Ingenious ways

PROPERTY developers in recent times are facing trouble selling their properties that have been launched.

The take-up rates are falling and some are faced with growing inventories of unsold homes that are difficult to sell at asking prices.

The high unbilled sales by a lot of the developers mean they have some wriggle room in holding out but the different ways they are selling off their inventory are quite ingenious.

For one, Mah Sing has tapped social media as a means to explore selling homes. It is about the reach they can get to prospective buyers. For UEM Sunrise, it is keeping its sales target intact but has now teamed up with Hyatt and venturing into the hospitality area as a means to get sales going.

There have been many schemes being hatched by developers in trying to move their stock of property and Sime Darby Property Bhd is looking at reviewing the price it wants to sell properties in getting sales going.

The novel way of selling and utilising properties to generate sales shows that developers are exhausting all avenues before considering lowering prices or selling what the market wants to get the sector going.

Those measures are good for the economy. Housing is an area that has the biggest linkages to the economy and when the sector does well, so does the entire economy.

The slump in the housing sector has been ongoing for some time and with the economy looking softer next year, with earnings of Corporate Malaysia indicating that things are not as rosy as before, getting the sector moving is essential for the wellbeing of the economy.

That is why when Gamuda Bhd suggested contributing to a fund that takes 2% of revenue of developers to cater for affordable housing, that is something the government should look at, much like the telecommunications industry that gives a slice of revenue towards building sufficient infrastructure throughout the economy. Only then a way forward can be found for an industry that is finding hard to budge from its price.