News by The City

To take the path less trodden is no easy feat. But with new beginnings come opportunities for progress and advancement, especially when we speak of the real estate landscape. In this issue, we look at several existing developments around the Klang Valley — with the exception of Resorts World Genting — that are, if not the first of their kind, considered some of the earliest typologies by our industry experts.

THE slowdown in the property market is not news to developers and the public. But some developers have weathered the headwinds by planning carefully and implementing good strategies. For a glimpse of this, we asked the winners (Top 10) of last year’s The Edge Malaysia Top Property Developers Awards for their views at the start of the evaluation of this year’s Top 10 ranking.

Similarly, signs of oversupply are emerging in the retail sector in major urban areas, particularly in Penang, Johor and the Klang Valley.

Meanwhile, Bank Negara says there is an oversupply of office and retail space. Office space in the Klang Valley recorded a vacancy rate of 20.4% in 2015, compared with the regional average of 6.6% and national level of 16.3%.

AN undersupply of affordable housing, particularly in major urban areas, coupled with an oversupply of office and retail spaces, may lead to deeper imbalances in the property market, says Bank Negara Malaysia in its 2015 annual report, which was released recently. Despite a 35% increase in housing stock since 2005, the gap between the housing stock and the number of households widened from 2.1 million units in 2005 to 2.5 million in 2015. Annual housing completion has declined considerably in the past five years as the number of households continued to grow. There was an estimated average shortage of 85,911 housing units per year between 2011 and 2015.