All charts were provided by Michael Geh , Senior Partner of Raine & Horne and also the Vice-President of FIABCI Malaysian Chapter with numbers from NAPIC.
In Q4 2014, Penang’s property market showed resilience when it’s total transactions increased when compared to Q3 of 2014. Total transactions in units reached 5,193 from 4,194. An increase of almost 1,000 units. In percentage it was around 23 percent up. Some were hopeful that this may be the start of a recovery where Penang property market is concerned. Furthermore mainland was said to be rising with the second bridge. Well, nothing of such happened. By end of Q1 2015, the total transactions has dropped 26 percent when compared to Q4 2015. Thus, from 5,193 units just one quarter earlier, this has dropped by 1,359 units to 3,834 units. This is the LOWEST number since 2011. This drop may have been attributed to the negative sentiments and thus market adopted a wait-and-see attitude instead.
In terms of price range, the most number of units transacted was in the RM200,001 to RM500,000 category. However, the drop in the number of units transacted was the highest among all categories. It dropped 491 units. The lower price range ones dropped a lot too, probably because the buyers for these units have been the most affected whenever the sentiment turns negative. In terms of average transacted prices, it has edged up slightly. From RM397k, it is now RM404k. Looking at the number of transactions, this meant that despite a drop across all types of properties, the higher priced ones are more resilient. A general conclusion is that those who could still afford to buy are the wealthier ones and these are the ones who are willing to buy something more comfortable, thus contributing to this slight increase in average transacted prices.
If you have read some recent articles about Penang, there has been more news about mainland Penang, especially where Batu Kawan area is concerned. It is said that this is where the boom may be because of Vision City. Read here: Vision City, the Verve and IKANO for mainland Penang I still believe that the growth would remain within island for many more years because of all my Penangite friends. I have very few Penangite friends who speak highly about mainland. Most of the time, it’s still better to live where all the actions are. With Gurney Mall, Paragon Mall and even Queensway Mall, island certainly has much more attractions, not just with the malls but also other attractions as well. Come on, even UNESCO Heritage City is for Georgetown which is within the island itself. That huge catalyst project showing a huge sign has yet to appear as at 2015. Who knows, once market turns positive everyone may turn bullish about mainland Penang? Yes, I still have properties in Penang and would love to keep it for now. Happy reading and buying.
written on 7 July 2015
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