Johor excitement
The state of Johor continues to be “the most dynamic” as a result of the Iskandar-Singapore factor.
While other states showed signs of slowdown a year ago, Johor’s property market rose 10.5% in terms of the number of volume with total value of transactions rising nearly 60% compared to a year ago.
However, transaction volume and value have dropped 4.5% and nearly 35% respectively against October, November and December of last year.
To put things in perspective, in the first quarter of 2013, Johor’s property sales totalled RM4.7bil. It leapfroged to RM11.62bil in the last quarter of 2013. In the first three months of this year, it dropped to RM7.6bil.
Among the different sub-segments, land for development is the second most popular after the residential, an indication that local and foreign developers continue to like that market.
The most popular type of housing continues to be two- and 2.5 storey housing and single and 1.5-storey housing with the number of condominium and apartment units on the rise in Johor Baru. The question is how will Johor fare in the event of a slowdown in China?
Penang market
Last year’s downward trend has continued into 2014, Raine & Horne Malaysia senior partner Michael Geh, based in Penang, says.
“It is a general downward trend in terms of units transacted but prices remain firm,” says Geh.
Across the different segments, the largest decrease is in the industrial sub-segment followed by the residential sector.
Transactions of development land continue to remain robust, particularly in the Bukit Mertajam area and on the north east part of the island.
Transactions for commercial properties continue to have its share of interest.
The Penang market is dominated by both landed and high-rise units with condominiums contributing about a quarter to residential sales value. Most of Penang’s interest continue to remain on the island although there is growing expansion of the market on the mainland side, in the Butterworth area.
