24th July2012
Unifi is here !!!
After months of installation and maintenance, UNIFI is ready to be used by all the residents in Vista Bay Apartment.
To make things easier, UNIFI will open up a booth at our lobby area on 25th July 2012 from 10.00am till 7.00pm and again on 29th July 2012.

So, whoever is interested, do come down and register ya.
Have a great day ahead.

Important Strata Title Message

29th April 2012

As many of the resident may already know, Vista Bay Apartment Strata Title is out and as of now, the process of doing this is still ongoing. Do bear in mind that the residence are advise to proceed with the Strata Title transaction as soon as possible as crossing the dateline would be something that the resident would not like to do as there are penalty for those who are late.

From the notice that were given earlier, our own Vista Bay Apartment lawyer is the one handling the transaction and although this is not a compulsory for the owner to engage the lawyer, but then, it's still advisable  to do so with the lawyer. Speaking of our lawyer, please take note that the Lawyer, Daniel Lim & Co (Advocates and Solicitors) is no longer attached to Kwang Lim & Azni (Advocates and Solicitors). 

Therefore, any association between Daniel Lim to Kwang Lim & Azni is no longer valid and we hope that this confusion can clear the air during the process of doing the Strata Title transaction. If you have any doubts on this matter, please proceed to the management office to acquire or you can call directly to Daniel Lim as his handphone number is mentioned inside the notice given earlier.

Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT)

9th April 2012

The 2012 Budget unveiled on 7 October 2011 included a revision of the Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT) rate from the 5% to 10% as part of the Government’s efforts to curb property speculation. The increase was recently gazetted and took effect from 1 January 2012 onwards. Jennifer Chang studies the impact of this move on property purchasers.

The rate of 10% applies to gains on properties held and disposed within two years while gains on properties held and disposed between two and five years will be levied a 5% RPGT rate and disposals after five years continue to be exempted from RPGT.

RPGT is a form of capital gains tax that is chargeable on gains arising from the disposal of real property, which is defined as:

• Any land situated in Malaysia and any interest, option or other right in or over such land; or

• Shares in a real property company. Anyone disposing of real property in Malaysia - whether a resident or non-resident - will be charged RPGT on the gains.

Astro Byond - New Generation

4th April 2012
In today's apartment or condominium environment, unified form is always will be one of the agenda in
any discussion beside security. To have a unified form would mean to have an outlook of the place where it would be nice to look at rather then a place where everything look disorganized.

One of the facilities we have that can be catergorized as unified form is our centralise Astro system.
We have a build in network that strecthes from the top of the building till the lowest floor that houses our units. Meaning, by having only one dish to cater to all needs, we can avoid having a cluttered outlook of Astro dishes sticking out from our building. With this, many of the resident will able to enjoy our beloved channels from Astro without worrying about how the Astro dish would impact the outlook of the building but then, this does not come without a price.

Mainland Property is Booming

23rd March 2012

The value of land, and residential and commercial properties in Seberang Prai is certainly lower. The price for the most expensive landed property on the mainland may be just a fraction of a similar one on the island.

I  learnt that a fully-furnished bungalow in the posh and gated Park View Residence near the popular Juru Auto-City in central Seberang Prai was sold for RM1.6 million.

The buyer was a Penang island resident looking for a nice property in which to invest his millions.  

A real estate agent told me that  a fully-furnished bungalow on the island similar to the one this buyer bought in Juru would have cost him close to RM6 million, if not more.

Many people agree that the property market on the island  has gone “crazy”.

The prices and values of properties skyrocket  quickly due to high demand and speculation.

The word “affordable” can rarely be used to describe the kind of homes that are being built on Penang Island. Most are only affordable to the rich. Just look at the ongoing modern residential projects around us now and those in the pipeline. I think I do not have to list them down. We know them well enough.

Vista Bay In-house Documents

22nd March 2012
Managing an apartment building is not only about talking and carrying out the work to sustain the building maintenance, but also talking about documentation work as well. These documentations cover a lot of matter ranging from invoices on the task carried out to cheques that need to be paid to vendors and from meeting minutes documents to the letters that bear the JMB seal. All these are important and none of them are being neglected in our persue of having the best managed property in Penang.

If the owner would be able to noticed, there are no confidential information regarding the building management fund as well as meetingminutes are put up for public viewing. Even on the notice board, we do not really reveal all this to the public except for recent AGM meeting minutes. This is because, we believe that a lot stranger coming in to our place and getting information about our building
and effect certain judgement in delivering service to our place such as giving a higher price when doing something for us. Knowing this, we try to avoid all the internal building matters to be revealed out to the public and when we are talking about public, we meant non-home owners.

Extraordinary General Meeting 2012(EGM - Financial Management)

21st March 2012
The management (JMC) has called for an EGM to address on a topic regarding the Financial Management of Vista Bay. Therefore, we hope that the residents (owners only) would be able to spare some time from
their busy schedule to attend this meeting. It is very important and a decision would need to be reached in order to move on with the process. The date and time of the meeting is stated below:

Date: 15th April 2012 (Sunday)

Time: 2.30pm

Vanue: VB Multi-purpose Hall

Duration: 3 hours - 4 hours

The agenda of the meeting will be discussed inside the forum as the topic of internal matter would not make public here. On how to proceed to get yourself into forum, please follow the link below:

Vista Bay Apartment Forum

Thanks for your cooperation.

Deed of Mutual Covenant

20th March 2012

Whenever one buys a piece of property where there are common facilities, such as security, social amenities and other areas that require the involvement of all unit owners, one will be requested to enter into a Deed of Mutual Covenant (DMC). This is done simultaneously upon the signing of the Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA).

In layman's language, the DMC is an agreement of mutual undertaking between the developer and the purchaser. The contents vary from developer to developer, and they are distinctly separate from those in the SPA.

Unlike the SPA, the contents of DMC are not dictated by the Housing Development Act. The contents are purely clauses that spell out the mutual agreements/undertakings of both buyer and the developer. Many house buyers do not really pay attention or understand the details of what they are signing for. This is particularly so in cases where the buyers, to save cost, have not engaged their own lawyers but rely on the developers' lawyers who have prepared both the SPA and the DMC.

Some of these clauses one has to be wary of are as follows:

• Maintenance charges

This is where the clauses is invariably left open ended. Usually the agreed amount is valid for a set period (say two years). After that, it is likely to be increased by what is merely stated as 'a reasonable amount'. A lot of dispute have arisen from this 'reasonable amount', and buyers are holding the short end of the stick. Remember, you must understand what you are signing, and if you are not comfortable, ask questions to clarify.

How to Balance Work and Life

15th March 2012 

As long as you're working, juggling the demands of career and personal life will probably be an ongoing challenge. Use these ideas to help you find the work/life balance that's best for you:

·         Track your time

Track everything you do for one week, including work-related and personal activities. Decide what's necessary and what satisfies you the most. Cut or delegate activities you don't enjoy or can't handle — or share your concerns and possible solutions with your employer or others.

·         Take advantage of your options

Ask your employer about flex hours, a compressed workweek, job sharing, telecommuting or other scheduling flexibility. The more control you have over your hours, the less stressed you're likely to be.

·         Learn to say no

Whether it's a co-worker asking you to spearhead an extra project or your child's teacher asking you to manage the class play, remember that it's OK to respectfully say no.

·         Leave work at work

With technology to connect to anyone at any time from virtually anywhere, there may be no boundary between work and home — unless you create it. Make a conscious decision to separate work time from personal time. When you're with your family, for instance, turn off your cell phone and put away your laptop computer.

Earth Hours 2012

11th March 2012

It's that time of the year again. The time we would allow ourselves to dwell into the soverinity of the world

by helping mother nature in a small way that would be able to make a big difference. 60 Earth Hours, the event the world organize to remind us to show kindness to the earth is around the corner again and this time we do hope everyone would be able to join hand and make a different. 

The date to remember :

Date: 31st March 2012 (Saturday)

Time: 8.30pm - 9.30pm (1 hour)

Venue: Vista Bay Apartment.

To commemorate the event as usual, we will turn off all the lights in the building and we do hope that all the residents will be able to join us in doing the same to their own unit. Just switch off the lights.

It's a small effort but believe us, it makes a lot of difference.