Housing construction rate, property transactions on the decline

Housing construction rate saw a moderate growth rate of 9.8 percent in the first half of this year compared to 22.1 percent in 2014.

This is largely due to the drop in housing loan appplication approvals of 32.9 percent from 99,461 to 66,770 loans approved.

According to the 2015/2016 Economic Report, the drop is also catalyzed by the cautiousness of housing developers on the back of the current economic volatility.

For the first half of 2015, residential property transactions declined by 2.6 percent to 119,604 transactions from 122,830 in the same period last year, while residential property value also saw a decline of 9.7 percent.

The number of new launches also declined 44.1 percent to just 27,231 units in the first half of 2015 as opposed to 31,155 units in the same period last year while the residential overhang rate, or in other words the number of unsold homes, increased 8.9 percent to 10,473 units in the first half of the year.

Property transactions witnessed declines in the four major states of Johor (17.9 percent), Pulau Pinang (14.2 percent), Kuala Lumpur (6.4 percent) dan Selangor (1.8 percent).

While the real estate transaction value eased 6.6 percent to RM76.6 bilion involving a total of 186,661 transactions.

Meanwhile, prices continues to climb as the Malaysia House Price Index (MHPI) grew at 5.9 percent in the second quarter of 2015.