Fascinating Findings Provide Valuable Insight Into the Minds of Malaysian Property Buyers
 |
Malaysia, 4 August 2011, Thursday— Malaysia’s Property Expert, HomeGuru has revealed the results to its 2nd Property Sentiment Survey. Thoughts and opinions of Malaysian property buyers were gathered, analysed and tabulated by a research team to capture insights into key property issues such as affordability, property prices, transaction volumes, impact of government interventions and purchase intentions. A new perspective was added to the 2nd survey, where insights were garnered particularly with respect to first time buyers and multiple home buyers.
Steve Melhuish, Group CEO of PropertyGuru Group of which HomeGuru is part of said, “HomeGuru’s Malaysia Property Sentiment Survey Q2 2011 is part of an on-going quarterly property survey that is aimed at gaining insights into consumer sentiments, understanding buying intentions and the impact of government measures. As Malaysia’s Property Expert, HomeGuru also sees the quarterly survey as a way to capture trends and help property agents, developers and Malaysian Buyers make efficient and informed decisions regarding property purchases.”
Guided by HomeGuru’s own research team and independent research consultants and conducted from June 20th to July 17th, the survey data was collected from 2,182 HomeGuru users represented by Malaysians from across the country; from urban zones like the Klang Valley, Penang and Johor all the way to East Peninsular Malaysia.
HomeGuru’s 2nd Property Sentiment Survey revealed a number of fascinating findings with regards to the minds of Malaysian property buyers.
Property Prices & Impact of Government Interventions
Melhuish revealed that the overall consumer property sentiment index dropped from 2.4 from the previous Q1 Survey to 2.1 on a scale of 1 to 5. This represents a negative number in the scale with 2.5 being neutral. “This means that consumers are now less optimistic towards affording property,” explained Melhuish.
Melhuish further disclosed that 73% of respondents feel that property along all categories in Malaysia is expensive compared to 66% in Q1. In fact, 86% of respondents feel that property prices will continue to rise in the next 6 months, compared to the 78% in Q1.
When it comes to individual categories related to property prices, Melhuish shared that respondents felt Bungalows are the most expensive, with 89% respondents who feel this way, an increase from the 81% in Q1.
Although 35% of respondents said that the prices for apartments or condominiums, townhouse and SOHO (small office home office) are reasonable, 66% of respondents having a monthly household income between RM3,000 to RM10,000 still characterized apartments or condominiums to be expensive. In the commercial property area, only 22% of respondents felt that commercial property is reasonable, compared to the 29% in Q1.
However, despite the sentiments towards pricing, 72% of respondents still feel that property transactions will increase in the next 6 months, compared to the 61% in Q1. Melhuish said, “This indicates that there is a strong confidence in the Malaysia property market. In fact, the percentage of respondents adopting a “wait and see” approach decreased from 60% in Q1 to only 43% in Q2.”
With more supply coming up and the government introducing new schemes for home buyers, more respondents are now interested in entering the market after a long ‘wait and see’ period with more people looking to upgrade their properties; up from 36% in Q1 to 47% in Q2.
Similar to Q1 survey, 70% still feel the government is not doing enough to keep property prices in Malaysia affordable. Survey results decisively pointed to this opinion, as only 8% of respondents felt optimistic about the government’s cooling off measures compared to 12% in Q1.
Another interesting finding from the survey revealed that 33% of respondents are willing to consider purchasing properties after the results of the general elections, Melhuish shared.
Buying Intentions
“Considering the overall sentiment towards property prices at the moment, it’s no surprise that the most important factor affecting purchase decision is price. 38% of respondents would buy a property based on how deep they would reach into their pockets,” revealed Melhuish. He added that location was another critical deciding factor leading all other factors at 34% with capital appreciation lagging behind as a distant third factor with only 14%.
Melhuish said that when it comes to type of properties, Apartment or Condominiums turned out to be the most popular choice at 25% followed by Terrace or Link Houses at 24%.
Melhuish further revealed that the top 3 attractions for property investment in Malaysia are ‘Potential profit from capital appreciation’ (20%) ‘Solid and safe investment’ (18%), and ‘Generate passive rental income’ (18%).
Melhuish believes that there is also a small but rising trend of investors looking at purchasing properties outside Malaysia. Out of the over 2,182 respondents surveyed, 26% would consider making investments in foreign properties.
First Time Home Buyers and Multiple Home Buyers
In an effort to provide a better understanding on the psyche of different buyer segments, HomeGuru’s 2nd sentiment survey asked respondents who represent first time and multiple home buyers specific questions pertaining to their buying behaviour.
With regard to 1st time home buyers for example, 43% of respondents are not sure whether ‘My First Home’ scheme will aid in their property purchase, whereas 24% believe it will. Melhuish added, “There is a strong feeling amongst the 33% of respondents who were not interested in the scheme that they would not quality for the scheme or are unable to purchase the property in their preferred location.”
As for multiple home buyers, Melhuish revealed that out of 75% of those who bought their 2nd home 2 yrs ago or more, there is overwhelming number of respondents, 92% to be exact, that have the intention to buy property again in Malaysia with 38% of them looking at overseas opportunities.
HomeGuru is a joint venture between PropertyGuru Group and RedBerry Malaysia. Launched in January this year, HomeGuru currently has over 240,000 users viewing over 1 million pages monthly and is the 117th largest Malaysia website according to Alexa.com.
HomeGuru next sentiment survey is scheduled to be released in October 2011.
- End -
Media Contact:
Mr Patrick Wee, Mypartners Communications
Contact number: +6012 288 9963
Email: patrickwee@mypartners.net.my
About PropertyGuru:
PropertyGuru was founded in 2006 as a self-funded company, with a vision to make the property search process a breeze for buyers, sellers and investors. Taking advantage of Asia’s growing affluence for property and the online boom, it received its first VC investment funding in 2008. Since then, the company has grown rapidly, reaping profits and positive cashflow in 2009 and tripling its revenue growth in 2010.
PropertyGuru is now Asia’s leading online property portal, with a presence in eight countries, including offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and partnerships with leading property websites in Australia, Hong Kong, India and Macau. It has over 4 million buyers viewing almost 50 million property pages monthly, with a growing database of 300,000 opted-in buyers and over 14,500 real estate agents.
PropertyGuru provides an integrated media platform that real estate developers and agencies can use to promote their brands and generate sales leads. The entire PropertyGuru community boasts 370,000 residential and commercial properties and clients include almost 1,000 prominent developers from Asia, Europe and the Americas, as well as over 14,500 real estate agents in Asia.
PropertyGuru has also won multiple awards, including the Hitwise “No.1 Website in the Property Industry” award, the Singapore IT Federation (SITF) award for “Best E-Enterprise Company 2010”, the Singapore Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (SVCA) award for “Best Performing VC Backed Company 2010”, Marketing Magazine’s “Top Digital Media of the Year 2010” award, CNBC World's “Best Property Portal Award 2009" and the "Google Zeitgeist Singapore 9th Fastest Rising Search Term 2009" award.
Asia’s Leading Property Portal Group includes:
www.PropertyGuru.com.sg is used by over 1.9 million consumers viewing 29 million pages, generating an estimated 225,000 leads for advertisers - every month. The site provides real-time access to multimedia-rich content covering property-related products, services, news, advice, guides, tools and the largest online property database in Singapore. It works closely with prominent real estate developers, housing agents and home-related firms locally and overseas.
www.CommercialGuru.com.sg was launched in August 2010 and is used by 140,000 business users browsing 1.6 million pages and generating an estimated 50,000 leads for advertisers every month. It is Singapore’s only independent, dedicated commercial and industrial property portal.
www.LoanGuru.com.sg was launched in January 2010 as an independent online mortgage brokerage, providing real-time access to over 300 mortgage packages from 23 major local and international banks. It processes approximately $60m of home loans per month.
www.HomeGuru.com.my is the leading Malaysian property portal set up as part of a joint venture between PropertyGuru and Malaysia’s RedBerry Media group in 2010. It has almost 240,000 users viewing over 1 million pages monthly and gives consumers a platform to find properties for purchase, sale, rental or investment and a direct channel to search for and contact agents. Designed with the end-user in mind, it features real-time access to multimedia-rich content, covering property-related products, services, news, advice, guides, tools and a rapidly growing online property database in Malaysia. It works closely with prominent real estate developers, housing agents and home-related firms in Malaysia and overseas.
www.FullHouse.com.my was established in 2005 for Malaysians to efficiently and conveniently search for properties on the Internet. It has grown in popularity, attracting almost 200,000 visitors viewing more than 1.2 million pages every month, to become one of Malaysia’s top property portals. With hundreds of housing projects and more than 80,000 property listings to date, Fullhouse.com.my is the preferred online marketing channel for major real estate players. It constantly explores ways to serve customers through innovative and effective strategies. The company’s objective is to enhance the experience of finding a new home and lead the industry into a new era of real estate marketing.
www.Rumah.com was founded in 2007 and is Indonesia's top property website, with over 600,000 visitors viewing 8 million pages every month. The website lists over 120,000 properties for sale and rent in Indonesia and has a database of 11,000 opted-in members. Rumah.com is an online media campaign that provides the ideal search experience for all types of property: residential, commercial and industrial. It allows sellers and renters to place on its site property advertisements which can be easily viewed by prospective buyers, who can search for property based on location and / or price.
www.DDProperty.com was established in 2005 to help Thai consumers find their desired properties for sale and rent in the fastest and most efficient way. Almost 740,000 visitors use the website every month making it Thailand’s top property search portals. DDProperty.com allows users to search for residential and commercial properties and constantly finds new ways to improve its navigation and search capabilities to allow consumers to find their dream property quickly.