'Malaysian property market recovering’

By Sharen Kaur
Published: 2009/08/04

MALAYSIA’S property market is recovering, albeit slowly as home buyers are still cautious, and hopes are that developers will continue to offer incentives, says Khong & Jaafar Sdn Bhd managing director Elvin Fernandez .

While the property market did suffer in the most parts of 2008, Fernandez said there was no major collapse in housing demand for the first half of 2009, thanks to developers’ initiatives.“We believe property transactions will start to move upwards given time,” said Fernandez, who is also deputy president of the Institution of Surveyors Malaysia (ISM).Fernandez said a major boost to the property sector will be to move Malaysia from a middle-income country to a higher level.

To do that, the average household income has to match property prices and rental.“If all our policies bear fruits and the average household income doubles, property prices would also double,” he said.In addition, the supply of houses in the affordable or luxury categories should be related to the demand and supply in the housing market or otherwise, Fernandez said, bubbles would form and when they burst, there would be dire consequences for households.

Meanwhile, this year’s National Real Estate Convention (NREC), to be held at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on August 11 and 12, will tackle issues such as possible structural changes in the way hotel owners and operators redefine their traditional model and the likely retooling of the real estate investment trust industry, in the wake of its own credit crisis.

“We will examine the possible change that would occur with the 2012 full adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards,” said Fer-nandez.The NREC is organised by the Association of Valuers and Property Consultants in Private Practice Malaysia and ISM.