BY EUGENE MAHALINGAM
PETALING JAYA: Total property launches and sales nearly doubled in the second half of last year compared with the first half of 2016, despite a glut in the sector, according to the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (Rehda).
According to a survey comprising 165 of its members, a total of 13,276 units were launched nationwide in the second half 2016, compared with 7,172 units in the first half of last year.
Of the units launched, sales grew to 5,973 units in the second half of last year compared with 2,829 units in the first six months of 2016.
At a media briefing today, Rehda president Datuk Seri FD Iskandar said nearly half of the residential units launched were priced below RM500,000.
He also said prices in most states remained, but Kuala Lumpur was the only state that saw an increase in launches for units over RM1mil in the second half of 2016.
“In the first half of last year, the units that were launched the most in Kuala Lumpur were those between RM500,000 and RM1mil.
“In the second half, the most number of units launched were those over RM1mil. This might be due to improved sentiment or better economic conditions,”he said when revealing Rehda’s Property Industry Survey for the second half of 2016 and Market Outlook for the first half of 2017.
Of the total number of unsold units, Iskandar said the bulk of the units were within the price range of RM250,000 to RM500,000 and RM500,000 to RM1mil.
“End financing remains the major problem for unsold units and loan rejection was mostly for properties priced RM700,000 and below,” he said.
Going into 2017, Iskandar said slightly more than half of its respondents plan to launch units in the first half of this year, although most are expecting subdued sales.
“Almost three quarter of the respondents are only expecting less than 50% of sales within the first six months of launch.”
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