Malaysia's property market records 188,000 transactions worth RM84 bln in first of year

KAJANG: The local property market recorded more than 188,000 transactions worth RM84 billion in the first half of this year (1H22) with the residential subsector accounting for more than 60 per cent of the total transactions and almost 54 per cent of the value.

Deputy finance minister Datuk Mohd Shahar Abdullah said the number of transactions and value recorded in the first half was an increase of more than 30 per cent compared to the same period last year.

"All property subsectors, comprising residential, trade, industrial, agriculture and development land, recorded an increase in transaction activities and value in the first half," he said when speaking at the launch of the 1H22 property market report today prepared by the National Property Information Centre (NAPIC), an agency under the Valuation and Property Services Department.

Based on the report, the residential property sector recorded 116,178 transactions worth RM45.62 billion during the review period, an increase of 26.3 per cent in the number of transactions and 32.2 per cent in value year-on-year, with Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Selangor representing about 47 per cent of the overall national residences.

Mohd Shahar said while the market activities had shown a positive trend, sentiment for the new residential launch segment is still cautious where more than 10,000 new units were launched in the review period, compared to more than 31,000 units last year with the average national sales performance at the rate of 20.3 per cent.

Based on the report, Johor, registered the highest new residential launches, accounting for almost 23.8 per cent or 2,509 units of the total national numbers with a 31.8 per cent sales performance rate, followed by Sabah (1,335 units, 12.7 per cent share, 10.6 per cent sales rate) and Perak (1,317 units, 12.5 per cent share, 19.4 per cent sales rate).

Terrace houses dominated new launches, and contributed 68.2 per cent of the overall total with a sales rate of 22 per cent.

The report stated that more than 34,000 residential overhang units valued at RM21.7 billion were recorded in 1H22 with Johor recording the highest overhang units.

Mohd Shahar said almost 60 per cent of the overhang units were in the condominium or apartment property segment while in terms of price, almost 43 per cent were within the price range of more than RM500,000 per unit.

"Johor recorded the highest in overhang residential units with 6,000 overhang units worth RM4.7 billion, contributing 17 per cent and 21 per cent for each of the number and value of overhang in the country.

"Penang is in the second position with more than 5,000 units worth RM3.64 billion," he said.

He said the overhang status for serviced apartments has improved with more than 22,000 units worth RM19.32 billion in 1H22 recorded, a 6.7 per cent reduction in numbers compared to the second half of last year.

"Almost 89 per cent of the total overhang was in the price range of RM500,000 and above and most of which were in Johor," he said, adding that the overhang situation for the period of concern has improved with the decrease in the marginal numbers and value of 7.5 per cent and 4.6 per cent compared to the second half of last year.

Mohd Shahar urged the developers and authorities to pay attention to the overhang data and ensure that houses built were in line with buyers' demand and affordability, to minimise mismatch and control the overhang situation in the near future.

He also suggested that stakeholders in the property sector refer to the Unsold Property Enquiry System Malaysia (UPESM) portal developed by NAPIC, before planning new development as well as conducting a holistic feasibility study, to ensure that the decisions made are the right ones and not contribute to the overhang stock in the future.

For the purpose-built offices and business complexes subsectors, Mohd Shahar said the supply situation is increasingly challenging, where there are more than 18 million square metres of private office spaces in the whole nation by the end of June 2022 with an occupancy rate of 70.8 per cent.

He said the business complexes consisting of shopping complexes, hypermarkets and arcades recorded more than 17 million square metres of commercial space with a vacancy of 4.22 million square metres across the country.

-- BERNAMA