Property transactions reach 5-yr high in 2011

KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 3): Real estate transactions in the country reached a record five-year high last year, with a rise of 14.3% to 430,403 transactions and a total transaction value increase of 28.3% to RM137.8 billion. The residential sector has spearheaded the growth of the property market, said Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai at the launch of the Property Market Report 2011 on Tuesday. The report is published by the National Property Information Centre (NAPIC) under the Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH). Lim said property prices in Malaysia also remain reasonable, and there is still room for more growth. In 2011, the residential sector took up 62.7% share of total transactions and 44.9% of the total transaction value with 269,789 transactions worth RM61.83 billion. Both residential sales volume and value recorded a double-digit growth of 18.9% and 22.1% respectively. Abdullah (left) and Lim at the launch on Tuesday. According to the report, the take-up space for purpose-built office space dropped significantly in 2011 compared with 2010. Photo: Mohd Izwan Mohd Nazam of The Edge Malaysia The Malaysian House Price Index rose 6.6% to 156.9 points in 4Q2011, as the All House Price in Malaysia reached RM217,297 in the same quarter. Kuala Lumpur continued to record the highest average house price at RM487,219, followed by Selangor at RM327,237. However, the average terraced home price in Kuala Lumpur was RM527,113, while Selangor’s average terraced house price was RM325,951. In the retail market, shops recorded 24,997 transactions worth RM13.76 billion, a rise in volume of 0.8% compared with 24,731 transactions in 2010. Total values had risen 11.7%, and was a major contributor to the commercial subsector sales, representing 57.2% or 24,997 units of the total transactions. Average occupancy rates of shopping malls, however, reduced marginally to 79.5%. Occupancy rates of purpose-built offices eased to 82.9%. The take-up space for purpose-built office space dropped significantly at 256,792 sq m in 2011, compared with 925,064 sq m in 2010. The industrial sector contributed only 2.4% and 8.4% of the total market share in terms of volume and value respectively. Last year recorded 10,479 transactions worth RM11.54 billion. The volume increased by 6.5% from 2010, while value increased by 17.4%. Agriculture property was the second most active market, making up 19.7% of total volume transactions, with 84,726 transactions worth RM18.82 billion. The growth translated to an increase of 4.7% in volume and 65.4% in value that was attributed to the significant number of real estate land sales. According to the report, 2012 is expected to be more challenging due to the economic slowdown in Europe, Japan and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and inflation from rising commodity prices. The European sovereign debt crisis and the slower trade would also have direct impact on the open Malaysian economy. The launch of the report was simultaneous with the launch of NAPIC's Property Information System Malaysia (PRISM-JPPH). PRISM is an online real estate portal which allows access to real estate data online. According to JPPH director-general Datuk Abdullah Thalith Md Thani, the online reserve for real estate data is a much faster way for people to obtain real estate information. "We currently have 5,000 active real estate data providers. With the information at your fingertips, it allows people accessing the portal to make quick real estate decisions," he said. Real estate data providers include the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), developers and real estate agents. Payment to access the data varies according to the status of those requesting for the data including students, real estate agents and others. The data provided include transaction data, values among others. - The Edge Property