Malaysia property sales jump 120%, masking pile of unsold assets

MALAYSIAN property sales more than doubled in the first half and are poised to surpass 2019 levels, adding to signs that the industry is rebounding even as a good number of completed units remain unsold.

The Real Estate and Housing Developers of Malaysia reported on Thursday (Aug 17) that 11,273 units of residential and commercial properties were sold in the January-June period in a survey conducted among 148 members.

That’s 120 per cent jump over the second half of 2022, and the numbers are on track to beat the 11,399 units sold in all of 2019.

Still, a more sustained recovery isn’t visible, according to NK Tong, the president of the association. “Developers are still struggling with challenges that are yet to be properly addressed such as material price hikes as well as high compliance and utilities cost,” he said at a briefing in Selangor, Malaysia’s most industrialised state.

Unsold properties remain an issue, he said. About 53 per cent of developers reported a sizeable number in the survey, with nearly a third of those units being on the market for more than three years.

Financing issues, high property prices, and locked up units reserved for the country’s majority Bumiputera group were cited by members as key reasons behind the unsold properties.

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Earlier this year, Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan said Malaysia had 22,746 units of unsold property worth RM18.41 billion (S$5.4 billion) as of December 2022. BLOOMBERG