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30th July, 2010
PETALING JAYA: Housing development in Malaysia is still active due to the rapid growth of urbanisation and is expected to increase from 67 per cent this year to 75 per cent by 2020.
Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Wira Chor Chee Heung said the property sector is doing well based on positive sales by property developers.
“In my own personal opinion, the industry is doing well as Malaysians have a high savings rate and are still able to purchase houses,” he told reporters after officiating the 13th National Housing and Property Summit here yesterday.
The summit was organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute.
Chor said the growing demand for property was also in line with the rising population while prices of properties in Malaysia are still low compared to other regions.
“Hence, the attractive prices have attracted foreign investors as they believe there is still an upside in terms of returns. The number of houses is projected to increase to 8.37 million units by 2020 from 5.15 million in 2000,” he added.
On whether rising property prices are healthy for the industry, Chor said the current pricing is still manageable and there was no overheating in the sector.
“The government is monitoring the (prices) every now and then. We are not reaching the stage where there is going to be overheating,” he explained.
He also said Malaysia is not ready for the build and sell concept as the it has not achieved a specific level of development and is unable to emulate the advanced nations.
However, he added, the Ministry of Housing and Local Government does encourage big developers to start the concept.
“There are many developers at the top of the scale who are able to adopt the build and sell scheme, which of course, will not give rise to abandoned housing projects,” he highlighted.
According to Chor, the Housing and Local Government Ministry is in the process of reviving the remaining abandoned housing schemes and will try to weed out the unscrupulous developers.
He said the government had successfully reduced abandoned housing projects to 56 this year from the 151 in 2009.
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