First of all, I must say thank you to my good friend, Michael Geh, Senior Partner of Raine & Horne International Zaki + Partners Sdn Bhd for providing these good charts of the Penang property market. Let’s start now.
When I saw the average numbers for Penang, I wanted to tell my wife that the property prices in Penang have dropped for Q3 2015. Perhaps it’s time that we think about Penang again seriously. Then, I checked online for a few properties. The prices have remained almost the same and has actually gone up a little. Last year, I sold my condone Penang for RM640,000. Name of the condo? Regency Heights. A check on some of the listings has showed that prices are not going down. It has stayed almost same. I then checked Summer Place. I can safely confirmed the prices have stayed almost the same or slightly higher.
Why then did the average transacted price show a downtrend? A deeper check revealed that there are proportionately more transactions for the lower priced ones. This is especially true for the RM201k to RM500k. While there are no further breakdown but we can safely say that due to affordability issue as well as the fact that mainland is slowly but surely becoming more acceptable, the average prices has thus dropped. Nope, the closure of some manufacturing plants have yet to impact the property market and a check in JobStreet.com would reveal that the job numbers for manufacturing remain extremely healthy and shortage for certain skills are still continuing.
Looking at the type of transactions would reveal a shocking number. I seriously do not think demand is going down BUT the wait-and-see attitude is now becoming a norm. Rental in Penang as usual is still low and perhaps this may also be one reason why total transactions are down. Instead of buying more are choosing to rent first while waiting for the market to stabilise? Perhaps another strong reason is also because the property prices in the popular areas are still high. Many are waiting and hoping that the prices for these more popular areas would come down. Well, this IS the reason why the prices remain high; YOU. Read here: Property prices too high? YOU might be the main reason
There is no way that property prices can continue to rise under current market situation. Not in Klang Valley and definitely not in Penang. Anything above RM700,000 will be considered unaffordable or even unacceptable unless it is landed. The issue with landed? It has become so expensive that even if the price is there, selling it fast would be another thing altogether. Happy reading about Penang property market.
written on 12 Jan 2016
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