Cautious first half for property sector, new launches retreat

Iskandar: While challenging market conditions have affected new launches, the reduction can also be primarily attributed to financing issues such as high loan rejections and lower-than-expected margin of financing from the banks.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s property developers were more cautious in launching new residential and commercial units in the first half of 2017 (1H17), with the domestic real estate market recording a significant drop in overall new launches in the period.

In its latest Property Industry Survey 1H17, the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda) noted that the challenging property market resulted in new launches in the first six months of 2017 to drop by 32% to 9,089 units, compared with 13,276 units in H2’16.