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Property Jargon in Malaysia This intel is about property lingo in Malaysia. Every country has its own peculiar terminology for all kinds of things, including real estate. And the Malaysian jargon for real estate can be very peculiar indeed. Real estate, of course, is called "property" in Malaysia, as is the case in all former British colonies. Now, you may have heard of a "bungalow." In other countries this refers to a single-story house, usually with a spacious garden and long awnings to keep the sun out. In Malaysia, the word "bungalow" refers to ANY detached house. Even a two-story house is called a bungalow in Malaysia. A villa, a mansion, a family home - call it a bungalow. Now, remember, we said bungalow is for any detached house, i.e. stand-alone residential dwelling. If it is not detached, it is not a bungalow. You could call it a terrace house, as a house adjoining another is called in many other countries (except the US, where one unit of a row house would be a duplex, triplex, and so on depending on the number of total units). But in Malaysia, if a residential dwelling adjoins another unit, it can also be called a link house or - and this is where the peculiarity sets in - a semi-dee (or semi-D). The term "semi-dee" comes from "semi-detached." This is rather odd, since you'd think that you're either detached, or not detached - you can't be semi-detached any more than you can be "semi-married." But semi-dee actually means that your unit is at the end (or beginning) of the row of houses, and adjoins another unit on one side only. A semi-dee is a choice property, and more expensive than a regular terrace house. Now, on to commercial property. There exists in Malaysia a type of property not found in the Western world, thanks to the large Chinese minority, most of whom can trace their roots to some sort of trading activity. Chinese traders - in China and all over the world - like to live upstairs and sell stuff downstairs. This convenient arrangement enables the insanely long business hours which fit the Chinese work ethic, and the resulting structure is a residential/commercial hybrid, known in Malaysia as either a shop lot, shop house, or shop office (sometimes spelled as shoplot, shophouse, shopoffice, or shop-lot, shop-house, shop-office). A shop lot is an area suited for retail on the ground floor, with an area intended for residential and/or office use on the floor above it. A shop lot is NOT a vacant spot of land. It has walls and plumbing and electrical fixtures. Nowadays, the upstairs area is not necessarily used for living, and may contain only office space for the managegement - this is especially true in the shopping malls. In these instances, the term increasingly used is "shop office," but it may also be called a "shop lot" or even "shop house." Lastly, be warned that the term "broker" is NOT used in Malaysia. As agent Prasad Pillai of Kuala Lumpur cautions, "the term 'broker' went into disuse with the invention of the motor-car." The preferred term is negotiator, but you can also use the word "agent." Contributor's Note Please add a comment if you know any other property lingo used in Malaysia.

Added by nick on May 19, 11:50 AM.

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just returned from the China town area in Penang malaysia last week and the property lingo i would use to describe the area around Chulia street would be, "empty of all but backpacking hippies on a visa run from thailand"

kohabitat May 20, 2008 04:33

CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY

	Hippies? I thought they became extinct in the 1980's. Guess there was a pocket surviving in the jungles of Southeast Asia.

I'm off to Penang (again) later this month too. Malaysia has a lot going for it - not least the MM2H programme - but I wouldn't really fancy living there.

stravaig Jun 10, 2008 07:23

Nick-Hippies never die, i think all the patchoulli oil they bathe in keeps them too well preserved.

Stravaig-they are picking up a bit of the run off from the thailand coup/political problems, and especially the fact that thailand does not allow land ownership if you are not thai but i think it would take a bit more convincing than that for me to move there.

kohabitat Jun 10, 2008 09:34

Yep, I'd need a bit more convincing too. Perhaps I've been going to the wrong places but I've never found a restaurant either in Penang or KL that I would rave about. And whilst you can always get a beer, somehow it's not as easy or comfortable as it is in Thailand.

stravaig Jun 10, 2008 09:42

CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY

	I think it depends on the person (and I personally would agree). The problem with living in Thailand, though, is that the writing is all squiggly. Most people have a hard enough time getting their head round a contract or deed of sale in English.

well i live on Koh Samui so perhaps i have a bit of a distorted view of Thailand, but we all have to make visa runs to malaysia and more often than not, it is described as "just like Thailand, without the fun"

having said that, as it was part of the british empire at one point (and they are still a bit sore over never getting paid for penang haha) there is quite a bit of business going on there and some of those condo high rises in penang look very nice. i'm always impressed and a bit surprised by the building going on in penang. they are definetely appealing to some people.

kohabitat Jun 11, 2008 01:47

"just like Thailand, without the fun"

It's funny you should say that. After our last visit to KL we were on the same airport bus as a wealthy, and very charming, Malaysian couple who regularly went to Bangers for weekends. The man asked me what I thought of KL. I praised the country and said how modern it is, but added that KL was like Bangkok without the fun. Sanuk!

That said, at least I can get clothes to fit me in KL. And no, I'm not Blimpo the whale, I'm a seven stone weakling.

stravaig Jun 11, 2008 07:39

i still haven't been to KL but as it is only shopping malls and development i'll stick with making the quick 2 day stop in penang for my visas, however, i have heard some nice things about langkawi and i will probably stop over there on the return next time provided i drive. i guess i'm getting too accustomed to the one hour flight to penang from samui.

i've always wanted to go to sumatra on one of my visa runs but with no consulate there i'd have to stop in penang anyway and then after giving them my passport i'd be unable to enter sumatra. oh well.

kohabitat Jun 11, 2008 09:05

Kohabitat - if you get a one year non-immigrant "O" visa, then you still have to exit and enter but you don't need to go anywhere near a consulate. It can give you more options.

Yeah, KL is good for shopping. They even have IKEA there. I've never been yet although I keep meaning to go. There's a nice Irish bar in Bukit Bintang that always seems to prevent an IKEA visit.

stravaig Jun 11, 2008 11:14

Sorry, Nick. I can't expand your list of Malaysion property terms because I've never been there - though my father loved Penang and worked there for many years. I'm still trying to guess where you come from - your comments about semi-D tell me it's not the UK, where 'semi-detached' refers to a pair of joined up houses. In the UK 'end terrace' is used to refer to the end dwellings of a group of joined-up houses (known as a terrace).

I'd guess the term 'semi-detached' refers to the fact that one side is like a detached house, in that the garden is in one piece and you can walk from front to back without passing through the house. A bit like the telecommunications term 'half-duplex', which refers to a transmission line that can handle traffic in either direction, but not both at ioce...

chabrenas Jun 12, 2008 12:52

CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY

	Thanks for the tip! So it seems the Malaysians inherited this illogical nomenclature from the British. I had no idea.

"Kohabitat - if you get a one year non-immigrant "O" visa, then you still have to exit and enter but you don't need to go anywhere near a consulate. It can give you more options."

i've already got a Non-Imm "B", i wish i could get away with reporting to local immigration rather than still having to make a "border bounce". thailand is as backwards as it gets, i've got a one year visa but i still have to leave the country every 90 days. this is one reason in particular why people are leaving thailand for a place like malaysia.

kohabitat Jun 13, 2008 01:37

Yeah, Malaysia is so much easier from that point of view. We often try to go on holiday somewhere interesting or different for our visa runs, but sometimes it's just easier to go to Malaysia - cheap flights and no visa charges. It would be so much easier to live there too, but I just don't fancy it.

stravaig Jun 13, 2008 03:26

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