HomeGuru property survey reveals

The general election appears to be a factor in property purchasing decisions by certain investors, a survey carried out by an online property portal has revealed.

PropertyGuru, Asia's leading property portal, and its Malaysian arm HomeGuru, have said 40 per cent of over 2,000 respondents of a survey carried out in Malaysia have said they will buy properties after the elections, while 49 per cent stated the polls would have no effect on their buying decision.

"About 800 of our respondents feel the coming general election will affect their property buying decision and say they will buy properties only after the election," HomeGuru Sdn Bhd country manager Steven Tan told Business Times.

The findings were part of the company's "Malaysia Property Sentiment Survey" for the second half of 2011.

He said 18 per cent of the respondents said they used the Internet to do a research on property market trends, 16 per cent for home loan packages, 15 per cent for real estate agents and 15 per cent scoured online for auction properties.

Tan was in Penang on Thursday with AllProperty Media Pte Ltd group chief executive officer Steve Melhuish to relaunch Property-Guru's northern region property website, Fullhouse.com.my.

Other finds of the survey included the fact that 20 per cent of its respondents said potential profit from capital appreciation of property is the most attractive reason to invest in property.

"About 19 per cent say property investment is good for retirement planning and 18 per cent see property as solid and safe investment," Tan added.

"Our sentiment survey indicates that north Malaysia will continue to experience a sharp growth due to high demand from local and overseas buyers in the next two years," Melhuish said.

"This is based on the fact that an average of 46 per cent of 120 survey respondents from northern Malaysia - notably Penang - say that property prices for apartments/condominiums, terrace and link-houses and town houses are reasonable."

PropertyGuru, which was founded in 2006, has a presence in 8 countries, including offices in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, along with partnerships with property websites in Australia, Hong Kong, India and Macau. - By Marina Emmanuel (Business Times)

2 comments

August 7, 2011 at 3:18 PMAnonymous

Really BS, Property price is reasonable, How can you get 46 % out of 120 respondents to agree ?
These 120 selected respondents are most probably developers, speculators, investors that holding many units or the similar sorts. Just ask anybody or those people around you, see if can get how many to agree the property price is reasonable.

 
August 7, 2011 at 10:11 PMPenny Pen

I am looking for shop lot for investment in Penang island prefer in (Georgetown and Batu Maung), to be rented out; Freehold. Only the property by the main road, not in a mall below RM900,000. Please contact me at blessutan@yahoo.com