[UPDATED] 31,661 houses remain unsold in Q1

KUALA LUMPUR –  A total 31,661 houses remain unsold as of the first quarter of this year, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Housing and Local Government Zuraida Kamaruddin said the unsold units are valued at RM20.03 billion, an increase compared with the preceding year, where 30,664 units valuing RM18.82 billion were still on the market.

This is despite the Home Ownership Campaign that was launched by the government in 2019 to encourage Malaysians to own homes.

Zuraida said the property glut has been mainly caused by a misreading by the property developers in terms of location of their developments, types of houses and prices.

“Other main issues are accessibility and failure to obtain bank loans.”

To better address the issue of unsold houses, Zuraida said the ministry has set up a housing integrated management system that offers real-time information. 

She added that since approvals on housing developments are done by the respective state governments and local councils, the ministry is not able to control the types of developments being approved. 

“We (ministry) can only control in terms of qualification and financial capability of the developers. 

“But what we are trying to do is come up with a mechanism in which we provide developers applying for licences with advice on whether certain projects are suitable or otherwise, based on the location and price.”

Zuraida added that the ministry would also build a new big data system by next year to assist in providing “numbers and projections” to developers to assist them in planning their business model more comprehensively. 

However, she did not provide more details on this. – The Vibes, November 25, 2020