KUALA LUMPUR: The Valuation & Property Services Department under the Finance Ministry released their Property Market Report for 2024 recently which revealed a historical high of property transaction activities in the country.
The full year data for the Malaysian property market confirmed the strong market performance as highlighted last month by Rahim & Co in their Annual Publication Release. In 2024, the total volume (number) of property transactions in Malaysia was 420,545 transactions across all property subsectors, signifying a higher growth rate of 5.4% from the previous year.
This was the highest in the past decade, and the third highest since the turn of the millennium. The other two higher periods were in 2011 and 2012, during the last Malaysian property market peak where it recorded 430,403 and 427,520 transactions respectively.
The total value of property transactions for 2024 showed an even significant level, breaching RM200 billion for the first time in history. The total value amounting to RM232.3 billion translates to a year-on-year growth of 18%.
The total value of transactions includes, amongst others, transaction records based on Sale & Purchase Agreements from primary sales by developers which may have included prices before discounts and rebates. Nevertheless, the record high figures, even after these adjustments would still be significant – indicating an improved market condition.
The improvement seen at the national level is evident across all property sectors with residential transactions growing by +4%, commercial at +13.6%, industrial at +7.7%, agricultural at +4.1% and development land & others at +9.7%. The growth momentum seen in 2024 reflected a rising market confidence coupled with the supportive government policies and various incentives, despite global uncertainties and challenging environment. The performance is considered very encouraging as buyers’ sentiment is still mixed and being cautious – as many continue to face the challenges of rising costs and sluggish income growth amidst affordability concerns.
Due to strong transaction growth, the number of unsold completed properties, or overhang properties, has decreased.
Looking at the largest component of overhang units, the residential overhang decreased by 10.3% to 23,149 units (2023: 25,816 units), while serviced apartments overhang dropped by 6.1% to 19,564 units (2023: 20,825 units). As the residential and serviced apartments units, plus Soho units, are mostly purchased for living accommodation purpose, we collectively classify them as dwelling units. As a whole, the overhang statistics for these dwelling units (residential, serviced apartments and Soho) have shown a decline of 7.7% from the previous year, amounting to 44,585 units valued at RM30.79 billion in 2024.
