IN spite of the Covid-19 pandemic and a partial lockdown reintroduced from Jan 13, the outlook of the property sector will remain largely stable for the first half of 2021, according to Raine & Horne International Zaki + Partners Sdn Bhd senior partner Michael Geh.
Although Putrajaya has yet to decide on lifting of the MCO 2.0 or extending the lockdown, many businesses have already been greatly affected since the first MCO was implemented last March.
However, in the real estate market, Geh believes that the ‘transactional activities’ in the first half of this year would remain ‘brisk’.
To strengthen his view, he elaborated on a few reasons.
“The ‘brisk’ transactional activities in both primary and secondary markets are due to several factors. They include the high-cost savings in exempted payments during the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC), financial institutions’ strong support for the housing loans, especially for first-time home buyers, and low interest rates for mortgages and fixed deposits.
“Besides that, Penang’s overall property transactions have seen a V-curve rebound from 2,102 transactions worth RM1.54 billion in Q2 of 2020 to 4,685 transactions worth RM2.16 billion in Q3 of 2020.
“The rebound was very high, which clearly reflected the confidence of Penangites in the property market.
“The number of transactions has increased to pre Covid-19 level and the overall property transactions are even higher compared to each quarter of 2018 and 2019.
“The achievement was made possible, thanks to various housing policies being implemented such as HOC, waiver of real property gains tax (RPGT) and other measures, ” Geh, who is also the Chartered Valuation Surveyor, told Buletin Mutiara.
The immediate past president of the International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI) also noted that many property owners took the opportunity to transfer their properties to their children or relatives.
Apart from that, Geh said the residential properties in Penang rebounded to almost the same transactions in the last quarter of 2019 by recording 3,446 transactions worth RM1.3 billion in Q3, which was more than double that of 1,545 transactions worth RM620 million in Q2.
The number of commercial properties transacted in Q3 has also increased but the value has dropped.
A total of 223 units worth RM480 million were transacted in Q2 while a total 379 units were transacted in Q3 but it was only valued at RM300 million.
Geh also commended the Penang government for providing ample affordable housing units to Penangites.
On the Penang House Price Index reaching a plateau since 2013, Geh attributed it to the state’s push for affordability units.
Story by Edmund Lee
Pix courtesy of Michael Geh