GEORGE TOWN, Oct 2 — The residential property market in the country is picking up this year and even recorded a higher value of transactions as at September this year compared to the whole of 2018 for the primary market, an international real estate federation revealed yesterday.

FIABCI Malaysia President Michael Geh said the Malaysian residential property market recorded RM14.65 billion worth of transactions in the primary market between January and September this year.

This far surpassed the total value of transactions of RM12.91 billion for the primary market for the whole of 2018, he said.

"This shows that the various policies introduced by the government to spur the property industry were effective for the first half of this year,” he said.

The primary market refers to newly completed properties sold direct by developers while the secondary market refers to pre-owned properties being sold by respective owners.

Citing figures from National Property Information Centre that was compiled by Raine and Horne International Zaki & Partners Sdn Bhd, Geh said the Housing and Local Government Ministry and Finance Ministry have been proactive in consulting stakeholders in the property sector to come up with effective policies for the industry.

"The policies have resulted in positive increase in residential property transactions for the first half of 2019 in which a total 99,922 transactions were recorded for the first half of 2019 compared to 94,200 transactions in the first half of 2018,” he said.

He added that both the primary and secondary markets saw increases in the first half of 2019 compared to the same period last year.

The primary market recorded 17,165 transactions worth RM9.96 billion while the secondary market recorded 82,757 transactions worth RM27.69 billion in the first half of this year, he said.

Geh, who is senior partner in Raine and Horne, said in comparison, the primary market recorded 15,179 transactions worth RM6.18 billion and secondary market recorded 79,021 transactions worth RM25.48 billion for the first half of 2018.

He said the total value of transactions for the first half of 2019 is RM34.65 billion, which is also more than the RM31.66 billion recorded in the same period last year.

"I believe the government’s policies to spur the industry were effective and this positive trend may continue until the end of this year,” he said.