kopiandproperty.com was invited to MIEA’s Press Conference and Launch of MIEA Property Market Sentiment Report recently. I have a full time job, so naturally MMY the junior reporter went. Many good statistics were shared to all the invited medias. Please do contact them (MIEA) for a copy of all the presentations or if you are also a property related media, do let them know to invite your company for future presentations. Here’s the contact email: secretariat@miea.com.my As for the huge number of presentations from them, I will continue to share them over the next couple of days. One particular slide from JLL Property Services Malaysia is important to share with everyone. Especially those who are still waiting for the best price before they enter the market. Please refer to the image below.
We can see that in 2017, the number of residential property transactions continue to fall. In fact it fell by 7 percent which is considered significant especially because our GDP is still pretty strong by any standard. The value has however inched upwards and what this tells us is that buyers are still paying higher prices for the homes they bought in 1st Half 2017 versus the 1st Half of 2016. While people say this is the buyers’ market, the truth is, sellers are still able to sell at a higher price. Actually, the key reason for this is because most buyers were buying for their own stay. Almost all of my friends tell me that if they really like a certain area, they are willing to pay a premium for it. The demand is always selective and is not usually equal for all areas. So, huge demands for some areas with limited supply and huge supply for some other areas with lesser demand.
This is true also for commercial, even if many analysts are painting a bleak outlook for the office space since Greater KL is said to be having an oversupply of offices now and many more years to come. Anyway, let’s PONDER. If there are oversupply of office units, then why are prices still going up? Not all offices are EQUAL. Have you ever been to some OLD office buildings? Where the water is dripping down from the carpark ceiling everyday? Where only the better drivers should drive into the car park because of the narrow entry? Where walking into the car park can be a horror story because of some dark corridors? Now imagine a public listed company or even a multinational looking for a bigger office space. Perhaps even a lady entrepreneur looking for an office space. Frankly, are they going to consider those OLD but still available office buildings or newer, better and more modern ones? Which one do you think would be more expensive to buy? 🙂 This is why it is very important to start providing more detailed stats instead of just an overall number. Remember, oversupply is just an overview. Go deeper to understand why as well as to know about the areas you are interested to buy. That helps a lot versus just an overall picture.
written on 7 Feb 2018
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