15 August 2016, 05:53

The property market in Malaysia has been showing many shades of blue over the passing years and came the year 2016, where many reports describe the impacts of fluctuating economy trends, weakened Malaysian Ringgit, surplus of property supply and rising inflation rate, and forecast the future of the property market. These reports have been diligently prepared with statistical and subjective data gathered from a number of property-developing companies, financial institutions and banks, and home owners.

According to NAPIC, house prices have reached new heights that proved to be more expensive compared to previous years. For example, the Malaysian House Price Index had grew by 5.8% in the fourth quarter of 2015 in comparison to the fourth quarter of 2014. In the fourth quarter of 2015, ordinary house prices for all Malaysian homes had sky-rocketed to RM 315,287. This figure comprises of Kuala Lumpur’s ordinary house price standing tall at RM 734,957, Selangor coming in second place at RM 473,065, followed by Sabah, Sarawak, and Pulau Pinang with prices at RM 459,494, RM 391, 994 and RM 378,939 respectively. Moreover, the Annual House Price Inflation indicated Kuala Lumpur is recorded at 6.4% and Selangor at 6.2%. These statistical data explains the shift of the demand and supply in the property market. With rising house prices, many zealous house buyers had pulled the breaks on their plans and adopted the ‘wait-and-see’ behaviour to monitor the market. In consequence, this leads to a drop in property demand and an increase in property supply.

On a positive note, Malaysia has been identified as one of the popular education destinations by students from all over the world, with gratitude to efforts contributed by educational institutions, banks, and the Malaysian government. On the StudyMalaysia.com webpage, the United Nations Educational, Science and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) has published it’s recent International Students Mobility Survey recording Malaysia in the top ten signficant education destinations for tertiary education. Furthermore, Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh had announced that Malaysia is in the ninth place for the year 2016. This great achivement was made possible when many generous parties are offering conducive guidance and financial assistance for both international and local students to gain education opportunities in Malaysia. For instance, the Malaysian International Scholarship that is offered by the Malaysian government, Jeffrey Cheah Foundation Scholarship by Jeffrey Cheah Foundation, Hong Leong Undergraduate Scholarship Programme by Hong Leong Group,  and The Shell Malaysia 2016 Scholarship by Shell Malaysia.  

From the damaging effects of a slow economy, the weakened Malaysian Ringgit has taken a toll on Malaysians’ spending power in many aspects. A few of the aspects are many Malaysians are choosing to rent than to buy a property, limiting their expenses on luxury goods and travel plans, and parents are enrolling their children into locally-based colleges and universities. Despite these tough situations,  attractive scholarships and weak Malaysian Ringgit throw the spotlight on obtaining an education in Malaysia for local and international students. Thus, these are some of the few optimistic outlook that bring a large amount of students’ enrollment into colleges and universities in Malaysia which eventually lead to rental opportunities for nearby residential neighbourhoods where home owners  can hope for students  to fill in their properties and obtain higher rental yields. Moreover, this can encourage zealous home owners to purchase properties for one of these type of investment purposes.

A strategic location is one of the key tactics that empowers home owners with an upper-hand to offer a competitive rental fee to students. In reference to ibilik.my, table A shows different locations come with various ranges of rental fees.

Place	Details	Duration	Rental fee
USJ 1, Subang Jaya	(Landed property) Fully-furnished medium-sized room equipped with basic facilities and internet	Approximately 15 to 20 minutes drive to Sunway University, Sunway Medical Centre, Taylor’s College and Inti College	RM 400 to RM 500
PJS 9, Bandar Sunway	(Landed property) Fully-furnished medium-sized room equipped with basic facilities and internet	Approximately 10 to 18 minutes walk to Sunway University, Sunway Medical Centre, and Monash University	RM 460 to RM 600
My Place, Subang Jaya	(Condominium) Fully-furnished single room equipped with basic facilities and internet	Approximately  5 minutes walk to Taylor’s College, Inti’s College, and Asia Cafe	RM 600 to RM 700
First Subang, Subang Jaya	(Apartment) Fully-furnished studio apartment equipped with basic facilities and internet	Approximately  10 minutes walk to Taylor’s College, Inti’s College, and Asia Cafe	RM 1,600 to RM 1,800

Table A

Essentially, fully-furnished living quarters, easy access to public transportation and entertainment activities, and comfortable distance to colleges or universities are important elements that contribute to a competitive rental fee.

Keeping in prospect with a steady stream of local and international students enrolling for tertiary education, there is a constant demand to rent a property. Thereby, this demand helps to shed some positive light in the property market.

 

Written By : Melissa Sak Yin Si

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