KAJANG, April 1 — The local property market recorded more than 300,000 transactions valued at RM145 billion in 2021, said Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
He said this represented an increase of 1.5 per cent in volume and 22 per cent in value compared with 2020.
“The growth was mainly contributed by the residential subsector, which accounted for nearly 66 per cent of total transaction volume and more than 50 per cent of overall transaction value,” he said at the launch of the Property Market Report 2021, Klang Valley Shopping Centre Rental Index and other reports published by the Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH).
He noted that the residential subsector was followed by the commercial subsector in terms of value (19.3 per cent of the total value of transactions) and the agriculture subsector in terms of volume (18.9 per cent of total volume of transactions).
Tengku Zafrul said despite the property market’s recovery, the issue of mismatch between supply and demand as well as affordability have contributed to the glut of completed but unsold residential properties.
Stressing the need to study the overhang issue in more depth, he called on developers to develop projects based on business decisions backed by feasibility studies.
“By right, any decision should not be made based only on speculation on expectations for the property market,” the minister said.
To illustrate, he noted that new property launches’ sales performance for 2021 was modest at 39.3 per cent. Residential overhang rose to more than 36,000, with value topping RM22 billion as at end of 2021.
“Compared to 2020, this was a 24.7 per cent jump in terms of volume and up 20.4 per cent in terms of value.
“A large number of the overhang properties consisted of residences priced RM300,000 and below, which made up 31.5 per cent of the total overhang,” he added.
He said the number of unsold serviced apartments also showed an increase.
The serviced apartment segment recorded more than 24,000 overhang units last year, up 2.9 per cent against 2020, with a value of RM20.5 billion.
“More than 85 per cent of the total overhang were for units priced at RM500,000 and above, with the majority being in Johor,” he noted.
For the commercial sector, Tengku Zafrul said the purpose-built offices and business complexes, which were saddled with oversupply in the last few years, were further affected following the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, with the various government initiatives under Budget 2022 including the RM2 billion Housing Credit Guarantee Scheme and an allocation of RM1.5 billion for housing projects for low-income earners, he urged all parties involved, including state governments and and developers, to pay attention to the data released by JPPH through the National Property Information Centre (Napic) to ensure the projects being developed are in line with demand and have realistic selling prices. — Bernama
