CMMT chief executive officer (CEO) Low Peck Chen said the mandated closure of non-essential businesses during the MCO had dealt a blow to shopping mall tenants involved in non-essential services.

This is in appreciation of the efforts and sacrifice made by frontliners, both in the public and private sectors, in battling the Covid-19 disease in Malaysia. “The people are also encouraged to light up their houses in blue lights but this is not a requirement,” said Federal Territory Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa.

Of the 57 new cases, 25 were imported cases, while the remainder 32 were local transmissions, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement.

The overhang situation in the serviced apartment / SOHO sub-segment in Penang saw marked improvement last year, with only 69 overhang units worth RM91.31 million recorded in 2019 compared with 141 units worth RM119.61 million in 2019.

Certain states that saw significant new supply have caused high-end serviced apartment owners to cut asking prices.

The state’s primary residential market also saw the launch of 9,711 units, up by 4.5% as compared to 9,294 units recorded in 2018.

In terms of property type, semidee factories formed the bulk of the overhang, followed by terraced factories.

Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) CEO Yap Lip Seng: 15% of hotels in the country are expected to close permanently while another 35% will close temporarily indicating an immediate reduction of up to 50% in inventory. 

"Our business has already been under tremendous challenge from digital disruption over the past few years."

JPPH: Completions of new serviced apartment/SOHO units have increased substantially by 63.2% to 17,893 units (2018: 10,963 units) in 2019.