PETALING JAYA (Oct 27): The take-up rate for residential property units rose 23.9% with 6,775 units in the first half of 2017 (1H2017) from 1H2016 due to continued access to housing loans, especially for first-time homebuyers, according to the “Economic Report 2016/2017”.

This led to a smaller contraction in the total value of transactions — by 0.3% to RM32.9 billion from RM33 billion in 1H2016, compared with the 9.6% contraction experienced a year ago.

However, overall residential property transaction volume fell 6.9% to 95,010 in 1H2017 from 102,096 a year ago mostly due to macroprudential measures to curb speculation and limit lending only to creditworthy borrowers.

Overall, the residential property subsector in Malaysia grew by 4.7% in 1H2017, slowing from 8.5% over the same period a year ago.

The growth was underpinned by a “firm demand for affordable housing in choice locations with easy access”, said the report.

Housing starts rebounded significantly by 12.1% to 67,662 units from 60,378 units a year ago, compared with a 40% contraction during the period.

Condominiums and apartments accounted for 42.9% of total housing starts but the increase was offset by a decline in incoming supply at 3.4% to 485,433 units [from 502,345 a year ago] as developers were cautious in launching new projects to prevent accumulation of unsold properties, it said.

In the same vein, new approvals dipped 2.8% to 43,133 units from 44,389 units as developers re-evaluated their plans according to market conditions.