News

Property market to stabilise in 2018

Last update: 17/04/2018

KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 (Bernama) -- The property market is forecast to stabilise this year, after having to endure a challenging environment in the last two years. 



Valuation and Property Services Department Director-General, Nordin Daharom, said the forecast economic growth, the accommodative monetary policy as well as continuous incentives for the housing sector would help sustain the momentum in the property sector. 



"The transactions have increased in the first two months of this year by four per cent compared to the first two months last year, indicating market conditions have recovered compared to 2017," he told reporters after the launch of the Property Market Report 2017 here today.



Also present was Deputy Finance Minister II Datuk Lee Chee Leong. 



Also launched today was the Unsold Property Enquiry System Malaysia (UPESM).



"We collect information (in UPESM) to help homebuyers make more informed decisions. In this case, if all in the industry knows, they can make the right decision to develop the property," he said.



Overall, the property sector recorded 311,824 transactions worth RM139.84 billion in 2017, down by 2.7 per cent in volume and 3.8 per cent in value respectively compared to 2016, the department said in a statement. 



Residential properties continued to support the overall property sector with 62.4 per cent market share, followed by agriculture properties (22.5 per cent), it said.



It said the residential property recorded 194,684 transactions worth RM68.47 billion, which was 4.1 per cent lower in volume compared to 2016, but increased by a marginal 4.4 per cent in value. 



By price range, demand continued to focus on RM200,000 and below, accounting for nearly 45 per cent of the residential market volume, it said. 



The department said the residential primary market made a comeback, indicating developers' sentiment of the property market outlook, with 77,570 units of new launches, higher than those recorded in 2015 (58,411 units) and 2016 (52,713 units).



"Sales performance moderated at 32.6 per cent while volume of residential overhang grew by 67.2 per cent to 24,738 units and value increased by 82.8 per cent to RM15.64 billion in 2017. 



"House prices continued to record steady increase with the Malaysian House Price Index stood at 187.4 points, up by 6.5 per cent against 2016," it said. 



The commercial property market activity continued to decline but a modest pace with 22,162 transactions worth RM25.44 billion in 2017, down by 6.7 per cent in volume and 29.2 per cent in value compared in 2016, it said. 



Moving forward, Nordin said, in view of the oversupply of private office space and retail space in shopping complexes in Kuala Lumpur, developers with future developments needed to consider a thorough market study on the marketability and sustainability of the developments prior to submission of applications to the relevant local authority.  



He said in 2017, 31 new shopping complexes were completed with a total space of over 880,000 square metres (sq m) , increasing the number of existing shopping complexes to 997 units with a space of 15.51 million sq m.



"Retail market is a bit challenging because the trend of shopping has changed. The retail market has to move from the traditional way of doing business to a new way of doing business," he said.



-- BERNAMA