kuala lumpur: The Department of Finance’s Evaluation & Real Estate Services recently released its 2024 Real Estate Market Report.
Year-round data from the Malaysian real estate market confirmed strong market performance highlighted by Rahim & Co in its annual publication release last month. In 2024, the total volume (number) of real estate transactions in Malaysia was 420,545 transactions across all real estate subsectors, indicating a high growth rate of 5.4% from the previous year.
This is the highest in the last decade and the third highest since the turn of the millennium. The other two high periods were the peak of the Malaysian real estate market in 2011 and 2012, with transactions of 430,403 and 427,520 respectively.
The total value of real estate transactions in 2024 was a violation of RM20 billion for the first time in history, marking an even more significant level. The total amount equivalent to RM232.3 billion is leading to 18% growth compared to the previous year.
The total value of a transaction includes, among other things, transaction records under sales and purchase agreements from primary sales by developers that may include prices prior to discounts or rebates. Nevertheless, even after these adjustments were still important, record high numbers remain important, indicating improved market conditions.
The improvements seen at the national level are apparent in all real estate sectors. Housing transactions are growing agriculture at +4%, +13.6%, industry +7.7%, agriculture +4.1%, and development land and other +9.7%. The growth momentum seen in 2024 reflects increased market confidence, coupled with supportive government policies and various incentives, despite global uncertainty and challenging environment. Performance is extremely encouraging as many continue to face the challenges of rising costs and slowing income growth amidst affordable concerns, buyer sentiment is still mixed and cautious.
Due to increased transaction growth, the number of unsold or overhang properties is decreasing.
Looking at the biggest components of the Overhang Unit, the overhang in the home fell by 10.3% to 23,149 units (2023:25,816 units), while the overhang in the serviced apartments fell from 6.1% to 19,564 units (2023:20,825 units). Residential and Serviced Apartment Units and SoHo units are purchased primarily for accommodation purposes, so we collectively classify them as residential units. Overall, the overhang statistics for these residential units (homes, serviced apartments, Soho) showed a 7.7% decline from the previous year, representing 44,585 units, which were valued at RM307.9 billion in 2024.
