The city of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia is famous for a lot of things. Hosting the formula one world championship, the Petronas Twin Towers that are the second tallest buildings in the world, and a host of mixed cultures and backgrounds make up the only global city in Malaysia. The city has around seven million residents, and the city is central to the economy of the whole country even up to now. Living in Kuala Lumpur is an experience in a global-class environment and a cultural background that hasn’t been lost with progress.

Geographical Background

The city municipality of Kuala Lumpur has a total of two hundred forty four square kilometers in land area, and is right in the middle of Klang Valley, bordered by two mountains, one on either side, the Titiwangsa Mountain on the eastern portion and Malacca Strait in the western part. These mountain ranges also serve to protect the area from storm damage, as both the eastern and western sides of the valley shield Kuala Lumpur from storm systems that are coming into the area.

The weather pattern in Kuala Lumpur is typical of equatorial zones, that is, being warm and sunny all year long, and having a generous amount of rainfall that is frequent throughout the year, and added rainfall during the monsoon season starting from September, lasting through April. June and July are the dry months of the year, but still the area receives around one hundred twenty-five mm of rainfall during these times. The temperature of the city ranges from thirty one degrees on the high end, and twenty degrees on the low end of the scale.

City Demographics

Kuala Lumpur is distinctive from the rest of Malaysia by virtue of its residents, the majority of which are of Chinese descent, unlike in the rest of the country where Malays are the majority in ethnic backgrounds. The language spoken in this city is Bahasa Melayu, the national language. English and Mandarin are also widely used in the city as second languages. The city’s educational system provides for a comprehensive background in English, and so the residents of the city are well versed in this language.

Around ten percent of the population in Kuala Lumpur is of Indian descent, and they can trace their roots back to when Malaya was a British colony. Their religion is most often Hinduism, and they can also link their culture with the ways of the Hindu faith. Though this is the case with Indians, the rest of the city has a varied religious background, one as equally diverse as the population. Islam is one of the common religions practiced by most Malays and there are also Buddhists, Taoists, and Christian, as well as Confucian believers in the city. There are also immigrants in the city coming in from Nepal, Burma, and Indonesia along with other neighboring countries into the city, mainly as workers. This makes the city of Kuala Lumpur the busiest city in the whole of Malaysia, as well as the most densely packed.

Economic Background

The City of Kuala Lumpur is the fastest growing economic force in the whole of Malaysia, so much so that even with the federal government’s transfer to Putrajaya, most embassies, the Malaysian Central Bank, and other important government functions have remained in the city. The Malaysian Stock Exchange also remains in Kuala Lumpur, and is one of the core movers of the Malaysian economy.

The average annual growth of the GDP in Kuala Lumpur is at 4.2 percent, and per capita incomes of the residents grow an average of six percent. Service is the largest industry in the city, at eighty-three percent of the total employed workforce being involved in one type of service or another for their living. Foreign companies prefer to put their bases up in Kuala Lumpur, and according to the Forbes 2000, there are fourteen companies on their list that have regional offices in the city, not including Petronas. As a reflection of the rising incomes of the city residents, there have been many shops put up in Kuala Lumpur, retail establishments and malls, sixty-six of which are counted in the city. Kuala Lumpur is also the fashion capital of Malaysia and with this, Bukit Bintang has the highest number of malls in its total area, resembling a Malaysian version of New York’s Fifth Avenue.

Investing in Kuala Lumpur Properties

Kuala Lumpur is fast becoming one of the hot areas in which to get secondary homes for foreigners looking for somewhere nice to spend their retirement, or just to hold properties for profit. The trend in the city is that with the number of expatriates staying in the city, the demand for professional-grade accommodations for long term use has been on the rise. What’s so appealing in this is that if you were the owner of properties for rent in Kuala Lumpur, is that rental prices are on the same level as any global city. Six to ten percent of growth is not an unusual occurrence when it comes to annual growth for rental yields. For investment purposes, figure in around one hundred thousand pounds if you want to purchase a high-rise condominium unit that you can then rent out for others.

For those wanting to realize the maximum profits that can be earned from properties in Malaysia, and Kuala Lumpur in particular, one of the good news that has happened for investors is that the capital gains tax has been cut from a thirty percent down to zero. Plus, there is an annual growth of ten percent of the city in terms of urbanization. For a nice property unit you can expect to pay around three thousand GBP up front, a twenty percent down, and a deferred payment scheme as an option, that is, if you don’t want to pay in cash. Kuala Lumpur Properties are becoming more valuable by the day, and you too can cash in on what the market has to offer when you buy properties in Kuala Lumpur.