Friday, May 8, 2020

Property Market For 2019 Records Slight Improvement

The property market for 2019 recorded a marginal improvement amidst a turbulent year of many trials and tribulations.

A total of 328,647 transactions worth RM141.4bil was recorded, showing an increase of 4.8% in volume and 0.8% in value compared to 2018, which recorded 313,710 transactions worth RM140.33bil.

According to the Valuation and Property Services Department of Malaysia, the sectoral market activity performance also improved marginally, with residential at 6%, commercial at 7.2%, industrial at 3.8%, and agricultural at 2.0%.

However, development of the land sub-sector declined slightly by 1.2% while the residential sub-sector led the overall property market, with a 63.7% contribution.

Residential property

Statistics for residential properties showed 209,295 transactions worth RM72.42bil recorded in the review period, increasing by 6.0% in volume and 5.3% in value as compared with 2018 (197,385 transactions worth RM68.75bil).

Performance across the states improved in the review period. By price range, demand continued to focus on the RM300,000 and below category. This demand accounts for 61.7% of the residential transaction, followed by RM300,000 to RM500,000 (21.3%), RM500,000 to RM1mil (13.3%) and more than RM1mil at 3.7%.

The overhang and unsold situation took an upturn, with a total of 30,664 overhang units worth RM18.82bil, decreased by 5.1% in volume and 5.2% in value against 2018 (32,313 units worth RM19.86bil). Similarly, the unsold under construction and not constructed category improved as the number dropped to 72,692 units and 16,774 units, down by 10.2% and 15.6% respectively.

Johor retained the highest number and value of overhang in the country with 5,627 units worth RM4.7bil, accounting to 18.4% and 25.0% respectively of the national total. Perak came second with 5,024 units worth RM1.52bil, followed by Selangor at 4,687 units worth RM3.75bil, and Pulau Pinang at 3,353 units worth RM2.59bil. By price range, products priced from RM300,000 to RM500,000 (7,883 units) formed 25.7% while those above RM500,000 (12,528 units) constituted 40.9% of the total residential overhang.

Construction activities remained on a low tone as completion, start of projects, and new planned supply declined. On the price trend, the Malaysian House Price Index (MHPI) continued to increase at a moderating rate. MHPI stood at 197.5 points (at base year 2010), increasing by 1.9% (3.8 points) on an annual basis (2018: 193.7 points).

Serviced apartments

Unlike the residential overhang situation, serviced apartment overhang continued to increase, and it forms the bulk of the property overhang. There were a total of 17,142 overhang units with a value of RM15.04bil, up by nearly 51% in volume and 65% in value against 2018.

On the contrary, the unsold under construction and not constructed categories improved with volumes declining to 33,827 units and 7,659 units, down by 9.3% and 40.5% respectively. By state, Johor recorded the highest serviced apartment overhang with 71.2% share in volume (12,207 units) and 76.9% share in value (RM11.56bil).

The majority of these overhang units are in the Johor Bahru district, accounting for 99.2% of the state’s overhang (12,105 units worth RM11.5bil). The state also held a 34% share (11,490 units) of the country’s unsold under construction.

By price, units above RM1mil formed 37.4% of the total overhang, with 20.3% being the total unsold under construction category and 19.5% of the total unsold not constructed category. For the unsold not constructed category, units in the price range of RM300,000 to RM400,000 formed 33.0% of the total. 

Thursday, April 30, 2020

Sharp rise in Selangor serviced apartment overhang

Selangor’s serviced apartment/SOHO overhang units saw a drastic increase in 2019.

According to the Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH)'s 2019 Property Market Report, there were 3,118 overhang serviced apartment/SOHO units worth RM1.63 billion in Selangor last year, a substantial 78.9% rise in volume and 69.1% rise in value compared with 2018's 1,743 overhang units worth RM963 million.

The unsold under construction and not constructed serviced apartment/SOHO units declined by 26.3% to 7,867 units (2018: 10,681 units) and 91.3% to 202 units (2018: 2,310 units), respectively.

“Completions of new serviced apartment/SOHO units have increased substantially by 63.2% to 17,893 units (2018: 10,963 units) in 2019. On the other hand, starts and new planned supply numbers shrank by 10.6% to 6,969 units (2018: 7,795 units) and 80.9% to 2,448 units (2018: 12,787 units) respectively,” stated the report.

As at end-2019, there were 104,007 existing serviced apartments/SOHO units with another 56,918 units in incoming supply and 21,791 units in planned supply.

Generally, Selangor’s residential primary market softened in 2019 with 18.1% fewer new launches at 9,970 units. Sales performance was also low at 30.6% compared with 44.6% in 2018.

In the commercial property sub-sectors, overall transactions of shop units rose by 9.5% in volume and 7.3% in value although overhang increased by 11.7% to 684 units. Purpose-built offices recorded a slightly lower average occupancy rate of 71.7% in 2019 compared with 74.1% in 2018.

As the bread and butter of Selangor property market, industrial property recorded 2,212 transactions worth RM8.28 billion, up by 9% in volume but transaction value reduced marginally by 0.2% (2018: 2,029 transactions worth RM8.29 billion).

Sunday, March 1, 2020

How Bad Is Malaysia's Unaffordable Housing Crisis?

It would have been easier to say that Malaysia’s unaffordable housing crisis is bad and just end it there. If only it were that simple, but it is not.

The severity of the unaffordable housing dilemma in Malaysia is perhaps best described in two words - it’s complicated.

The facts and figures

Last month, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) official described housing in Malaysia as being “severely unaffordable” in comparison to international standards. Based on the median multiple methodology, a house is considered affordable if the price is not more than three times the annual household income.

Assuming you are married and earning RM5,000 per month as a family, your annual household income is RM 60,000 and a house three times your annual income would be affordable if priced at RM180,000. BNM’s official says the maximum affordable house price is only RM 282,000 based on the ratio and median national incomes across the country.

With the majority of new home prices falling just within the limit or above the range of affordability, there is an excess supply of properties in the market. The National Property Information Center (NAPIC) provided various statistics in its report for the first half of 2019 and the gist of the oversupply issue is:

32,810 units of properties are overhang units (overhang units are new and completed properties not sold after 6 months).
43 % of overhang units are condominiums and apartments.
Of the overhang amount, Johor has the highest number of overhang units (18.8%), followed by Kuala Lumpur (14.9%), Perak (17.6%) and Selangor (12.9%).
Bulk of overhang units are priced at RM201,000 to RM300,000 (22.3%) followed by homes at RM300,001 to RM400,000 (17.5%), and homes above RM1 mil (12.8%).


Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Rahim & Co: Don't be overly concerned with the overhang

While the property overhang in Malaysia has been on an upward trend, it is not an "economic calamity", according to property consultancy Rahim & Co International Sdn Bhd as it expects the number to be reduced over the next few years.

Executive chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Abdul Rahman said there are 50,008 residential overhang units including pure residential houses, serviced apartments and Small Office Home Offices (SoHos) worth some RM34 billion in the country as at the third quarter of last year (3Q2019).

Johor has the highest number of overhang units at 18,517 followed by Selangor with 7,226 units and Kuala Lumpur with 5,170.

“In my opinion, it is not an economic calamity and we should not be overly concerned to the extent of having to set up a special body just to acquire these units given that developers are now reducing their prices [to try and sell them off],” he explained.

He added that the overhang was a result of a lack of proper research before new projects are developed.

“Developers lacked proper research on the demand, pricing and cost structure before they embarked on new projects,” said Abdul Rahim, adding that gone were the days when there was an undersupply of housing stock.

He also hopes that the government will not bail out any developer who faces problems due to their unsold stock.

Meanwhile, he expects the property market to remain challenging this year with a moderate recovery.

“But it is not all doom and gloom because of the 50,000 overhang units. The outlook for the property sector is expected to be segmented according to asset classes and opportunities are still out there for those who seek,” he concluded.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Residential overhang remains a concern

JPPH statistics showed the market have taken an upward turn with a positive growth of 6.4% year-on-year as at the third quarter 2019, an improvement from 2018’s 0.6% growth.
Value transactions held steady with a growth of 2.1%, bridging third quarter 2019’s overall number of 243,358 transactions to be worth RM102.9bil.
In reflecting back on the past decade, market downturn was at its worst between 2013 to 2017 with percentage drops ranging between 6% to 12% for Malaysia’s total market activities.
Being the largest market sector, the existing supply of residential units for Malaysia stood at about 5.69 million units by third quarter after an increase of more than 142,000 units year-on-year.
Unsold units remain a hot issue with the latest statistics as at third quarter revealing a total of 31,092 residential overhang units worth RM18.96 bil.
Looking at the overall dwelling-type properties which includes serviced apartments and SOHO units to the pure residential units, the total overhang number amounts to 50,008 overhang units wirth RM34bil sitting idle in the market.
Johor holds the highest count of overhang units at 18,517 units followed by Selangor at 7,226 units and Kuala Lumpur at 5,170 units.
In an effort to spur the property market whilst reducing the overhang burden, the Housing Ownership Campaign (HOC) 2019 ran for the whole year and had requested in 31,415 housing units worth RM23.3bil sold.

Friday, December 6, 2019

Property sector’s upside is capped by affordability issues

CGS-CIMB Equities Research believes the property sector’s upside is capped by affordability issues, slower gross domestic product (GDP) growth and weaker new property sales.

CGS-CIMB Research said as of 3Q19, total residential property transactions by value rose 2.1% yoy, according to National Property Information Centre (NAPIC) data.

Transaction value for residential units priced between RM150,000 and RM200,000 increased the most by c.13% yoy, followed by residential units priced between RM250,000 and RM300,000, while residential properties priced above RM1mil recorded a 16% yoy decline in transaction value.

“This proves that the demand for the more affordable properties is greater at the moment. Nonetheless, 3Q19 residential transaction value growth was slower vs. 2Q19’s 9.5% yoy,” it said.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Can you find a landed home below RM500k in the Klang Valley?



Auction market sees more land and commercial properties

The oversupply situation in the property market in Malaysia is reflected in the foreclosure market. There has been a significant increase in the number of properties being put up for auction in the first three quarters of the year — a sign that the property owners are losing their holding power.

According to AuctionGuru.com.my’s 9M2019 Auction Report, a total of 26,563 properties worth RM14.3 billion went under the hammer within Jan-Sept 2019, an increase of 12% from 23,658 properties valued at RM10.9 billion (32% rise in terms of value) in 9M2018.

Notably, in the third quarter of this year alone, there were a total of 9,294 foreclosure properties, compared with 8,760 cases in 3Q2018.

The online auction listing platform’s executive director Gary Chia has observed that the number of auction properties has been increasing since 2016 with more high-value properties and land put up for auction.

“We are seeing a rising number of agricultural land and commercial properties in the auction market. This could be due to the current economic slowdown which has impacted business owners,” he tells EdgeProp.my.

He anticipates more properties coming onto the auction market in the foreseeable future amidst the near term headwinds expected in the domestic and external macro economy coupled with the overhang in the primary market.

Nevertheless, the proactive measure taken by the government — of reducing the floor price for foreign property purchase to RM600,000 — may potentially reduce the excess stock in the primary market.

This could, to a certain extent, limit the cascading effect onto the secondary market.

“We shall continue to monitor the foreclosure market closely as it serves as a crucial bellwether of the overall property market trend and well-being,” adds Chia.

Holding power being challenged

In 9M2019, there were 3,316 commercial properties (12% of 26,563 auction properties in 9M2019) and 1,051 land plots (4%) on auction.

The 3,316 foreclosure commercial properties has a total reserve value of RM4.26 billion, an increase of 27% in volume and 62% in value compared with 9M2018.

“This aggravated hike can be associated to the supply overhang situation which is engulfing the commercial sector, particularly the office space segment,” he notes.

In terms of value, office buildings registered the highest foreclosure value among the commercial properties totalling RM1.375 billion (34 cases), followed by shopoffices with a total estimated value of RM945 million (1,030 cases).

Although residential property takes the major share in terms of volume with 22,196 foreclosure cases, foreclosed commercial property contributed a significant amount in terms of value at RM4.3 billion, making up 30% of total reserve value.

Auction residential property in 9M2019 was valued at RM8.5 billion or 59%, while auction land assets value totalled RM1.6 billion or 11% of the total reserve value.

Chia says the auction market has also been slow as people are waiting for the reserve prices to come down.

A property that is not sold on first auction will see its reserve price drop by around 30% at the next auction.

Chia is concerned over the rise in land and commercial properties on auction as these are the least popular properties on the auction market especially in current market conditions where people prefer to keep cash for making big-ticket purchases.

“Land and commercial properties are refinance-able assets for business owners, to solve short-term cash flow problems. As the business environment gets tougher, business owners who refinanced their assets might have problems servicing their monthly loan repayments,” he says.

In the current anaemic economic environment, Chia expects more foreclosure commercial properties coming on stream in the remaining months of 2019.

Short-stay as a solution for owners

In the high-rise residential segment, the strong demand for short-stay accommodation has helped property owners generate extra income to cover their monthly loan instalments.

“It’s worth noting that the number of auctioned serviced apartments were the lowest among high-rise residential properties. This could be attributed to the proliferation of short-term rentals as owners turn their vacant properties into short-term rental accommodations,” Chia offers.

11,814 landed homes worth RM5.363 billion and 10,382 non-landed homes went under hammer in 9M2019. Under the non-landed segment, close to 50% of the total foreclosure cases were apartments (5,166 units) while there were 1,872 condominium and 1,629 serviced apartment units.

9,235 terraced houses came up for auction in 9M2019, followed by semi-D with 1,435 cases, bungalows with 752 units and 392 townhouses.

The high number of terraced houses could be a sign that middle-income earners are struggling to make ends meet as a majority of terraced house owners are from this group.

The depressed rental market is also affecting owners who purchased the units for rental investment, he adds. 

Sunday, November 17, 2019

次季滞销房产5万2666栋



我国次季推介后9个月未出售的住宅房产共高达5万2666栋!

大马房产服务顾问Nawawi Tie Leung第3季房产报告显示,次季我国滞销的住宅房产数量按季增长10.9%至5万2666栋。

报告显示今年次季滞销的房产中,住宅房产共有3万2810栋、服务式公寓有1万8186栋,而小型办公家居单位(Soho)则有1670栋。滞销的房产主要为价格平均介于20万令吉至30万令吉的房产单位,占比高达22.3%。

Nawawi Tie Leung预计,今年底将会有更多公寓单位推出市场。但高端公寓价格目前已有下滑的趋势。

“这主要因为房产的平均入住率也已从去年次季的79.7%,下滑至今年第3季度的 77.6%。”

展望未来,Nawawi Tie Leung认为会有越来越多办公室出租和入住率承下滑压力。房东也会继续面临找不到房客的困境。