Malaysia's residential property overhang recorded an improvement, with a total of 28,286 overhang units worth RM18.3 billion recorded in the first half of 2023 (1H2023), down by 5.3% in volume and 0.6% in value against the same period last year.
Of the 28,286 units, Johor continued to have the highest number with 4,717 units, followed by Selangor with 4,307 units.
58% of the overhang was condominiums and apartments. In terms of the price range, almost half of these properties cost more than RM500,000 per unit.
There were 22,497 overhanging units of serviced apartments worth RM19.13 billion in 1H2023, down by 6.2% in volume and 5.2% in value compared to the same period a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the outlook for the office sector remains challenging due to high vacancy rates. Although occupancy rates have improved, there is still a significant amount of unoccupied office space in the country, indicating an imbalance between supply and demand in the market.
The average occupancy rate of offices was 72.4%, up from 70.8% in 1H2022. Despite the higher occupancy rate, there was 5.06 million sq m of vacant office space, more than half of which was in Kuala Lumpur.
As for the retail sector, the country had more than 17.4 million sq m of commercial space available, with only 4.08 million sq m occupied. The occupancy rate, however, increased from 75.7% to 76.6%.
