Residential properties to appreciate 13pc

Residential properties are expected to appreciate an average 13 per cent between January and June due to spiralling building materials and petrol prices.

President, Real Estate and Housing Developers Association Malaysia (REHDA), Datuk Seri Michael Yam said:"Property prices in specific locations within the Klang Valley will remain extremely high due to expensive land cost".

In the third quarter of last year, terrace houses in Kuala Lumpur were averaging about RM430,000.

Yam said while government efforts to encourage first time home ownership, through the "My First Home Scheme", would promote the sale of properties priced between RM100,000 and RM220,000, there was a need to review the price limit to RM350,000 for properties in the Klang Valley.

"Developers also face cost pressures in terms of absorbing road building cost," Yam told a press conference on property market trends this year.

REDHA council member, Anthony Cho Tian Han, said developers faced several constraints in that they were not able to sell off every unit in a housing project as developers had to reserve a minimum 30 per cent for Bumiputera ownership over a long period of time.

As for foreign buyers in the property market, Yam said, they were not as aggressive as many believed. "A majority of the buyers are still locals," he said, adding that Singaporeans, Europeans, Indonesians and South Koreans accounted for a cross-section of the foreign purchasers.

By Bernama