As the number 1 property portal in Malaysia, iProperty.com.my garners millions of visits each month. These real-time behaviours indicate where the nation’s residential demand (unique visits to the site from consumers) in comparison to supply (property listings on iProperty.com) is leaning toward. The analysis aims to provide an insight for policymakers and property developers on Malaysian residential property preferences.
The demand data points, which pays a special focus on Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang and Johor have never been available in the region before. These four areas contribute more than 60% of Malaysia’s residential market transaction share.
In this article, we will provide the following highlights from the report:
1. National Overview of the Malaysian Property Market
2. 10 Most in Demand Areas in four major markets – Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor & Penang.
Overall, there is an increase in both unique user visits and property listings on a national level in H1 2019, as compared to H1 2018. However, the growth in user visits outpaced the increase in listings, resulting in the national property demand to increase by +4.1%.
In line with the overall market sentiment on the property market, the theme for 2019 is ‘affordability’. Hence why Serviced Residences is slowly gaining ground due to its affordable pricing and its location in strategic areas.
Serviced Residences experienced the most significant growth in demand at +14.7%, contributed by visits shifting over from Condominiums. However, Serviced Residences (with 11% of total visits) have some way to go before catching up to Condominiums (with 23% of total visits).
Nevertheless, the attraction of Serviced Residences goes beyond affordability. The appeal is also from having the right address, accessibility to public transportation and availability of commercial elements such as food and beverage outlets. Recent supply of this building type in the right locations have resulted in growing interests.
Terrace Houses, on the other hand, have seen robust growth in demand by +3.7% (with 32% of total visits). Terrace houses, which consists of more than half of the transaction market share in Malaysia, is still the more popular building type and have also maintained a positive capital growth of +6.7% with a +3.7% Y-O-Y growth in demand.
Drilling down into the top four housing markets in Malaysia, namely KL, Selangor, Penang and Johor, the report shows uss that KL’s property demands increased by +3.8%, Selangor by +9.8%, while Penang and Johor both dropped by -4.4% and -16.1% respectively. Below is a map showcasing the change in demand for each capital city in Malaysia, as compared to H1 2018.
Kota Bharu came out on top as the capital city with the highest year-on-year (YoY) growth demand of 39.38%. Kota Bharu garnered a lot of interest for Apartments that are priced between RM300,000 and RM400,000.
Georgetown, on the other hand, had the biggest setback in demand with a 29.8% drop in visits.
Meanwhile, in terms of capital growth, Melaka City emerged as the champion with a YoY jump of 20.83%. This figure is pulled up mainly by Serviced Residences. The median per square foot (PSF) for Serviced Residences in Melaka City is at RM573 PSF, which is double that of other residential building types. Many of these are located near popular tourist areas and are rented out for short term stays.
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