From left: Siva, Rahim and Sulaiman displaying copies of Rahim & Co Research – Property Market Review 2020/2021.The Malaysian property market is expected to see a further delay in its recovery to 2022 due to the resurgence of Covid-19 cases and the reimplementation of the movement control order , according to real estate consultancy Rahim & Co International Sdn Bhd.
As the largest segment of Malaysia’s property market, the residential sector saw a decline in the first nine months of 2020 by 14.3% in volume and 14.8% in value in spite of a better year-on-year performance in the third quarter when the country entered the recovery-MCO phase. Progress in housing developments was disrupted and ultimately caused delays in completion targets, resulting in completion numbers to be 33.4% lower than in the previous period.
“It could be stabilising but it is still expected to remain high because of all the other problems like income levels, product, location, price, availability of buyers getting loans and certain aspects of property inappropriate for the target market.” Siva said the HOC helped to reduce the overhang a bit but what will help is the availability of Covid-19 vaccines and better sentiment in 2021 which will then carry over to 2022.
It also expects some increase in property auctions as the number of applications to refinance properties has increased.