Property market records 188,000 transactions worth RM84 billion in first half of year

The local property market recorded more than 188,000 transactions worth RM84 billion in the first half of the year (1H22) with the residential subsector accounting for more than 60% of the total transactions and almost 54% of the value.

Deputy Finance Minister Mohd Shahar Abdullah said the number of transactions and value recorded in the first half was an increase of more than 30% from the same period last year.

“All property subsectors, comprising residential, trade, industrial, agriculture and development land, recorded an increase in transaction activities and value in the first half,” he said at the launch of the 1H22 property market report today prepared by the National Property Information Centre (Napic), an agency under the Valuation and Property Services Department. 

Based on the report, the residential property sector recorded 116,178 transactions worth RM45.62 billion during the review period, an increase of 26.3% in the number of transactions, and 32.2% in value year-on-year, with Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Selangor representing about 47% of the overall national residences. 

Shahar said while the market activities had shown a positive trend, sentiment for the new residential launch segment was still cautious with more than 10,000 new units launched in the review period, compared to more than 31,000 units last year with the average national sales performance at a rate of 20.3%.

Based on the report, Johor registered the most new residential launches, accounting for almost 23.8% or 2,509 units of the total national numbers with a 31.8% sales performance rate, followed by Sabah (1,335 units, 12.7% share, 10.6% sales rate) and Perak (1,317 units, 12.5% share, 19.4% sales rate).

Terrace houses dominated new launches, contributing 68.2% of the overall total with a sales rate of 22%. 

The report also stated that more than 34,000 residential overhang units valued at RM21.7 billion were recorded in 1H22 with Johor recording the highest overhang units. 

Shahar said almost 60% of the overhang units were in the condominium or apartment property segment while in terms of price, almost 43% were within the price range of more than RM500,000 per unit. 

“Johor recorded the most overhang residential units with 6,000 units worth RM4.7 billion, contributing 17% and 21% for each of the number and value of overhang in the country. 

“Penang was in second position with more than 5,000 units worth RM3.64 billion,” he said. 

He said the overhang status for serviced apartments had improved with more than 22,000 units worth RM19.32 billion in 1H22 recorded, a 6.7% reduction in numbers compared to the second half of last year.

“Almost 89% of the total overhang was in the price range of RM500,000 and above, and most of them were in Johor,” he said, adding that the overhang situation for the period of concern had improved with a decrease in marginal numbers and value of 7.5% and 4.6% compared to the second half of last year. 

Shahar urged the developers and authorities to pay attention to the overhang data and ensure that the houses built are in line with buyers' demand and affordability, to minimise mismatch and control the overhang situation in the future. 

He also suggested that stakeholders in the property sector refer to the Unsold Property Enquiry System Malaysia portal developed by Napic before planning new developments, and conduct a holistic feasibility study to ensure that the decisions made are the right ones and not contribute to future overhang stock. 

For the purpose-built offices and business complexes subsectors, Shahar said the supply situation was increasingly challenging, with more than 18 million square metres of private office spaces in the whole nation by the end of June 2022 with an occupancy rate of 70.8%.

He said business complexes consisting of shopping complexes, hypermarkets and arcades recorded more than 17 million square metres of commercial space with a vacancy of 4.22 million square metres across the country.