Malaysian developers launched and sold fewer homes last year, according to the National Property Information Centre’s (NAPIC) latest study, reported The Star.
In total, home builders released 70,273 new units in 2015, down 19.2 percent compared to the 88,997 units seen during the previous year.
“By property type, condominiums and apartments formed the bulk (27.7 percent) of the launches, followed by two- and three-storey terraced houses (25.3 percent),” it said.
At the same time, overall sales plunged by 26.34 percent to 29,089 units during the period under review compared to the 39,491 units witnessed in 2014.
Nonetheless, home prices in the country rose by 5.8 percent in Q4 2015 versus the same period in the preceding year.
“The annual rate of increase for Malaysian All House Price Index (MHPI) has been on a decelerating trend since the fourth quarter of 2013, resulting from the various cooling measures to contain the spiralling prices,” noted NAPIC.
“On quarterly movements, the index contracted by 0.8 percent against the third quarter of 2015.”
Moving forward, property launches are expected to fall further in 2016 given the sluggish housing market and prevailing weak consumer sentiment.
Nevertheless, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Chua Tee Yong believes that the demand for low-cost dwellings priced below RM500,000 is expected to remain strong this year.
“About 80 percent of transactions last year were for homes below RM500,000 and we expect more demand for such properties,” he told the media after the release of the latest NAPIC report.
Image: Sourced from The Edge
Mangalesri Chandrasekaran, Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email mangales@propertyguru.com.my
