Housing overhang up 1.5% in first-half 2019

OHouse prices increase at moderate pace from a year ago, but down slightly on quarterly basis: Report

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s residential property overhang rose 1.5% to 32,810 units in firsthalf 2019 (1H19) compared with 32,200 units in 2H18, according to National Property Information Centre’s (Napic) First-Half Property Market Report.

The total value of the residential property overhang stood at RM19.76 billion, dominated by residential units priced from RM200,001 to RM300,000 with 7,328 units (22.3%), followed by units priced at RM300,001 to RM400,001 with 5,731 (17.5%).

Unsold residential units priced above RM1 million accounted for 12.8% with 4,213 units.

The Malaysian House Price Index continued to increase at a moderate pace, standing at 194.8 points in 2Q19, up 0.9% on an annual basis. However, on a quarterly basis, it slipped by 0.6%.

In the first half of the year, the property market saw 160,172 transactions valued at RM68.3 billion, a 6.9% increase in volume and a 0.8% increase in value from 149,862 transactions worth RM67.74 billion recorded in 1H18.

There were 99,922 transactions worth RM34.65 billion for the residential property segment for 1H19, an increase of 6.1% in volume and a 9.5% hike in value.

For the period under review, all states recorded higher market volumes for residential property except Labuan and Perak.

The increase was mainly contributed by Kuala Lumpur (+7%), Selangor (+5.8%), Johor (+1.2%) and Penang (+0.5%).

Napic said new launches in the primary market for 1H19 contracted 49.4% to 23,591 units from 46,617 units previously.

“Sales performance was moderate at 30.9%, better than 1H18 (20.1%) and 2H18 (29.2%).”

However, the report shows that 12,960 transactions worth RM12.53 billion were registered for the commercial property segment, a 20.4% growth in volume but a 20.8% drop in value.

The shop sub-sector recorded 6,922 transactions worth RM5.8 billion, dominating 53.4% of commercial property transaction and 46.3% of the total value. It was a growth of 25.1% in volume and a 32.7% in value against the 5,530 transactions worth RM4.4 billion reported in 1H18.

However, in 1H19, the overhang for the sub-sector continued to increase with 5,760 units valued at RM4.98 billion, representing a 13.9% gain in volume and a 22% jump in value from the preceding half year.

On the supply front, construction activity continued to be slow as indicated by the conraction in completions, starts and new planned supply, declining 25.6%, 6.8% and 60.8%, respectively.

For the retail sub-sector, an overall occupancy rate of 79.7% was recorded against 79.3% in 2H 18, driven by higher take-up in Johor, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.