To get an outlook of the current market sentiment and what to expect in the future, Bloomberg TV Malaysia has interviewed Hari Krishnan, the Chief Business Officer (CBO) of PropertyGuru International, a leading property portal group in Malaysia.
According to PropertyGuru’s recent survey, Malaysia Property Market Sentiment Survey Report 2016, almost 60% of the respondents are still looking to acquire a property within the next six months.
“There is a strong demand for properties in Malaysia. Properties still remain an interesting asset for consumers and investors despite the sluggish market,” said Hari.
The market is however undeniably slow. Besides the soft sentiment in the market, the increasing property prices, and the 1MDB fiasco, tighter lending rules are amongst the other factors which have caused the drop in demand. The stringent lending rules by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has affected many buyers, who were unable to acquire mortgage financing for their properties.
“The demand is still there, but it is still a little bit dampened by the current financial measures. But people are beginning to understand the buying process, the affordability issues and their credit history. Most buyers nowadays are checking their CTOS credit report online and realize their affordability rate before approaching the bank.”
He further stated that most buyers study the projects, neighbourhoods and developers thoroughly before investing. “That is why most people come to us, to make a confident property decision.”
Based on a recent analysis by PropertyGuru, locations such as Puchong, Klang, Johor Bahru, Nusajaya and Skudai are amongst the most searched locations in the property portal.
“These are the five markets we’ve really seen a pick up,” said Hari.
“Since people love coming to us for information, we thought about how we could make things easier for them. So we started making drone videos. We give them a glimpse of the area and the infrastructures.”
When asked about the upcoming innovation PropertyGuru is planning to introduce, he said, “3D virtual tours of course.”
“With a virtual tour, customers will be able to zoom out, move around and understand the layout of a certain house. This and the drone videos will definitely give them an idea of where and what they are investing in.”
Visit Property Buys to Pick Up Soon: PropertyGuru – Bloomberg TV Malaysia for the full video.
Mangalesri Chandrasekaran, Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email mangales@propertyguru.com.my
