have outperformed units over the long term.

5 children’s books that teach valuable engineering lessons

Most people think of the children’s classic “Charlotte’s Web” as a story of devoted friendship between a spider and a pig. But it can also be read as a story of a budding engineer – Charlotte – who prototypes, builds, tests, and revises her web to solve a problem.

As teacher educators, Michelle Forsythe and Julie Jackson use children’s books to make lessons about science and engineering accessible to children of all ages. In The Conversation, the two educators enumerate the five books where children can experience how engineers use design-based thinking.

The Property Report editors wrote this article. For more information, email: [email protected].