Napic expects property market to regain momentum in 2022

KUALA LUMPUR: The property market is expected to regain its momentum in 2022 even though the environment remained challenging, the National Property Information Centre (Napic) said.

Napic is managed by the Ministry of Finance’s Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH).

It said the "Transition to Endemic” phase of COVID-19 starting April 1, 2022 would see the lifting of restrictions on business operating hours and reopening of country borders, which is expected to further improve domestic economic activities.

"As economy is set to be on the right trajectory, the property market performance is expected to be on similar track.

"The accommodative policies, continuous government support, well execution of all planned measures outlined in Budget 2022 and the proper implementation of strategies and initiatives under 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) is expected to support growth in the property sector,” it said in a statement in conjunction with the launch of its Property Market Report 2021 today.

Meanwhile, Napic said the property market performance saw a slight improvement in 2021 but has yet to surpass the pre-pandemic level recorded prior to 2020.

It said a total of 300,497 transactions worth RM144.87 billion were recorded in 2021, an increase of 1.5 per cent in volume and 21.7 per cent in value compared with 2020.

"The residential, commercial and industrial sub-sectors saw an increase in volume of transaction by 3.9 per cent, 10.7 per cent and 17.6 per cent respectively while agriculture and development land sub-sectors declined slightly by 7.5 per cent and 7.4 per cent respectively,” it said.

It said the value of transactions recorded a higher increase for residential, commercial, industrial and development land sub-sectors each at 16.7 per cent, 43.1 per cent, 32.9 per cent and 33.2 per cent whereas agriculture recorded a decrease of 5.1 per cent.

Napic said the residential sub-sector led the overall property market activity with 66.2 per cent contribution in volume.

"There were 198,812 transactions worth RM76.90 billion recorded in the review period, increased by 3.9 per cent in volume and 16.7 per cent in value year-on-year,” it said.

It said Selangor contributed the highest volume and value to the national market share with 24.5 per cent in volume (48,755 transactions) and 34.4 per cent in value (RM26.49 billion).

"Kuala Lumpur recorded 11,129 transactions but ranked the second highest in value at RM9.69 billion, contributing 12.6 per cent market share,” it said.

However, it said the primary market saw a lesser release of new launches with nearly 44,000 units launched in 2021 against 47,178 units in 2020.

It said the decline was expected as developers held back on the new launches due to the softening property market and increasing numbers of unsold inventories.

"Sales performance was moderate at 39.3 per cent in 2021,” it said.

It added that the residential overhang situation was less encouraging with volume amounting to 37,000 units worth RM22.79 billion as at year-end, an increase by 24.7 per cent and 20.5 per cent in volume and value respectively against 2020. - Bernama