PROPERTYGURU'S REPORT INDICATES MORE POSITIVE OUTLOOK FOR PROPERTY LANDSCAPE

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 11 (Bernama) - PropertyGuru’s Malaysia Property Market Report Q3 2022 revealed that the property sale market index, demand index and supply index across the landed and high-rise sectors showed an upward trend as consumer confidence improved.

In a statement today, the online property marketplace said the overall demand index moved upwards by 7.93 per cent quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) despite being in negative territory in the previous quarter and improvements could be attributed to the transition of the COVID-19 endemic stage, allowing for the reopening of borders and increased productivity, leading to better consumer confidence.

PropertyGuru.com.my and iProperty.com.my country manager (Malaysia) Sheldon Fernandez said the property market in the second quarter of the year saw a gradual trend of improvements although it might not be fully out of the woods yet.

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He said several ongoing factors such as the rising inflation, increase in the overnight policy rate and affordability issues weighed on the market conditions.

“While we have seen more activity in the last quarter, it will take some time before consumers are more confident in making large property decisions.

“The full impact of these factors will most likely be seen in the current quarter’s performance,” he said.

PropertyGuru said the report also disclosed that rental demand continued on an uptrend, registering a 12.89 per cent q-o-q growth and a massive 96.83 per cent rise in the second quarter (Q2) of this year.

“With the ongoing inflation and worries of rising purchasing costs taking effect, potential homebuyers will gravitate towards rental as a short-term alternative and the rental market will likely continue to expand to the year’s second half,” it said.

Meanwhile, it said the rental price index saw an increase of 2.82 per cent q-o-q and 4.46 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in Q2 of this year.

It said the slow but steady growth of asking rental prices is also leading to growth in the supply of rental properties as landlords would be taking the opportunity to leverage the rising demand trend and enthusiastically listing properties.

“Based on our observations with the recent Malaysia Property Market Report, we can see that current conditions are now more favourable than market conditions during the pandemic,” Fernandez said.

He said although these gradual improvements are noted, many potential housebuyers are still on the fence about making purchasing decisions.

“Overall, we hope to see market conditions continue to make moderate gains in the coming quarter,” he added.

-- BERNAMA