News

Secondary Property Market Provides Alternative To New House Buyers

Last update: 19/02/2018

By Mohd Afiq Zulkifli

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19 (Bernama) -- Many lamented over the ballooning house prices and if there are houses available at affordable rate, the location will be far from the workplace.

Perhaps, with the prices of new residential development rising beyond reach for young people, this will be a good time for them to look at it from different perspective - to buy a secondary or sub-sale property at a more affordable rate.

In fact, the purchase of this secondary or sub-sale property is better suited for young people who had just started working particularly those in the city to own their first home rather than buying those in new development projects.

Real estate and investment writer Dr Azizul Azli Ahmad said the secondary property that refers at buying a home from another party (instead of the developer), that is being sold at lower price than of those in new development.

"For example, a secondary condominium unit in Bangsar is still sold between RM600 and RM1,000 per square foot (sq ft) in comparison with the newly-developed condominium unit that sells at RM1,500 to RM2,200 per sq ft," he said when contacted by Bernama.

He said if one browsed property sites such as mudah.my and myproperty.com, there are still plenty of secondary homes in Kuala Lumpur sold under RM200,000, the price that was affordable for most, particularly those who just started working.

"In addition, secondary or sub-sale homes are ready to be occupied, have easy access to facilities such as shops and they can also deal directly with the original owner if there is damage to the house during the buying and selling process," said Azizul Azli adding that last year alone, the secondary property market had a surplus of RM4 billion.

Recently, the Bank Negara Malaysia in its quarterly bulletin revealed that houses in the country were seriously unaffordable and estimated the maximum affordable house price in the country to be RM282,000 based on the housing cost burden approach, however, the actual median house price was RM313,000 (in 2016), beyond the means of many households, where the median national household income was only RM5,228.

Meanwhile, Dr Hairul Nizam Mansor, coordinator of Property Management programme, Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, said the government should provide more aggressive policies in controlling the property market price.

"The government needs to expand the housing policy such as limiting the quota of owning expensive home purchases to only two, similar to the one practiced overseas, as well as tightening the housing loan conditions by the banks," he said.

In the meantime, Komuniti Pejuang Hartanah founder Ahyat Ishak felt that the inability of the young people to buy a property was due to their lifestyle of preferring to travel, to own latest gadgets and fashion rather than to put aside some savings to purchase assets for their future.

-- BERNAMA