<\/span><\/h2>\nThe Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) rulings announced last year are taking effect causing banks to be more cautious in their loan criteria and to tighten property financing to buyers. Therefore, buyers are seeing up to 60% to 70% in rejection rate at the first instance of application.<\/p>\n
According to BNM\u2019s Monthly Statistical Bulletin for March 2014, in 1Q14, some RM25.4 billion in property loans were approved from RM47.6 billion applied for, translating into a 46.6% rejection rate in terms of loans value. In comparison, 1Q13 saw higher rejection rate at 54.6%.<\/p>\n
However some markets like Kuala Lumpur and Selangor are seeing less overall transactions yet higher total transacted value. This marks a trend that reflects the nationwide property market trend \u2014 total number of transactions dropping but an increased transaction values for the past three years, based on the annual Property Market Reports<\/em> published by the National Property Information Centre (Napic)<\/em>, Ministry of Finance<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/span>Growing interest in secondary market<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\nInterest has peaked in the secondary market as the primary market slows down due to the cooling measures. Developers are also holding back their launches amid weaker market sentiment and revisiting their development plans to cater to current market demands and trends. Currently the secondary market is becoming slightly more active and prices in select locations are now looking relatively attractive. Buyers, are now turning their attention to this secondary or sub sale market, though there is hefty down payment and higher costs to acquire these properties their prices are still comparatively lower than newer launches. In other words there is a shortage of supply for secondary properties making it attractive in terms of capital appreciation.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Speculative buyers a threat to the market<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\nThe most worrisome factors for the market are the speculative short term thinking investors. These are speculators who bought directly from developers with the intention of flipping when the property is ready.<\/p>\n
However, with the new ruling where a 30 % real property gains tax (RPGT) is being implemented on first year disposals as well as an oversupply, it seem that it is them who are now at risk as they have no holding power. They will try to dispose their properties either at a lower price or try to rent it out, in either case they will be competing with others in the same location, creating a price war.<\/p>\n
In the worst case scenario they cannot afford to pay their mortgage instalments and the banks are forced to auction off their properties, affecting the industry to a certain extent. Serious investors won\u2019t be worried as they usually plan for between three to 10 years, hence they have holding power and will not face such problems.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Overall market sentiments<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\nOverall investors\u2019 sentiments looks to be very cautious; some share the feeling that this year is not a good year to invest or buy properties as there are too many uncertainties and are taking a wait-and-see attitude. On the up side, generally the housing market looks to be stable, and will continue to grow as it has proven itself resilient and there is a constant demand for properties.<\/p>\n
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Zulhilmi Ghouse is the editor of Prospek Hartanah Malaysia, the premier property and business magazine in Bahasa Melayu. He started his career as a writer for Property Insight Magazine and has been involved in the property industry for the past year. Prior to that, he was a freelance translator, having worked on several book translation projects ranging from fantasy to politics and religion.\u00a0<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2014 has been fraught with uncertainties for the property market, some are predicting all doom and gloom while others think the market has a resilient nature and can survive any uncertainty. Is the Malaysian property market strong enough to counter any eventualities?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[229,21],"tags":[219,208],"class_list":["post-10357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interest-rate","category-properties","tag-bi","tag-featured"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Will Malaysia Rise From The Property Humdrum Of 2014? | iMoney<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n