Taiping shop owners make a swift killing

TAIPING - Shop owners in Taiping are all a flutter over soaring shophouse prices.

It is the presence of swifts - whose nests are used in the Chinese delicacy, bird's nest soup - that is driving up shop values.

Mr Beh Yang Toh, a real estate agent based in Taiping, said over the last year the prices of converted properties have more than doubled, to RM250,000 (S$116,000).

Some shophouse owners even try to lure the swifts by playing recordings of bird song.

Others are converting their three-storey shops, which previously served as hotels and restaurants, into 'swift hotels'.

Officials say they are powerless to stop this activity, despite complaints from residents about the noise and potential health risk from bird droppings.

'It is not a business activity which requires a licence,' said town council secretary Azmi Hashim.

Swifts' nests are usually gathered from caves in Sarawak and in countries such as Thailand and Vietnam.

It is the bird's saliva, binding the nest together, that is said to provide the Chinese soup with health-giving properties. -- Reuters