Property deals this year to breach RM100b

However, the growth of Malaysia property sector may be in single digit or below 20 per cent because there will be more people buying low- to medium-end properties

PROPERTY transactions will surpass RM100 billion this year but the sector will not enjoy 35 per cent growth as it did last year, said a government official.

Growth may be in single digit or below 20 per cent because there will be more people buying low- to medium-end properties resulting from government initiatives under the 2011 Budget.

Datuk Abdullah Thalith Md Thani, director-general of the Valuation and Property Services Department in the Ministry of Finance, said the volume of properties transacted will, however, grow by double digits to more than 350,000.

Between January and November 2010, there were a total of 342,179 properties transacted, worth RM96.78 billion.

Abdullah Thalith thinks there will be more than RM100 million in sales recorded in December, breaching RM100 billion for the whole year.

The RM100 billion mark, a record high for Malaysian properties, would be 35 per cent more than 2009.

In 1998, the value of properties transacted was about RM60 billion, with 5 to 10 per cent growth per annum.

Abdullah Thalith told reporters yesterday in Kuala Lumpur at the 2011 property market outlook summit that the positive economic outlook and the Economic Transformation Programme will drive growth this year.

He said the prime movers will be the redevelopment of the Sungai Besi land, Batu Cantonment army base, Rubber Research Institute land in Sungai Buloh, Matrade project by Naza Group, the 100-storey tower by Permodalan Nasional Bhd and the Mass Rapid Transit project.

"If all these projects can start this year, it will uplift the market. We expect more people to buy low to medium-end properties. We also expect movements in the luxury segment, commercial and industrial," he said.

By Business Times