KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 — Malaysia’s residential property transactions dropped 44.7 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, according to a PropertyGuru DataSense report.

The decline was due mainly to increased worries among property buyers over Covid-19 cases as well as softer-than-expected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) performance, said the report released by PropertyGuru’s data analytics and solutions arm.

"Of the overall number of property transactions across Malaysia, a majority of 61.2 per cent were found to be made by first-homebuyers (FHBs).

"In three of Malaysia’s major property markets — the Klang Valley, Johor, and Penang —  FHBs outnumbered purchases made by investors by 13.2 per cent, 65.2 per cent and 0.08 per cent respectively,” the property technology group said in a statement today.

PropertyGuru DataSense managing director Joe Hock Thor said that due to the Covid-19 concerns and GDP performance, it was no surprise that there was lower confidence in the market and a y-o-y dip in residential property transactions during Q1 2021.

"However, it is encouraging to note that incentives such as the My First Home Scheme and the Home Ownership Campaign have helped to drive first-homebuyers to take that step towards homeownership during this quarter,” he said.

According to PropertyGuru DataSense, sub-sales were found to have dominated the market during the quarter under review, with many property owners selling their assets at competitive prices for liquidation, offering both FHBs and investors alike an opportunity to purchase them at below market value.

"This was especially prominent in the Klang Valley, which recorded a three-year high for sub-sale transactions at 83.72 per cent,” it said.

Meanwhile, with a large portion of the nation’s workforce working from home since the start of the pandemic, the type of properties that buyers are purchasing has also changed.

This is reflected in the transaction data from Q1 2021, which found that homebuyers are favouring larger, more spacious units in the RM300,000 to RM500,000 price range.

"Buyers preferred landed units over high-rise in Q1 2021, with terrace houses making up 54 per cent of transactions in Malaysia followed by condominiums/ apartments (18 per cent),” it said. — Bernama