According to the NGOs, price manipulation, market monopoly and evictions of generation-old tenants in Penang are posing a huge threat to Georgetown, the UNESCO heritage site.
The speculators were said to have manipulated the price through public auctions and other means. The pre-war shophouses located in Georgetown were auctioned off for RM1.2 million, when it supposedly cost around RM400,000 to RM600,000.
This situation has encouraged foreigners, especially Singaporeans keen to invest, which might jeopardize the heritage site.
Recently, the heir of 12 pre-war shophouses offered his houses to his long-term tenants for RM300,000 each. But none of them were willing to pay that much due to affordability issues.
So the houses were sold to an outsider for RM400,000 each. Later on, a public listed Singaporean firm bought over the entire row consisting of 12 shophouses for RM11 million (about RM910,000 each).
Image: Sourced from davidwhitworth.me
These shophouses were only rented out for RM1,300 previously. But now the refurbished shophouses are being rented out at between RM7,000 and RM10,000 each, which is about a 500% hike in rental.
In such cases, the most affected people are the old tenants who were evicted from the place they have lived their entire life. There are a number of homeless people in the city who were evicted and now live on the streets in their old age.
The George Town Heritage Action is now lobbying for state laws to prevent heritage property owners from raising rentals by a huge percentage. With this, the Penang Heritage Trust advisor emphasized that it is now the public’s duty to alert UNESCO to include Georgetown in the World Heritage danger list.
Featured Image: Sourced from The Edge
Mangalesri Chandrasekaran, Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email mangales@propertyguru.com.my
