25,000 Residential Units Remain Unsold
A total of 24,738 completed residential units were left unsold, which was recorded as the highest ever so far.
The Valuation and Property Services Department said there was a 67.2% year-on-year increase last year (y-o-y) compared to the previous year.
Additionally, the value of these overhang units had increased to 82.8% y-o-y to RM15.64billion last year.
Overhang units are defined as unsold units completed units that have been in the market for more than nine months after its launch.
According to the Edge Financial Daily, the department has launched the Unsold Property Enquiry System Malaysia (UPESM) digital platform to provide information on unsold units’ locations.
Its director-general Nordin Daharom said the system allows property developers and the government to leverage on the information provided in order to make informed decisions on future projects or policies.
“Users can use the search function on UPESM and find out the number of unsold units by state, local council and type of property,” he said.
Meanwhile, the overall Malaysian property sector saw a fall in the number and value of property transactions in 2017 – the number of transactions dips to 2.7% (311,824) compared to 3.8% which totaled to RM139.84billion last year.
The Edge Financial Daily report also revealed residential properties accounted for 62.4% of the market at the end of last year. Nordin said demand was largely focused on properties costing RM200,000 and below, which accounted for approximately 45% of residential market volume.
House prices had continued to hike up, with the Malaysian House Price Index up 6.5% y-o-y to 187.4 points. The numbers were led by Selangor and Kuala Lumpur where prices went up by 7.6% and 7.3% respectively.
However, he noted the property sector was starting to see a recovery as new developer launches increased by 47% y-o-y to 77,570 units while 32.6% of the units were sold.
Kuala Lumpur saw the most launches with 22,000 units, followed by Selangor (13,522 units) and Johor (7,926 units). These launches mostly comprised of two or three-storey terrace houses priced between RM500,000 and RM1 million.
