PropertyGuru has been conducting the The Property Affordability Sentiment Index survey for many quarters. In its latest report for H1 2015, the results are pretty negative. People’s perception about the property market’s affordability is going up the other way; they think it’s getting harder to buy a property. In fact, the people’s views were positive until the second quarter of 2013. It started turning negative after the fourth quarter of 2013 and the current number for H1 2015 is the worst thus far. Take a look at the image to understand more.
The percentage of respondents with a negative view stood at 58 percent. Only 13 percent are still positive about the market. I think this ties in with what REHDA has been saying. That the sales for new launches have been slow and in fact the number of properties unsold is increasing too. Read here: Property sales down 9%, only 40% of launches sold The two main reasons include the current economic situation and the sudden hike of property prices. Well, for these two points I am not sure if they are the reason because as at H1 of 2015, growth is still considered positive while based on NAPIC’s data, prices have not really increased that much when Q1 2015 is compared to Q4 2015. f it. Read here: Selangor property? Average price RM442K – Q1 2015 or here: Kuala Lumpur new condos are now RM700k instead of RM600k last year
It quoted a recent Khazanah Report which said that most properties are now ‘severely unaffordable,’ especially in Kuala Lumpur and Penang. Khazanah warned that if these are not handled properly, soon it will be the whole of Malaysia and no longer just confined to Kuala Lumpur and Penang. One major reason for the continuous price increase is because urbanisation is increasing the demand for housing. I think based on the current demographics, the rate of urbanisation still has some way to go before reaching the peak. In other words, I think opportunities remain open, just buy very objectively.
written on 27 Sept 2015
Next suggested article: 10% buyers own 40% of property purchases. Aiming to be that 10%?
