A close friend who is working in a public listed developer told me that she may have to work during the upcoming Chinese New Year (CNY). This is because opening during the CNY is considered a wise decision. Many decisions to buy could be easily made during these family gatherings. Some may be coming back from overseas, carrying with them currencies of a higher value compared to the Ringgit. She shared with me her observations for the past many months, especially of the potential buyers of her project, a luxury one. Her sharing as follows:
Start of sharing
Property market is slow. This is 99 percent true no matter whom you ask. Majority are deciding on whether should they buy now or later. A slow market doesn’t mean nobody is buying as those who need a house will still buy and those who can afford will also buy. In fact many buyers are repeat buyers too. However, those intending to buy are becoming more cautious and most of them tend to do more homework as compared to few years ago.
Only just a few years ago, almost all the projects in Penang are selling like hot cakes. People queued up since midnight or early morning just to grab a unit costing a few hundred thousand. Many were buying homes as if they were buying a piece of cake from a bakery shop. A few minutes may meant that the unit you were eyeing had been lost to someone else. This was the situation regardless of big or small developers. It was such a good time for developers as people will just buy without much question on value and quality. Believing was easy.
Today, there are still people buying. However, from all my potential buyers, they do much more. They look around, compare what was being offered, the price and the quality. A lot of questions were asked to ensure the value they pay meets their expectations. It becomes tougher for developers but has indirectly help in pushing most of the developers to be more cautious in term of launchings, quality delivery and finalizing of the property launching price. In additional, developers would need to do a lot more in order to grab the potential buyers. Good or bad? Looking at it from a bigger picture basis, this might be the only way to upgrade the standard of the overall property market. It does not happen to everyone and every developer though. Some buyers are still choosing to buy properties with ‘launching prices below market rate’ and ignoring the fact that without sufficient profits, there’s just no way for quality… Well, everyone has his own choice. Right?
From observations, it is definitely a good time for those who wants to buy. Supply is more than the cautious demand currently. As a buyer, one has the upper-hand in negotiations. This is the time to request for more. I quote my close friend, Charles of kopiandproperty.com who said, ‘ this is not the waint-and-see period. This is the view-and-offer time. This may be the only time when your offer of slightly below the market rate would not be seen as rude. Best wishes.
End of sharing. Written by Hayley Huan on 10 Jan 2016.
This close friend is thinking of Greater KL currently and has started to review some areas. I think she would be buying one unit within 2016. Will see if she is faster or I am faster in finding that ‘perfect’ property to buy under the current market condition. Happy searching to both of us.
written on 10 Jan 2016
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