WHY MALAYSIA
Market in Brief
The property market performance is rebounding across all sub-sectors in 2010. 2009 recorded a stabilised total of transactions at 337,859 versus 340,240 transactions in 2008. To date, Q1 2010 has recorded 23.9% of sale of new launches, better than the performance of all quarterly sales recorded in 2009. On the local residential front, REHDA's (Real Estate & Housing Developers Association) continuous effort in promoting home ownership via the Malaysia Property Expo (MAPEX) saw a total of 56,674 residential units worth RM16.18billion offered for sale. The industrial sub-sector softened in 2009 as foreign investments into manufacturing declined significantly to RM22.1billion in 2009.
Summary of New Launches from Q1 2009 to Q1 2010
| Quarter |
Q1 2009 |
Q2 2009 |
Q3 2009 |
Q4 2009 |
Q1 2010 |
| Units Launched |
11,779 |
16,657 |
12,365 |
8,608 |
5,760 |
| Units Sold |
777 |
2,730 |
1,684 |
1,372 |
1,378 |
| Sales Performance (%) |
6.6 |
16.4 |
13.6 |
17 |
23.9 |
| |
|
|
|
|
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Source: NAPIC
To date, the performance of the property market is positively bolstered by several measures introduced in Malaysia’s Budget 2009:
- Housing sub-sector
RM50million allocated under the Housing Assistance Programme and RM330million allocated to Jabatan Perumahan Negara.
- Commercial sub-sector
Concerted effort to make REITs more appealing to foreign investors i.e. tax cut from 20% to 10% on dividends received by foreign institutional investors from REITS and 15% to 10% for individuals.
Malaysian REITs
Source: The Edge Financial Daily (June 2010), MPI
Another measure introduced in April 2009 allows 100% ownership for qualified and leading fund management companies to set up operations in Malaysia. A Special Taskforce to Facilitate Business, PEMUDAH, has also contributed to Malaysia’s ranking in various business indexes:
- World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index
- World Competitiveness Yearbook (IMD)
Other salient improvements from 2009 onwards is the reduction in time taken for property registration, from 144 days to 41 days for Sistem Taksiran Pindahmilik Harta that requires valuation and 34 days, without valuation. On the construction front, 103 One Stop Centres (OSC) has been established as at end 2009 to help expedite application processes for development.
As for updates of Malaysia's five economic corridors, publicly-released data in Q2 2010 signified substantial improvement in transparency of the corridors' progress. Projects currently under implementation are as follows:
| Iskandar Malaysia |
All 18 projects completed |
| North Corridor Economic Region (NCER) |
27/30 projects (90% complete) |
| East Coast Economic Region (ECER) |
80/86 projects (93% complete) |
| Sabah Development Corridor (SDC) |
All 54 projects completed |
| Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) |
9 projects carried out |
Source: NAPIC Property Market Report 2009, Property Market Status Update Q1 2010, MPI Market Intelligence Reports, The Edge, Bernama |
