Further slowdown seen in Malaysia property market
Stricter measures from 2014 to hit KL city centre, Nusajaya harder: survey
BY PAULINE NG IN KUALA LUMPUR
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 08, 2013
AFTER a noticeable decline in home transactions this year, Malaysia's property market is expected to slow down further when more stringent guidelines take effect next year, with hot spots such as the Kuala Lumpur city centre and Iskandar's Nusajaya being hit harder.
These were some of the findings by Rahim & Co Chartered Surveyors on the anticipated impact a higher rate of real property gains tax (30 per cent) and the banning of the Developer Interest Bearing Scheme (DIBS) would have on the sector.
As the property hot spot of 2013, Johor will come in for greater scrutiny after showing robust growth.
In the first six months of the year, there was an overall 12.6 per cent decline in residential transactions in Malaysia over the previous year. While huge drops were seen in the top hubs of Kuala Lumpur (47.5 per cent), Selangor (16.2 per cent) and Penang (28.1 per cent), Johor registered a 4.9 per cent increase, data from the Ministry of Finance's Valuation & Property Services Department showed.
The southern state's transaction value was also telling, expanding a hefty 38 per cent compared with the countrywide average of 1.1 per cent. Johor's figures were all the more significant given the declines recorded by other states. Kuala Lumpur's was especially large at 26 per cent while for Selangor and Penang, the dip was 0.6 and 4.4 per cent respectively.
Rahim & Co expects the effect to be felt most in the residential and Soho (small office/home office), Sovo (small office versatile office) and shop-offices segments, but thinks this could plateau off.
It suggested that speculative activities could have been better curbed if additional stamp duties were levied on third properties and above, as Singapore and Hong Kong have done, noting that this would complement the current 70 per cent loan-to-value ratio on outstanding mortgages on third properties.
Whether home prices will trend down remains to be seen. In Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, prices have risen by double-digits from 2008 to 2012, partly because of easy credit and low interest rates. DIBS in particular - allowed to flourish for the past five to six years - encouraged speculation because of its overly low entry barrier, which in turn promoted hyperactivity in the market. "Hyperactivity increases the frequency of transactions and completion of sale phases, which in turn increases prices as developers tend to revise their pricing upwards every time they commence with new phasing/launching," noted Rahim & Co.
Not surprisingly, the transaction numbers for residential properties priced below RM250,000 (S$97,800) have fallen by a fifth in the first half owing to shrinking supply. For homes priced above RM250,000, there was a 9.2 per cent increase.
As for the new price threshold of RM1 million for foreign buyers, Rahim & Co reckoned the impact of the hike was "not major".
Foreign buyers account for 5.5 per cent of the local property market, and their presence is highest in Kuala Lumpur (10-16 per cent), followed by Johor (10-14 per cent) and Penang (6-7 per cent), according to Malaysia Property Inc.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/pre...owdown-seen-malaysia-property-market-20131108