Outlook for Malaysian property market ‘to remain stable’

by SMARTWIN on January 18, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s property market outlook will continue to remain stable and healthy in coming years despite a decline in the asking price for homes in the latest PropertyGuru Market Index (PMI), said leading online property portal, PropertyGuru Malaysia.

In the third quarter (Q3) of 2018, the PMI showed that asking prices by real estate developers and individual owners nationwide, dipped 1.8% from the preceding quarter while year-on-year, prices showed a 2.5% drop.

Country manager Sheldon Fernandez said Malaysia was still considered a safe market to invest, buy and sell properties as the PMI indicated that Malaysia generally did not experience a drastic drop between real market demand and market supply.

“However, challenges in the market still exist until we start to address issues of affordability, particularly in the income level and property prices.

“The income level has to catch up at a higher pace because property prices will not fall to match the demand,” he told Bernama.

Sheldon said the government must continue to assume a key role in tackling the affordability issue as it would affect the country’s economic performance and the well-being of the people.

However, the private sector should also cooperate to balance up supply and demand, given the current condition.

“As we understand, the developers are business entities and they would want to operate at a profitable level to fund their future growth.

“There will be opportunities and challenges as their reaction will also depend on market conditions.

“If they (developers) are being hardpressed when it comes to trying to sell their products, they will make some sacrifices like providing better incentives for buyers,” he said.

On the other hand, Sheldon also urged those who wanted to purchase homes to be wiser and smarter in terms of savings, investing and knowledge of properties in order to help them make better decisions.

“Moving forward, we hope to see positive sentiment and a healthier market in 2020 and beyond.

“But, this may be difficult to say as we need to see what the Budget 2019 has lined up for the industry,” he added.

(Credit: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2018/11/01/outlook-for-malaysian-property-market-to-remain-stable/)