Property market to see improvements, says Rehda

PETALING JAYA: The worst could be over for the property market as developers are getting better at aligning their projects to what buyers want and can afford.

Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (Rehda) president Datuk Soam Heng Choon expected the property market to improve as long as the economy continued on a growth trajectory.

“The market has been soft and developers have been prudent in launching (new homes). They won’t simply launch and create more unsold units in the market,” he said here yesterday.

Soam said this in responding to the government’s call to build more affordable houses that cost below RM500,000.

According to the World Bank, Malaysia’s economy is projected to expand at 4.7 per cent next year and 4.6 per cent in 2020, despite challenges. The country is expected to achieve “high-income nation” status between 2020 and 2024.

For this year, the Malaysia’s economic growth is expected to be moderate in the near term, growing at 4.9 per cent, underpinned by continued strong growth in private consumption.

He expected more activities in the property sector in the second half of this year and next year.

Nearly half of the respondents in Rehda’s survey planned to launch 15,852 units in the second half of this year, comprising 8,991 strata units, 6,433 landed units and 428 commercial units.

However, two-thirds of them expect their sales performance to be 50 per cent and below in the first six months after the launch.

Soam said most of the states would launch properties in the RM100,001 to RM500,000 pricerange with the exception of Penang and Selangor, where the majority of the units would be priced from RM500,001 to RM700,000.

SERC Sdn Bhd executive director Lee Heng Guie said there was growth in the economy.

Commenting on the 2019 Budget, he said: “We are going to have a lean but supportive budget.”

Lee said new taxes might be introduced and spending might be cut or reviewed in unproductive and over-inflated operating and development expenditures.