Improved property market falls short of pre-pandemic levels

 More than 300,000 transactions worth RM144.87 billion were recorded in 2021, an increase of 1.5% in volume and 21.7% in value compared with the previous year, according to NAPIC. 

While the performance of the local property market improved last year but has yet to match pre-pandemic levels recorded before 2020. 

The residential, commercial, and industrial sub-sectors saw an increase in volume of 3.9%, 10.7%, and 17.6%, respectively. But declines were observed in transaction volume in the sub-sectors of agriculture (-7.5%) and development land (-7.4%). 

Positive increases in transaction value were seen in all sub-sectors except agriculture, which declined by 5.1%. Otherwise increases were seen in the residential (16.7%), commercial (43.1%), industrial (32.9%), and development land (33.2%) sub-sectors. 

Selangor leads residential transactions 

Residential properties accounted for the largest share of transactions at 66.2% of the total volume of properties sold, amounting to 198,812 units worth RM76.9 billion. 

This was followed by agriculture (18.9%), commercial (7.5%), development land and others (5.6%), as well as industrial transactions (1.9%). 

As much as 53.1% of the RM144.87 billion in total property value were attributed to residential property transactions. The next biggest sub-sectors by value were commercial (19.3%), industrial (11.7%), agriculture (8.2%), and development land and others (7.7%). 

Selangor contributed the most to the national market share for residential transactions, with 24.5% in volume (48,755 transactions) and 34.4% in value (RM26.49 billion). In second place was Kuala Lumpur with RM9.69 billion in value across 11,129 transactions, contributing 12.6% of the market share. 

Terrace houses continued to make up the bulk of demand at 43% of total residential transactions, followed by vacant plots and high-rise units, each with nearly a 15% market. 

The affordable price range of RM300,000 and below accounted for 55.9% of total nationwide transactions, followed by the RM300,001-RM500,000 range (24.6%), RM501,000-RM1 million (14.8%), and properties priced above RM1 million (4.8%).

New launches declined, more properties planned

Amid the pandemic and more unsold inventories, the primary market saw fewer new launches last year. Nearly 44,000 units were launched in 2021 compared with 47,178 the year prior, with moderate sales performance of 39.3%.

Of the property launched, 60.1% were terrace houses comprising single-storey (10,667) and two- to three-storey (15,705) units. Condominium/apartment units were the second-most popular property

type with a 27.4% share (12,018 units).

Most new launches were in Selangor, reaching nearly 22.4% (9,827 units) of the national total and

sales performance of 54%.

Johor recorded the second-highest number (5,513 units, 12.6% share) with sales performance of 49.2%; while Perak came in third (5,239 units, 11.9% share) with 25.8% sales performance.

The start of construction activity for the housing segment saw an uptick of 5% to 86,258 units last year compared with 2020.

New planned supply increased by 8.2% to 77,585 units led by KL (17,068 units), while completed properties saw a decrease of 0.8% to 76,393 units.

The increase in new planned supply comes despite the residential property overhang nationwide reaching an all-time high of 36,863 units worth RM22.79 billion, increasing by 24.7% in volume and 20.5% in value compared with 2020.

This article was prepared by Vigneswar Rajasurian of PropertyAdvisor.my, Malaysia’s most

comprehensive source of property data, property analytics and insights.

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