KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 (Bernama) -- Malaysia, alongside Singapore and Thailand, features among investors' top choices for property investments, according to a survey by the iProperty.com Group.

Executive chairman Patrick Grove said the results of its Asia Property Trends Survey 2007 showed that there was a lot of foreign interest in Malaysian properties.

"These foreign buyers have big budgets and are actively looking for high-end property investment opportunities," Grove said in a statement today.

"This is quite a pleasant surprise actually, and it definitely augurs well for Malaysia's property market as well as the 'Malaysia My Second Home' programme, launched by the government to attract skilled, affluent foreign property investors to Malaysian shores," he said.

The survey interviewed 2,066 local and overseas property buyers looking for investment opportunities in Asia.

Grove said 55 percent of the foreign respondents indicated that they were hunting for high-end or luxury properties between US$100,000 and US$500,000 price range.

"In fact, 15 percent said that they were keen to invest in properties ranging from US$500,000 to US$1 million," he said.

"And 34 percent of experienced investors had bought at least one property over the past 24 months, with 23 percent having purchased two or more properties in the same period."

Grove said about 95 percent of those surveyed said they intended to purchase property within the next 12 months, which showed that they were on active hunt for investment opportunities.

"The foreign respondents strongly favour high-rise dwellings, with 55 percent and 39 percent votings for completed and newly-launched condominium units respectively," he said.

The survey found that the typical overseas property investor is a professional or senior executive, with an annual income of US$40,000.

It also found location to be the single most important factor considered by property investors, at 2.5 times more important than the second most critical factor, price.