KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 ― The Malaysian property market is expected to rebound in 2022 and not the second half of this year as previously predicted, property consultant firm Rahim & Co International said today.
Its chief executive of real estate agency Siva Shanker attributed delayed recovery to the resurgence of Covid-19 cases that started last year and the ongoing movement control order (MCO) reintroduced by the government this year in all states but Sarawak.
“At the time of the analysis, there was no way of knowing cases will rise up to the levels of 3,000 to 4,000 daily and now that it has and with another lockdown which was much better than the earlier but still nevertheless affect the market because it affects the ability of people to move around.
“Because of the high numbers of cases, that slated recovery of 2021 is probably now going to be delayed, projected around 2022,” he said in a virtual conference on the company’s annual publication titled Property Market Review 2020/2021.
Siva said the analysis was conducted in 2020.
Another real estate consultant firm, PropertyGuru International (M) Sdn Bhd, had previously projected that the sector would recover but at a slower pace this year as the government eased up on economic restrictions and the Covid-19 vaccine becomes available in the market.
Rahim & Co’s executive chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Abdul Rahman who was also sitting in today’s virtual conference, said he does not believe the Health Ministry’s latest announcement that the MCO may be lifted after February 4 will significantly affect the property market in the near future.
“My opinion, chances are in view of the number of people affected by Covid-19 which still numbered 3,000 cases daily, the MCO will be extended after February 4 and therefore this announcement, I don’t think it will have any big effect on the property market yet,” he said.
According to Rahim & Co, property transactions in Malaysia fell by 15.8 per cent and 21.6 per cent in volume and value compared to the same period in 2019. As of the third quarter of last year, transactions involved 204,721 units worth RM80.71 billion.
In its report presented today, the property consultant said recovery has been slow since 2018/2019.
It added that buyers were understandably hampered when Covid-19 swept in with its disruptive effect across almost all sectors last year.
“Optimism is held for the turning point to be in the latter parts of 2021 with the vaccine about to be mobilised, but with the more recent resurgence of cases and reimplementation of lockdowns, a further recovery delay to 2022 would not be a surprise,” Rahim & Co said in its report.
