THE demand for property in Malaysia has held up despite the Covid-19 pandemic, having seen a 2.5% dip in demand overall, according to property portal iProperty.com.my and REA Group Asia.
“National demand held on amidst the pandemic, spurred by price declines and government stimulus packages, as well as policy interventions such as loan moratoriums, leading to demand only declining marginally,” said REA general manager of customer data solutions, Premendran Pathmanathan.
This, he noted, was despite real estate activities being brought to a halt for more than eight weeks due to the Covid-19 outbreak and the subsequent movement control order (MCO).
Premendran, who was speaking at the unveiling of iProperty’s 1H2020 Property Demand Analytics, also noted that demand for service residences contracted sharply by 7.2%, while demand for condominiums remained negative.
“Similarly, median prices and capital growths for these two property types have also gone down in tandem with the Covid-19 outbreak and the mobility restriction caused by the MCO in 2Q2020. Furthermore, the decline is attributed to consumer sentiment over future uncertainties such as loss of income and sudden changes in lifestyle, priorities, and personal circumstances,” said Premendran.
Conversely, terrace homes saw a capital growth of 2.2%, being the only property type with a positive capital growth within the same period.
“It is worth pointing out that the effect of the pandemic on the property market is not as dire as initially thought. When Covid-19 first hit Malaysia, we experienced a reduction in user visits
and property listings during the initial stages of the MCO.”
“However, user visits have since recovered following the implementation of the conditional movement control order (CMCO) and by the end of the first week of June, organic searches for sub-sale property listings saw an upward recovery of 41%,” said Premendran. – Aug 25, 2020
