Indonesian Investor Disappointed With Local Banks in Malaysia

Indonesian Investor Disappointed With Local Banks

By Mohd Haikal Isa

JOHOR BAHARU, Nov 2 (Bernama) -- An Indonesian investor who has invested significantly to buy four units of properties in two strategic locations in Johor Baharu, says he is changing his plans to invest millions of ringgit here, claiming he faced too many problems with the local banks here.

The investor's representative, Zufri Kaharuddin Mohd Nazir, 41, said the Indonesian investor, currently based in Singapore faced difficulties getting loans from banks here to proceed with his investment plans, although he had paid in cash RM460,000 to a local property company.

The money was the deposit for the said properties, valued at RM4.7 million.

"Since having signed the sale and purchase agreement late last year, the investor has approached almost all the local banks and it has been a dead-end for him. The banks have put up various reasons for refusing him the loan, such as being a foreign citizen, not having any achievement record and without monthly income," Zufri told Bernama here recently.

Zufri said the large amount of cash paid as deposit for the properties was already sufficient proof of the investor's financial standing to pay back any future bank loan.

The investor, who had requested for anonymity due to business reasons, is said to currently own a portfolio of real estate investments covering property assets in Germany, London, Indonesia and Singapore.

Zufri, who is a local businessman, claimed that among the properties owned by the investor included seven condominiums in Singapore worth more than SG$1 million each.

"The investor is among an elite group of Indonesians who took the decision to transfer their wealth to Singapore from Indonesia amid the unsteady economic and political climate in Indonesia during the late 90s and early 2000.

"Due to his standing as a property investor and his strong financial background, Singapore authorities accorded him permanent resident status," he further said.

As for his investment in Johor, Zufri said if the property sale and purchase agreement had been completed, the investor had intended to build a hotel close to the Hospital Sultan Ismail (HSI) to cater to relations of local patients admitted in the hospital as well as visiting Indonesians seeking treatment at the hospital.

He also planned to build a showroom for a popular car brand at one of the tourist spots here,

"But with the experience he has had with local banks, he has given up. He now wants to withdraw his investment plans here and focus on other countries," he said.

He also alleged that the investor in the beginning had been given the assurance that it would be easy and he would have no problem getting a loan from the local bank when he initiated the move to buy the property.

But the loan issue has yet to be resolved and the investor is in fear of losing his deposit as well, he said.

-- BERNAMA