Guan Eng: My bungalow is no Khir Toyo mansion

(The Star) – Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng brought about 30 newsmen to visit his upper-middle class bungalow in Pinhorn Road.

Reporters and photographers were brought to check out the living room, the dining area and the kitchen on Sunday.

Lim said the owner had offered to sell him the house at RM2.8mil in 2012, but he did not take it up because he was unsure whether he would get elected in the general election.

He said the owner had agreed to hold on to the price based on an understanding with his wife Betty Chew.

“I needed to prepare money for the house, including monthly instalments. We needed sufficient funds to pay the balance of the purchase price.

“It was only until I was re-elected and I had enough funds that I decided to purchase it in July last year.

“There is nothing extraordinary inside my house.

“It is an upper-middle class house, but not in the Jesselton area in Penang.

“It is also not the Khir Toyo mansion,” he said at his house.

When asked whether he knew the house was purchased below the market price, Lim said he was not a property agent.

“I would not know the price. There was a verbal understanding,” he said.