Malaysia property price? Increasing and now 25th highest in the world.

Source: https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2017/01/2017-demographia-housing-affordability-survey/

I was invited by Miichael Yeoh to share my thoughts about the Malaysian property market for 2018. Unfortunately, I do not have a crystal ball which can tell the future. In case anyone wants to know, I am just a working professional like most Malaysians and I do not buy a property every year or even 10 properties in a year. 🙂   I shared about all the possible scenarios including what to look for in order to know if a property bubble crash is imminent. In brief, the answer is no. However, no one can predict any unforeseen circumstances yeah. I also shared that it’s very important to look at median prices instead of average prices because one tells about the most possible transaction while the average tells nothing if the market has both extremes of high end and low ends. Do refer to the image for some understanding about the median prices in many major markets of the world today.
Did you know that property prices in Malaysia is still rising despite the current ‘negative sentiment’ in the market? Do you know that we are much higher ranked than Singapore which is now facing a negative price change for house price? Indonesia’s property market is in between. For the period of Q3 2016 to Q3 2017, Knight Frank’s Global House Price Index showed that property price grew 5.1 percent up in Malaysia, 3.3 percent up in Indonesia and -0.3 percent for Singapore and are ranked 25th, 38th and 52nd respectively when compared to 56 other markets that is tracked by Knight Frank. The tracking revealed that 9 out of 10 countries are showing an increase BUT almost half of them are showing an annual growth decline when compared to the previous quarter. Please do read the full article for this ranking by Knight Frank in NST here. 

Knight Frank International residential research head Kate Everett-Allen said, “The shift was most evident at the top of the rankings table. Thirteen of the 15 strongest performing housing markets around the world registered a slowdown in their rate of annual growth in the year to September.” Hong Kong is STILL in second place in the ranking but its price growth is now only 1.7 percent when we look at the last three months to September 2017. (This means it should drop down the ranking if this continues for the next few quarters)  It also showed the United States and the United Kingdom on different trajectories. Average prices in the US accelerated from 5.8 percent a year earlier to 6.2 per cent currently. The UK meanwhile faced a marginal dip from 2.8 to 2.6 per cent. China’s property market is already rising at their slowest for five quarters but even this still showed that the prices are up 6.5 per cent on an annual basis. Here’s that full article again. 
written on 15 Jan 2018
Next suggested article:  More smaller units below RM1 million. Is this the start….?

Comments

  1. Jim White avatar
    Jim White

    My god, you love patting yourself in the back, don’t you? How could Malaysia property be better than Singapore or HK property as you imply. The prices are rising because the RM has depreciated over the past two decades! If you convert all pricing index to a common currency, let’s say USD, as an example or, the SGD, and factor in actual rental (which is abysmal in Malaysia) your malaysian properties do not earn you much (if anything at all) while Singapore or HK properties have “real appreciation” with real rental demand (my HK and Singapore properties have never been vacant more than a few weeks for the past two decades, while my KL properties are languishing now, some empty for months). Your blog is poorly written and your observations simplistic and often untrue. Please learn more before pretending to be some kind of property guru!

    1. Thanks Jim. Hopefully I can e-interview you for the benefit of kopiandproperty.my readers. ‘How to invest successfully in Singapore and Hong Kong.’ Could you drop me your email? Coming back to your comment, I think first of all, based on your property investments which are already international, you are by far more of a property guru / expert than most Malaysians, including me. Second of all, I am not sure where in the whole article that I imply Malaysian property is better than SG or HK. If this is the line, (“Did you know that property prices in Malaysia is still rising despite the current ‘negative sentiment’ in the market? Do you know that we are much higher ranked than Singapore which is now facing a negative price change for house price?”) This statement is as per Knight Frank’s chart. Higher ranked here is for property price increase and based on the ranking, Singapore was towards the bottom and Malaysia is somewhere in the middle. Anyway, if this is misleading in anyway, I will change it to as follows: “When ranked based on property price increase for the past 1 year (Q3 2016 – Q3 2017, Malaysia’s increase is ranked 25th while Singapore’s at 52nd? Out of 56 property markets covered by Knight Frank’s report”
      By the way, it is not true that any particular property market is better than the other one. Frankly, each have their own advantages and limitations plus SG and HK are already advanced property markets and their growth for the past 20 years are certainly by far faster than Malaysia. For advanced property markets, it depends on how high their median price (affordability) is today. If it is already at the unaffordable level, it will be hard for the prices to keep going up unless the income of the population grows much faster too. The exact same situation for Malaysia.
      In terms of real demand, good to hear that you have been able to rent out your properties in SG and HK easily. As for Kuala Lumpur, let me know if I can recommend some good agents to help you. As at today, my blog remains just a blog and it is not affiliated or owned by any media players. I also do not sell any workshops or courses too. I still look forward to a latte with you, as I have suggested much earlier. Cheers Jim.

    2. Sorry, I have to also mention that I love Malaysia. I also love Malaysian properties because it has given me good returns which is impossible if I were to rely on just working harder everyday. At the same time I love vacations in many other countries too. I look forward to travelling to more. This year planning only for Sydney and Melbourne. Take care and cheers Jim.

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