KUCHING: Sarawak has the worst overhang problem for industrial property among the states in Malaysia.
In 2023, Sarawak dominated the number of overhang industrial property, with 323 units or 40 per cent of the country’s total 808 units, according to National Property Information Centre (NAPIC) data released recently.
Johor came in second with 173 overhang units, followed by Perak (78) and Pahang (51).
Nationwide, the overhang industrial property situation had, however, improved by 8.2 per cent in 2023 as the number was reduced from 880 units in 2022 and 1,130 units in 2021.
“Terraced units recorded the highest number of industrial overhang by building type at 61.1% (494 units), followed by semi-detached units at 31.3% (253 units).
“In terms of price, industrial units above RM1 million accounted for 37.6% (304 units) (of the overhang) whilst the price for RM500,000 and above were 35.4% (286 units),” based on the NAPIC figures.
In 2023, the unsold under construction for industrial property slightly increased by 1.6 per cent to 457 units as compared to that of 2022. Selangor led with 194 units (42.5%), followed by Johor 126 units (27.6%) and Sarawak 80 units (17.5%).
Semi-detached and terraced respectively contributed for 194 units (42.5%) and 177 units (38.7%) of the total unsold industrial property under construction.
In 2023, unsold not constructed industrial property recorded 22 units valued at RM98.57 million which are located in Sabah.
All of them were priced above RM1 million. Semi-detached units recorded the highest number of unsold not constructed at 45.5 per cent, followed by detached and terraced units at 27.3 per cent respectively.
Nationwide, there was an improvement in the residential property overhang situation as the number of overhang units fell to 25,816 units or down by seven per cent from 27,746 units in 2022. In 2021, the country recorded 36,863 units in overhang residential property, which was a 24.7 per cent jump from 29,565 units in 2020.
Similarly, the value of overhang residential property in Malaysia dropped by four per cent to RM17.68 billion in 2023 from RM18.41 billion in 2022 and RM22.79 billion in 2021.
Perak recorded the highest overhang with 4,598 units worth RM1.23 billion. Otherwise, Kedah saw a tremendous decrease of 83.0% to 199 units (2022:1,174 units). Coming in second was Johor with overhang of 4,228 units, followed by Kuala Lumpur (3,535 units), Selangor (3,405 units), Pulau Pinang (3,001 units), Sabah (2,068 units) and Sarawak (1,728 units).
“Condominium/apartment formed almost two-thirds (60.5%) of the total residential overhang share in the review period.
Trailing at second place was 2-3 storey terraced units at 14.1%.
“High-end residential units priced above RM500,000 took up the majority of the overhang share at 45.3% (11,696 units),
slightly decreased by 1.9% compared to the previous year. Otherwise, units priced RM300,000 and below increased 5.9% to 7,592 units.”
For serviced apartment, there were 20,825 overhang units worth RM16.63 billion across the country in 2023. Johor dominated serviced apartment overhang at 11,710 units (56.2%), followed by Kuala Lumpur 4,806 units (23.1%) and Selangor 2,065 units (9.9%). The number of overhang units in Johor was cut sharply by 17.1 per cent from 14,132 units recorded in 2022.
Serviced apartments priced RM500,000 and above made up the majority of the overhang at 4,204 units.
According to the NAPIC report, service apartment recorded the highest number of commercial units unsold under construction, which was more than 70 per cent of the 31,708 units. The total number of commercial unsold under construction fell 26 per cent from 42,848 units in 2022, and it was 54.154 units in 2021.
Overall, the Malaysian property market had gradually improved in 2023 after the downturn in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 399,008 transactions worth RM196.83 billion were recorded, showing an increase of 2.5 per cent in volume and 9.9 per cent in value as compared to 389,107 transactions valued at RM179.07 billion in 2022.
The residential sub-sector led the overall property market, with 62.8 per cent in volume. This was followed by agriculture (19.0%), commercial (10.1%), development land and others (6.1%) and industrial (2.0%). Similarly in value, residential took the lead with 51.3 per cent share, followed by commercial (19.5%), industrial (12.2 %), agriculture (9.5%) and development land and others (7.5%).
In 2023, there were 250,586 transactions in residential property worth RM100.93 billion in the country, up three per cent in volume and 7.1 per cent in value as compared to 2022.
Demand continued to focus on affordable houses, with price range of RM300,000 and below accounted for 52.8 per cent of total residential transactions, followed by RM300,001 to RM500,000 (24.9%), RM500,001 to RM1 million (17.2%) and more than RM1 million (5.1%).
Of the total residential property transactions, 21.5 per cent was primary market transactions (purchase from developers) while the remaining 78.5 per cent was secondary market transactions (sub-sales).
For new launches across the country, the primary market performance was more encouraging in 2023, with 56,526 units launched (2022: 54,118 units).
By property category, landed properties formed 62.1 per cent (35,114 units) of the total new launches, dominated by terraced units accounting for 49.2 per cent (27,801 units) whilst 33.5 per cent (18,964 units) recorded for condominium/apartment.
“The slight improvement was supported by the uptrend in Johor, Sarawak and Perlis which increased more than 50%. It could be attributed to the various incentives and assistance given by the government to promote home ownership especially the first-time purchaser in Budget 2023. Sales performance shows better figure at 40.4%, higher than 36.0% in 2022,” said the report.
Johor recorded the highest number of new launches in the country, capturing 21.9 per cent (12,390 units) of the national total with sales performance of 42.9 per cent. This was followed by Selangor 11,542 units (20.4%) and Kuala Lumpur 5,927 units (10.5% share). Selangor and Kuala Lumpur recorded 55 per cent and 28.7 per cent sales performance respectively.
Terraced houses dominated the new launches, whereby single storey terrace (10,842 units) and two to three storey (16,959 units) jointly contributed 49.2 per cent of the total units. Condominium/apartment units came second, capturing 33.6 per cent (18,964 units) of the total units, mostly in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.
