Investing in short-term rental properties

KUALA LUMPUR: Visit Malaysia Year 2014 campaign has officially started on New Year’s Day. In Kuala Lumpur alone, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) is anticipating 15 million tourists to visit the country’s capital this year. The campaign offers a great business prospects for Malaysians who have interest in participating in the tourism industry.

Amongst the many lucrative business opportunities available for Malaysians during the campaign period is vacation rental services, which is also known as short term rental tenancy. The tenancy can provide a meaningful income for home owners who opt to not open their homes for long term rental tenancy during this time.

Over the last few years, short term rentals in Malaysia have been making waves in the vacation accommodation preference. On iBilik alone, there are over 5,000 short term rental listings available in locations all over Malaysia. 

People like the option of renting accommodations with full house facilities, such as kitchenette, laundry machines and big spaces for their travelling. The choice is extremely popular especially when travelling in large parties.

Opting for short term rental is a popular choice among Malaysians who frequently have to travel for business, holiday trips with families and wedding party trips. 

Fikri Aidil has been using short term rentals for a couple of years. “It’s convenient not to have to the groups separated in different hotel rooms and having to eat out throughout the trip. Most of the time, it saves money as well,” he comments.

To start a short term rental business, one can visit Propwall to survey the estimated property prices in the area. For example, a property on auction at the D’Savoy Condominium, A’ Famosa Resort starts from RM130,000. From there, one can estimate the cost of mortgage, repairs and insurance the property will require. 

Thereafter, the prospective buyer may cross reference the information of the property with the estimated rental yield from the short term rental business that he will obtain. On iBilik, it shows that the average rental rate of the D’Savoy Condominium ranges from RM200 to RM350 per night. 

All the information at hand in must be keyed in to a spreadsheet, with a guesstimate of different scenarios one might encounter regarding vacancy (or lack thereof), maintenance and repair cost. From this, it can be gauged whether the short term rental investment is still a worthy endeavour.

Part of the investment also includes providing an adequate amount of furniture and electrical appliances. Guests are more attracted to fully furnished units that are well presented. As most of the bookings are done online with only pictures to judge the quality of the units, the need to have professional photos taken from good angles is crucial.

Although the short term rental business is not yet regulated in the country, it is better to register the business with Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (LHDN) to avoid any tax complications in the future.