Population growth and economic cycles can affect purchasing decisions.

WHERE is a good place to buy property? When is the best time to obtain one? The answers to these questions are within issues of location and timing in the real estate industry.

Ho Chin Soon Research Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Ishmael Ho shared that population growth is a good indication for economic activity and prosperity for the location of a region. With major capital cities pulling population from rural regions and smaller towns, they are becoming bigger and transforming into megacities.

Based on historical precedent, property prices can rise and fall over different yearly periods. Ho illustrates property cycles by indicating that property prices can fluctuate in his book titled Location, Timing & Branding 2.0.

The book’s real strengths include historical comparisons of various locations and events, citations of various property developments and developers, studies of transportation infrastructure such as the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail, and speculations of future developments such as the alignment of the MRT Circle Line.

General readers should be able to relate to various issues such as location, timing and branding, because these issues are important to them, as they search for properties for their own use or for investment. By being empowered with the knowledge of various issues and events, readers should be able to gain the skills to interpret how such developments affect property markets.

While the book is very informative, serving as a reliable reference for readers with interest on the Malaysian property market, particularly on locations and branding, there is some room for the book’s improvement. Pictures are worth a thousand words and in the book’s case, it is packed with a lot of pictures. There should be a balance between written and visual content for ease of reading.

However, this book is worth obtaining because it imparts knowledge on location and timing for properties, and these are some of the most important issues that affect stakeholders in the property market.

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