PEPS President Datuk Siders Sittampalam speak ti the media during the press conference of the 9th Malaysian Property Summit 2016 in Kuala Lumpur, yesterday.
PETALING JAYA: A central information depository on the state of the property market is required if the overhang, estimated at 130,690 units, on the housing sector is to be resolved.
Several property consultants said that at the moment, there was no central body or policy to steer the sector for sustainable development.
But this involves co-ordinated efforts by various departments and agencies and would take time, they concurred.
Property consultant PPC International managing director Datuk Siders Sittampalam said the overhang had been there for years. Much of the hullabaloo has come about now because this figure is “rising” and Bank Negara has raised the issue, he said.
He said a freeze on building of property above RM1mil would have helped the overall property sector if it had been imposed earlier and to encompass malls and office space as well.
Another real estate personnel, Khong & Jaafar group managing director Elvin Fernandez, said Malaysia needed a property policy which would spell out the demand and supply of the various kinds of properties.
“Within this, it should encompass a policy that spells out the number residential units required, the pricing and location. Malaysia is a federation of states, and land is a state matter. For this particular reason alone, both of these are needed,” said Elvin.
He said the reality had finally come home that the housing market had been skewed towards the higher price range.
“Because it is only at the higher end of the housing segment that developers enjoy higher profitability, it is natural for developers to go there,” he said.
However, household income had not kept apace with that natural tendency of developers, he said.
“While different parties are suggesting ‘Do this’ and ‘Do that’, it will take time before the market shifts from a higher end-focused market to a lower end one,” he said.
But the salvo fired by Bank Negara that some 131,000 unsold units has raised another issue - do we really need to build more?
To even suggest this may seem to challenge the prevailing notion that more affordable units are needed.
But the fact remains that there are housing priced RM200,000-RM250,000 which are completed but unsold across the country.
National Property Information Centre (Napic) director Khuzaimah Abdullah hit the nail on the head when she said last week that “there is a mismatch on pricing, location and type of housing”. It is this mismatch - on three levels - that has resulted in high volume of unsold units.
Bank Negara’s 130,690 units are six times larger than Napic’s overhang of 20,876 because the central bank included small offices/home offices (SoHos) and the like, which are built on commercial titles.
Bank Negara also included units unsold during construction while Napic figures comprised only completed unsold units build on residential titles.
Nonetheless, the overhang on the property sector is the most pressing issue facing the economy now.
The Real Estate Housing Developers Association (Rehda) had called on the Government to set up a single authoritative body to oversee all housing matters in the country.
It said that there was an urgent need to establish demand/supply dynamics in the various locations.
Without actual data, Rehda said, an accurate picture of the housing needs of the country is difficult to quantify.
* See also About RM35.5b in unsold, unutilised properties in Malaysia
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