JLW: Property market fairly sustainable despite Covid-19

Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian property market has been fairly sustainable as it underwent a consolidation mode despite the Covid-19 pandemic in the past 12 months.Integrated real estate solutions provider Jones Lang Wootton (JLW) deputy managing director Prem Kumar said the pandemic is a blessing in disguise as it brought background issues of the market to the forefront to be given more focus by developers and the government.

“Some of the issues we saw was the oversupply in the office segment. Now developers in the commercial side have taken few steps back and stop any new office development at this juncture and focus on other types of products that can sell and be sustainable and not becoming a white elephant,” he said in a virtual roundtable panel organised by PropertyGuru Group Tuesday.

He said affordable housing is also given more attention as authorities and developers reassessed and refocused on what is required to ensure both consumers and developers could reach a balance in terms of product offering and expectations in the future.

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Prem Kumar said although the National Property Information Centre (Napic) reported a decline in the overall property sector in 2020, the market was already in a downtrend since 2017/2018 due to those prevailing issues.

However, he said the reduction in the number of transactions does not show any significant indicators or having a huge potential of collapse. He said Covid-19 itself was not the main reason for the softer property market but more to the supply and demand factors, as well as the market concentration that led to it. “Covid-19 has opened the eyes of many stakeholders of how the market can be versatile and be sustainable.

“As the property market is readjusting itself, this will also lead to greater stability for the real estate market in the future,” he added. The session was organised in conjunction with the PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards (Malaysia) 2021 that will be held on Sept 15, 2021.

Highlights of the gala event will be aired on the History Channel, the official cable TV partner of the award, to give the programme a more international scope.

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Last year, the award’s online gala series, which included the first virtual gala edition of the award, was viewed more than 516,000 times and reached viewers and property investors in more than 75 countries worldwide.

Napic reported that the Malaysian property market recorded 295,968 transactions worth RM119.08 billion in 2020, a 9.9 per cent and 15.8 per cent year-on-year decline in volume and value, respectively, compared with 2019.

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