#The Edge Forum* Klang Valley housing market at equilibrium

KUALA LUMPUR: The year 2010 would be a good time to examine properties as the Klang Valley residential property market in 2010 will be driven by supply rather than demand, said CB Richard Ellis (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd managing director Allan Soo.

Speaking at The Edge Investment Forum on Real Estate 2010 on April 10, Soo said 2010 would be a good year to examine properties.

“We anticipate that prices will drop or stay at the same level this year as there is an equilibrium of supply and demand of properties,” he said.

According to Soo, Klang Valley has about RM1.68 million residential units in 3Q2009 with another 188,961 incoming this year to accommodate the seven million population in Klang Valley.

Around the same time last year, the market was down but it saw a major upturn in June 2009 and again after Chinese New Year, Soo said attributing the sudden upswing in the buying trend partly to pent-up demand.

According to him, the Malaysian residential property market will continue to improve this year fueled by low interest rate environment and pent-up demand for properties, he said.

“With better market sentiments, people are beginning to purchase properties as clearly illustrated by people queuing up even for 10 days at property launches,” said Soo in his talk on the ‘Malaysian property market outlook in 2010- Is the picture clearer?’

However, Soo pointed out that the market remains selective of quality products and good locations.

“Customers are still selective in buying properties with good location and especially gated properties. These are the hot favourites,” he said citing the example of the recently launched landed homes in Ara Damansara which were sold out.

“We saw that the people were still buying expensive homes because they were looking at better quality as well as prime locations,” he said. 

For the full coverage of The Edge Investment Forum on Real Estate 2010, read the April 19 issue of City & Country, the property pullout of The Edge Malaysia.