Napic: Overall property market slowed down in 2015

PUTRAJAYA (April 19): The overall property market slowed down marginally in 2015 from a year ago – with volume down by 5.7% to 362,105 transactions from 384,060 transactions and value down by 8% to RM149.9 billion from RM162.97 billion, said the National Property Information Centre (Napic) in its “Property Market Report 2015” released today.

The residential sub-sector still took up the largest share of the market, contributing 65.2% in volume and 49% in value.

However, the residential sub-sector’s transaction volume and value also declined in line with the broader market, by 4.6% to 236,967 and 10.5% to RM73.47 billion.

Meanwhile, the report also noted that in 2015, the ratio of loan approvals to applications is 50.2% -- with 206,031 applications and 103,412 approvals.

“50.2% is still in the acceptable range as the percentage ranges from 47.9% to 52.9% from year 2011 to 2015, so it hasn’t gone overboard,” said the Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Chua Tee Yong at a media briefing after the launch of the report.

Residential properties also saw 11,314 overhang units worth RM5.9 billion, up by 16.3% in volume and 56% in value.

Commenting on whether the situation will improve this year, Chua said more developers are moving towards developing properties priced at below RM500,000.

“If developers continue to develop the higher-end products, of course this will contribute to the higher [number of] unsold units in the market. In 2015, almost half of the launches were RM500,000 and below , so 2016 will continue to be dominated by the affordable housing market,” said Chua.

When asked about the mismatch between Bank Negara’s definition of affordable housing, which is defined at properties priced below RM300,000 compared with the developers’ definition of affordable housing as properties priced below RM500,000, he noted that this is because developers need to spend on building materials and land cost.

“The government is continuously looking at the mismatch and ways to overcome them. One of it is the introduction of the PR1MA housing where houses are priced between RM100,000 to RM400,000 to cater to the needs of the middle and low-income households,” said Chua.

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