Property
Big sum, poor sales
Worrying signs of an overheating housing market
By Rebecca Chong
Pictures by Ille Tugimin
Susan Wong Siew guen is elated that the recent four-day property exhibition “sold” 1,500 flats or condominiums, houses and shops worth 650m ringgit ($209.4m). She is the president of the Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (Shareda) which holds the yearly ProPEX in Kota Kinabalu. The figure may look good. But it is only a quarter of the 2.6 billion ringgit of properties put up for sale. Exhibitors had hoped to sell most of their 6,000 properties.
There is doubt over how much of the 650m ringgit of properties is real sales. Buyers pay a small booking fee for them. And no sale is made until a sales and purchase agreement between a buyer and developer is signed.
Wong says the figure represents “confirmed” and “intended” sales but she does not give a breakdown.
This means three-quarters of the exhibited properties are unsold, according to industry officials. Their developers will have a tough choice: either build them first and sell later or ultimately they have to abandon their projects if they stay too long on the drawing board without enough buyers to get them off the ground.
Nevertheless Wong notes that a few of the 37 housing developers sold 90% of their properties. She does not say how many and is overjoyed that one of them has sold all 28 of its houses priced at 1.6m ringgit each. Property prices range from 150,000 to 3m ringgit.
Some flats costing between 150,000 and 200,000 ringgit are within reach of middle-income earners. This has been a sore point as speculative buying has driven prices beyond their reach.
Musa Aman, the Sabah chief minister, has called on Shareda to get its members to build cheaper flats and houses “so that more families can buy property.” He opened the exhibition.
“There is a need for more cheaper flats and houses that will let the lower income earners to have a roof over their head,” Musa said. – Insight Sabah
Posted on September 11, 2012
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I encourage more companies in Malaysia to do likewise by playing a bigger role in conservation, as it is only through our collective efforts, that we will be able to pass on a beautiful country to our future generations.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman congratulated Astro for taking the initiative to organise the record breaking under water clean-up.
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Sabah is blessed with a wealth of natural treasures and for this reason, it is everyone’s responsibility to work together and do their part in keeping our streets, parks and beautiful beaches clean for all to enjoy.
Kota Kinabalu City Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir commenting on the Quality Environmental Practices Certification(5S) report presented by the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) to the Cleanliness and Environmental Health Department (JKKP) of KK City Hall yesterday.
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Change is already taking place and change from within is what the government has done.
Prime Minister Datuk Najib Tun Razak referring to the success of the National Transformation Program that has already changed the nation for the better.
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Do not take for granted the support given by the people. We, the elected representatives, must work hard to ensure the promises we made during the 13th general election are implemented accordingly.
The newly reappointed Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Aman, speaking at a thanksgiving ceremony held at Sandakan's Sri Libaran Hall on May 16th recently.
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We know of the people's aspirations... They want development so as to raise their quality of life. This is our struggle, we want to ensure progress for the people.
UMNO Deputy President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin speaking to the Sandakan community at the 'An Afternoon with the Deputy Prime Minister' event yesterday.