PETALING JAYA: Southeast Asia property technology company, the PropertyGuru Group, plans to further strengthen its presence in Malaysia following the completion of the iProperty Malaysia acquisition.
It now owns all the shares in REA Group Ltd’s entities in Malaysia and Thailand, of which besides iProperty and Brickz.my in Malaysia, also includes thinkofliving.com and Prakard.com in Thailand.
Its country manager for Malaysia Sheldon Fernandez (pix) said that the group are looking to add more values for its Malaysian customers through various value-adding approaches.
“Currently, we have a big responsibility given that two brands (PropertyGuru and iProperty) are coming together. The acquisition allows us to focus on what we think is right to assist our customers and we are looking to add more value for them,” he told SunBiz at the ninth PropertyGuru Asia Awards Malaysia in partnership with iProperty.com.my on Nov 29.
On outlook, the group is cautiously optimistic for the Malaysian market as the number of property listings and asking prices on its sites are in an upward trend despite the predicted slowdown in the economy.
Fernandez said confidence remained in the Malaysian property market due to good job prospects as well as quality products in the market.
“There is a healthy momentum in the market. Although consumers are more cautious as prices and interest rates are going up, there is still the fear of missing out because historically prices have not come down. So people want to buy a property now as opposed to waiting later on when the prices are a lot higher,” he said.
He said that all these while the Malaysian property sector has been resilient, stable and consistent, and that there is low volatility in the market.
“I think consumers have high intention to buy or own a property but we may see a bit of a dampened approach given the challenges in the economy,” he added.
While demand went up in the second quarter of 2022, it came down in the third quarter as the government’s homeownership campaign came to an end in June.
“The homeowners think they can hold their value while the buyers are taking the wait-and-see approach due to the uncertainties, including the election,” he said.
Fernandez commented that Malaysia for the longest time has property overhang issues where there are more supply compared to transactions happening, which means there’s a lot of unsold stocks in the market.
“It is a good thing that the developers take the wait-and-see approach as they focus on the assets ready in the market. I think they can get better results as the market picks up,” he said.
Fernandez concluded that the market still needs a government stimulus – at least in the short term to push it back to its pre-pandemic levels.
About 48% of developers surveyed by the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association said they did not plan any launches in the second half of 2022 mainly due to unfavourable market conditions.
