Take a look at these photos taken by a concerned Penang resident.
If you think the background of the photo above looks ominous, wait till you see what is in store for the foreground – the area presently being reclaimed near Gurney Plaza.
Then there is that eight-lane highway planned to run parallel to the entire length of the present Gurney Drive coastline:
If you think becoming like Hong Kong (minus its excellent public transport and close monitoring of hill slopes) would be great, think again. Look at the socio-economic and housing problems Hong Kongers are facing.
Some of these problems are self-inflicted. Lucrative land sales by the Hong Kong government to developers are “a de facto tax paid by common citizens buying or renting flats at sky-high prices in the private market”.
What’s more, Hong Kong’s property woes will not end until speculators from mainland China are curbed. It is the most expensive city to live in the world with people “sleeping in ‘coffin’ apartments, illegal shacks and McDonald’s restaurants“.
Meanwhile, Hong Kongers will keep emigrating if money always comes first for the city. The reasons for emigration? “The stressful lifestyle, unaffordable housing, high cost of living, lack of political freedom, and a rigid education system.”
And to think there is a whopping 7,700 acres of further land reclamation planned for Penang until 2030 even though the population is only expected to inch up from 1.7 million now to 1.9 million in 2030, according to a Statistics Department projection last year. (Already, the total fertility rate now of 1.5 children per couple is well below the population replacement rate of 2.1.)
But let’s “build, baby, build!”- never mind if most of the locals won’t be able to afford it. And to justify such massive, mindless land reclamation, the draft Penang Structure Plan 2030 has come up with an inflated population figure of close to 2.5 million by 2030.
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Meanwhile in JB, after Danga Bay, its adjacent coastlines Pantai Lido is being reclaimed (as Iskandar Waterfront Living) all the way to connect with PRC-built R&F condominiums next to the causeway to Singapore!
The primary purpose of massive reclamation is to build properties to sell to Singaporeans. After all, SingLand’s HDB flats are on 99 year lease which have depreciating value long term, so the attractiveness of Johor properties for their future generation’s appreciating investment value. Not least the lower costs of living across the Causeway, so near yet cheaper.
As of now the over supply situation is bringing property prices in JB southwards… it’s very optimistic of Developers to have growth… but law of economics still stay.
Supply goes up
Population doesn’t
Property prices must go down plus many empty units … just like Johor now
Hong Kong folks take bus, Penang folks drive iwn cars.
A booming global market for cars has helped drive CO2 emissions to an all-time high in 2018, say researchers of Global Carbon Project. According to the experts, people are driving bigger petrol and diesel cars, travelling further than before, in more countries.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/science-environment-46447459
It’s so sad indeed. The beauty of the island is at stake.
Then don’t let man live there. Like those Andaman islands…
Hong Kong is Pearl Of Orient, can we be like Hong Kong? We can’t even compete with Phuket.
CoastMudPolitan Penang – dreamt by Gerakan, realised by Niao Kong, enlarged further by Sin Chow.
It will be a political showcase by arrogant politicians to sell their surreal egos, not to responsibly cater to the real needs of Penangites.
EGO#1: The best cement-developed island state for the rest of Malaysia to salivate & to franchise (to hell with climate change)
EGO#2: Got Money Can Develop Anything (to hell with nature, to hell with reality)
EGO#3: Got Project, Got Kang Tao (to hell with CAT principles)
Tun lang you miss out why developing the factories?
Pulau Kukup will become Sultanate land after the Johor state government has de-gazetted it from a national park said Tunku Mahkota Johor Tunku Ismail Ibni Sultan Ibrahim.
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/12/05/pulau-kukup-to-change-from-national-park-to-sultanate-land-explains-tmj/#2h3stuwmvJZbeleM.99
New precedent?
Can anyone share how a National Park will benefit more under Sultanate Land? Why could be the reason/purpose for de-gazetted land?
Once you de-gazette a national park, it no longer enjoys the ‘protection’ of the law BUT at the mercy of private initiated intentions. By then, it’s too late to do anything.
Royal Kukup like Royal Belum?
Why not start with Royal Forest City?
Forest City being reclaimed and initiated by Sultan Johor should be named Royal Iskandar Forest City! But I still wonder why no grandiose mosque is being built there.
If can de it can orso re. Dude, it is so ec.
Pulau Kukup being Sultanate Land, allows the Sultan of Johor to maintain its use as a national park, especially after the Pakatan state government went ahead and de-gazette Pulau Kupup’s status as a national park – i.e. make it no longer a national park, protected from COMMERCIAL “development”, thus formalising a decision made by the FORMER BARISAN NASIONAL state government to de-gazzette Pulau Kupup’s status, when they should have instead reversed the decision. “To better protect all national parks, Sultan Ibrahim decreed that all the national parks be changed to Sultanate land,” he tweeted. https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/12/05/pulau-kukup-to-change-from-national-park-to-sultanate-land-explains-tmj/ Thus by His Majesty declaring… Read more »
Forest City not enough? Btw, Johor is not a country & ‘land grab’ by way of de-gazetting is robbing from the Rakyat….
Makan pun tidak cukup
let’s see whether penang forum will make noise or not…hehe
Penang Forum for Penang lah! Dude!
Dude, others orso not for peng land. Only peng lang forum? Just there are two sides to coin. U only think u are botol?
Lands + seas of Malaya Nusantara belong to the Rakyat, not to any entity.
Pakatan Harapan, pls make it as clear as afternoon sky to those intending to take over these national assets.
I thought sultanates are supposed not to involve in land matters like private ownership?
Why tell us? We are only lowness.
Unfortunately, Penang has no Sultan to declare any area Sultanate Land. Instead, Penang state is defacto a bourgeois-democratic republican state within a federal constitutional monarchy where the bourgeois state government has allowed the bourgeois developers to run rampant in milking every bit of Penang to the people’s detriment. At election time, each party’s competing candidates will promise the people the sun, the moon, the starts, yada, yada, yada to get us, the plebeian masses, to vote them into power for five years and once they are in power, they … in the faces of those who voted for the. As… Read more »
fortunately, the people of penang can still change the state government every 4 years and majority of them have decided to keep the last government, because they like what they see…
Like what they see – like what, floods due to land clearing on hills, landslides which have killed mostly foreign workers. I suppose, actually there is no viable alternative choice between Pakatan and Barisan, so voters go with the lesser evil.
most penang people are content because they have realistic expectation of the government, they are not ignoramus or some thick skulls that think the government need not balance the interest of different segment of the society..some policy bring unwanted effect..but somehow you can not have your cake and eat it too..
Why you no complain when they clear the forest and rubber estates in subang? Subang with jungle concrete contributes to fraction degree rise in temperarure
Dumno sell more land and deforest with giving timber concessions to rub NY back and plant oil palm. U see green but they are all oil palm
Do we need this double-deck elevated highway ? Will this destroy the charming of Penang? https://www.change.org/p/save-penang-hills-youth-park-rivers-from-mega-highways-lovepenang-savepenang/u/23723771?cs_tk=AS6uTQstEHuWDEudDFwA1HjQkjiuAVR-P4OzNitAbw%3D%3D&utm_campaign=9495a19fb56946529c48d329f029e5c6&utm_medium=email&utm_source=petition_update&utm_term=cs 6 DEC 2018 — Zenith Package 3, one of the proposed three paired road projects under the Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP), will feature a double-deck elevated highway. He said 50 per cent of Package 3 will consist of elevated roads. There will be two layers, one is for incoming traffic and another layer for outgoing traffic. Consortium Zenith, would start work on Package 2 in the first quarter of 2019. My Observation: We all love the red double decker buses like those in… Read more »
Hong Kong has deep water surrounding its land masses, that is why it has been a great port city but it also make reclamation too expensive which is why it has never been famous for it compared to Singapore. Why did you not compare to Singapore? Because you are fear mongering. Penang is a small island city with a big easy to access hinterland. Its nonsensical to be alarmist and hyper nostalgia about it at the expense of needed development. There is nothing wrong with making it a city Island for super rich while less well off live on the… Read more »
You were not in Penang to vote during GE14. To hear or read the kind of saliva-laced-promises under the umbrella of hope of Pakatan Harapan. Even a simple promise of a Bayan Baru library was but a whiff of campaign fantasy (to entice votes) to the trusting seniors of BB. So, what’s the problem that we in ground zero of dangerous + unsustainable development opposed some kind (not all) of development that could make things worse for the locals in general? Do remember we have the rights as much as our votes have the power to get who run the… Read more »
hehe…have been waiting for your doomsday prophecy to come true for ages…..sigh.. what a let down..
The latest report by Moody’s Investors Service has set off alarm bells over the direction of Malaysia’s financial system, after the ratings agency called property loans the greatest threat for Malaysian banks.
The worrying remark in Moody’s 2019 outlook report for Asia-Pacific banks came after Bank Negara’s constant assurance that the domestic property loans are sound, with the industry’s gross impaired loans kept under control.
https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2018/12/07/concern-over-property-loans/#vDP9bMXVOKtToWx4.99
CM Sin Chow & tango partners are still not alarmed! Bigjoe is!
Leaders must be cool. They have been sitting on hot seats. Hot seats are not so hot after seating toooo looking.
From Shriek to Shrie? You are wasting valuable space here by creating shrieking noises from multiple identities. What a troll life!
Give you some space but you are filling all the spaces with dude comments. Complain about developers and cry over heritage houses and in end eagerly buying condos and apartments from developers and making heritage houses like ghost.
Pls try hardest! Shrie or Shriek!!!
Try harder to kau beh kau bu
Just stick to one commenter ie Shriek & don’t waste your saliva!
So, you are expecting what I ‘prophesied’? TQ for your honest believing but impatience to want the doomsday to happen. What a low hehe life of wanting people to suffer!
talk a lot but without fact , that is what i expect of you …..hehehe
Pls try harder!
Dude will not try harder.
Flood result of heavy rainfall orso blame gomen. No rain blame gomen? Traffic jams blame gomen. Only thing hear from you is blame and blame. If can harness 23k to sign online. Harness them take bus.
You are not in ground zero, how can you qualify what you don’t know in reality??? Keep on shrieking nonsense!
Dude, yes you are zero, sleeping on ground zero.
Karma on YB Sim TT being awarded a young cow over his empty promisrs
It the minister, not the deputy minister, who got it.
BB folks can marvel at the new Oodi Helsinki new public library in Finland:
No need so fancy library, just an air condcreading room with newspapers and magazines for reading will suffice at BB.
Are you hearing me Sim?
Sim please worry not for the increase price in chicken eggs! People in BB want a library!
YB Sim,
Please take note of this:
Selangor’s first public library in a mall opens
https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/metro-news/2018/12/12/selangors-first-public-library-in-a-mall-opens/#0zdRq6KGCuYgycWz.99
D’Piazza is a good location for BB library. BJ Complex not suitable since it is now a mall mostly for foreign workers.
Move to se lang or land if free and migrants even those along the border moves further away from peng lang
Per Chow masterplan digital library for seberang Prai in progress. Also islamic library for Penang.
BB folks can ask for agriculture library from YB Sim to learn rear chicken eggs (now expensive) and grow vegetables.
Those are tun lang ‘s days were bicycles and boon siew kapcais were king of the roads. Now peng lang wants smart phones and connected to the world. Many left to see the world in kl land and sing land. Orso many like tun lang and siblings will not support and continue to like in heritage Wong fei Hoong inn. They are happy developers built condo and apartments in ferringhi.
Yes, simple cannot do, why not you take over. Sit for election we vote tun lang
“Living in Seberang Perai or Kulim Kedah for good jobs in Penang is not a bad deal in proper perspective.”
Similar to Johoreans working in Singapore for good paying jobs, but return to low cost hometowns in Kluang, Pontian etc. every weekend for family reunion.
Needed development for whom?To the 0.1% of the population and for PRC Chinese?So Pensng belong to these small group of people and the big majority dont count at all in your proposed development.I think people like you should live in some isolated island with your small group of the supet rich.
For everyone and the youth. You expect them to ride bicycle or kapcai and sing daisy daisy? See deo is now chief of Selangor and no discrimination like asking him to balek kampong like tun lang used to say. Many peng lang has to be imigrant in foreign areas.
Sama sama. HK is an Island with part of Mainland China and Penang Island has Mainland Malaysia. This would help economic development for Malaysia,
Hope not like HK where people crammed into small spaces
It looks like Pg CAT state gomen treats Penangites like farm animals –
in the near future, those who cannot afford a house to stay in rental chicken coops (like in HK) while the rich + famous are welcomed to invest in properties with wide open arms from Komtar. Never mind that most of the high-end properties are left empty. The trend is already apparent in the number of high-end housing development approved by the CAT gomen. No excuse why they can’t figure out the unaffordable issues facing majority of Penangites when they approved them like PESTA ticket counter stamping.
there are plenty of affordable housing if you care to look, understandably there are also many projects to cater for the middle and high income group, you don’t expect international banker like lim mah hui to stay in affordable housing ,do you ? so write with your brain not your knee…hehe
Penang needs professional, investor,expat to keep its economy moving…ok… never mind.. i think this is the least of your concern..
there are plenty of affordable housing if you care to look? You are talking nonsense! Tell that to Komtar Gang of Arrogance…!
yeah you are right there is no 50k 2000 sq feet landed affordable housing in penang….hehe
Seek and thou shall find…
How much tax you paid to gomen? Give a bit kau beh kau bu. UK and others 35 to 50 % of pay.
I presume most likely I paid more taxes for 20+ years than you did! Still want to shriek?
Yes can be years but only your rates are like peanuts. No wonder you are jumping like one…
Yes hope but have you seen kl or jb people or Singapore living like HK? Too much spinning.
complain about high affordable housing ? ask whether the heros in Penang forum are willing to sell their properties at price level 10 or 20 years ago now…….hehe
Orso why the rich who were staying in tg bungah and ferringhi are selling land or jv with contractor to develop. Why tun lang do not continue to stay in historic Wong fei Hoong heritage houses but prefer to support developers to buy condo and live closer to sea.
Spins like Shriek, sounds like Shriek. You are Shriek!!!
No answer so you can shriek. I drop the k to allow you to take the name shriek
Now, you admit this kind of trolling! Why not add 10 more?
The pearl has lost it’s shine – overbuilt, congested and chaotic. Sad to see green hills turned into con… https://t.co/V1lNJ9Jj4S
The whole world is undergoing global wamibg. Climate with its less rain produce less crops. More expensive food an orso less.
Why no compare with singland? More peng land people in singland than in hong land
See, peng lang do not want to stay in Wong fei Hoong heritage house. They want better and very happy to buy from developer built houses in ferringhi.
myCitizen: See this before/after photo taken from my brother’s apartment at Feringghi. (no edit).
Pic 9/12/2006 – the sea water was blue, the hill on the promontory was evergreen without swath of buildings.
Pic 10/3/2018 – the sea muddied, the hill on the promontory covered with rows of buildings.
Let your imagination runs wild of what is in store for Penang in the coming years.
Penang run wild by CM Sin Chow tangoing wild with greedy developers.
Why complain developer building highrise and apartment along and close to the seaside? Should have boycott them and make them cry over no buyer. Why cry wolf?
Pls try harder shrieking & spinning!
Your brother very happy,. Can buy from developer and good view. Same with you. A condo. Good they build houses for ,í9
Now cornered. Supporting and buying apartments and condo from developers instead of continue to live in Wong he I Hoong heritage houses.
Who approved these seaside high-rise projects? Ask lah!
Without approvals, no high-rise @ seasides, Dude!
Dude, poor man can apply for hawker licence, foreigner can set up a factory, dude wants to stop? Dude wants his own laws and justice?
You approve as you are the buyer. You tango. Cha cha and fox stroke with the developer.
Who tango, cha cha and fox trot with developer? Shouting one end but patronising on the other end? With money can make heritage houses sweet home. But you are scratching developer’s back. Must be fishy. More evidence macc.
Penang airport looking a lot like a ‘pasar malam’
It will record more than 7.8 million arrivals and departures this year, trumping last year’s record of 7,231,598. In 2016, the passenger flow was 6,684,026.
But it is built to handle a maximum of 6.5 million travellers a year and – in the words of air travellers interviewed – it is now “bursting at the seams” and “cannot take in even one more plane”.
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/12/14/pia-eyes-record-passenger-flow-airport-set-to-break-last-years-record-by-500000-travellers/#RIgCyTDKeCOHzMrS.99
Neoliberal Penang DAP government ? Forgot its social democratic roots ?
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-scourge-of-neoliberal-private-public-finance,12171
Federal gov’t not an ‘outsider’, has a say on Pulau Kukup – Dr M https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/455494 Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today the federal government is not an “outsider” and therefore has a say on the fate of Johor’s Pulau Kukup. He said this when asked to respond to Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, who said that “outsiders” should not meddle in the land affairs of the state. “Malaysians are not outsiders, the federal government is not an outsider,” Mahathir said at a press conference in Putrajaya this morning… The same for Penang’s nature – mangrove forests, forest… Read more »
i hope not
Now that sea level rise and severe storms are an undeniable part of our future, is any govt. anywhere in the world undertaking such projects? The contractor is lucky to have found such a foolish govt. Look up the problems Japan had with the airport off the coast of Osaka. “Development”, real estate and capitalism: – The main function of private banks is transferring or transforming existing assets, of which about 80% are real estate – Prof. Michael Hudson, 2016 – Contrary to [propaganda and] the excuse for “quantitative easing”, banks do not lend to industry as such. 70% of… Read more »
Possible or Impossible: Can millennials own a property?
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/12/07/possible-or-impossible-can-millennials-own-a-property/#uPIcmmjPgS5thyLU.99
To heheDude & Shrieker, Possible!
Ripley believe or not. SaS he who dares win instead of losers…
Ripley believe or not! Shriek = Shrie!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Malaysia boleh. Semua boleh except tun lang tak boleh. No wonder no hope. Only kau beh kau bu
Already turned into 1
Hong Kong has Disneyland and Ocean Park.
But Penang has no theme park.
You forgot Penang has The Top, with Jurassic theme park?
Hong Kong has Victoria Peak and Penang has Penang Hill.
The Top must bring in The Void (the one in Genting Resort) to attract customers.
The point is not Penang turning into HK. IT is Penang turning into what the people of Penang expressedly the people they trusted, with the mandate, they did not want.
Penang will not be Hong Kong, there are still plenty of lands in Mainland. Hope the government will continue this reclaimation effort. Maybe someday, we don’t need the bridge anymore.
Tell Francis light, chua and khoo clan.
I thought Guan Eng and Co, mentioned this early during his governance that is his party objectives.
Without the jobs.
Good to witness developments in Penang.
Look at the positive sides!
Pls stay in Penang to witness you feel good factor!
U mean like tun Lang’s days of riding boon siew and staying in Wong fei Hoong type inns?
When Penang island is more developed, those Tolak Icerd folks will likely migrate to mainland. Is this not good news?
Safer in numbers!
Don’t like u can leave. Free country.
Self contradictory – asking others to leave in a free country? Have Jamal blood in your brain?