Even though the financial crisis is affecting the western world quite seriously but it seems that Asia wasn’t hit that hard. Housing prices in some major Asian cities has been increasing pretty dramatically for the past 2 years, especially cities in China and South East Asia.

Noticed that there are a lot of constructions for residential properties in Penang currently and housing prices has increased quite a lot even during recession for the past 2 years.

Guess probably this might be caused by the MM2H program. Malaysian government is promoting the Malaysia my second home program, MM2H which allows foreigners to get 10 year long term visa to stay in the country.
MM2H Requirement
Property and Incentives

However, property prices in Penang is still cheaper than properties on other cities built on island such as Hainan, Hong Kong and Singapore so there might still be room for appreciation.

Hiking is a common pastime for Penangites. View of the northern part of Penang on a hill.

Today is the last day of Chinese New Year, day 15th. It’s called ChapGohMeh in MinNan/Hokkien dialect.

This also coincides with the Chinese Valentine’s day where single girls throw oranges in the water hoping to get some luck in marriage.