The Malaysian House Price Index recorded a -2% on-quarter reduction in the first quarter of the year (Q1 2022), according to the latest market snapshot by the National Property Information Centre (Napic).
The negative growth rate in prices represented a -0.1% on-year change compared with the first quarter of 2021. Median house prices, however, reached RM433,430 this quarter, a 96.9% growth since the base year price of RM220,154 in Q1 2010.
Only high-rise properties showed positive change in average prices, growing 0.1% on-quarter to RM342,176. The average price of terrace houses dipped by 2.2% to RM410,527, while semi-detached homes dropped 2.6% to RM660,636.
Detached home prices recorded the biggest dip of the property types listed. Median prices fell by 4.1% to RM617,678. As for market activity, a total of 94,544 units were transacted in the first quarter of this year, representing a marginal 4.9% drop from the previous quarter.
In contrast, property transactions spiked by 62.3% to 99,462 units in Q4 2021 compared with the third quarter, owing to the reopening of economic activity and the ending of the Home Ownership Campaign.
As usual, residential transactions made up the bulk of the total value and volume of transactions in Q1 2022. Some 61.1% (57,750 units) of transactions were for residential properties, while commercial and industrial transactions made up only 7.9% and 1.9% of the total, respectively.
The second-biggest share was for agricultural transactions (22.9%), while the remaining sum (6.2%) was attributed to development land and other purposes. The value of transactions also dropped to RM41.91 billion from RM46.85 billion in Q4 2021.
At RM22.98 billion, residential transactions made up 54.8% of the total transaction value in the first quarter of this year. This was followed by commercial transactions at RM7.26 billion (17.3%), and industrial transactions at RM5.11 billion (12.2%).
Meanwhile, residential overhang has also dipped modestly to 35,592 units at a value of RM22.45 billion, from 36,863 units valued at RM22.79 billion last year. Read more about this here.
