PROPCAFE™ Guide : Trends in Malaysian Property Market

In another few more hours we will welcome 2016 into our life, let’s embrace 2016 with grace! At this point of time, usually we will sit down at a quiet corner and listing down our New Year resolutions and some of us will try to recap all the moment taken place in 2015. What will be yours New Year resolutions and how was your 2015 had taken you so far? 🙂

For me, throughout the year of 2015 has been a mixed feeling of ups and downs. There were happy moment yet it came with a package of sadness. Life is not always about smooth sailing journey; sometimes it can be very rough and tough too.

In the year of 2015 itself, back to back I had seen the separation of love one; be it whether is beyond your control such as sickness and accident or the course of actions that leading to the decision made.

The experience of encountering such an intense moment in such a short period of time span really inflicted some permanent scars on my heart and this leave me to question what is life again.

For those who had gone or still going through such a painful moment, hang in there and be strong.

“If you‘re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill

It is the entire rough, tough and painful journey will carve your character today – a stronger and wiser person. Believe me believe you, the sky is the limit and all of us are unique and own some special potential.

This is your own journey which you have to walk yourself to discover it. This is life.

Let’s go back to the property.

I am feeling grateful and blessed as being able to sit down in a café (in one piece  🙂 ) writing my last article of 2015 while enjoying my hot coffee and I hope while you are reading this, you are enjoying every this single splendid moment with your family and those who are maters to you counting down for 2016.

In this last article of 2015, I am trying to sum it up all the moment what PROPCAFE had gone through in the year of 2015.

No doubt the property market of 2015 is soft as compared for the past few years. We heard and read quite a significant write-ups from the media or gurus on how bad the property market today and the outlook of property market in 2016 is not that really promising.

So how all these news affected us? Do we stop buying? The winter is coming, so do we stop hunting and hibernate during this season?

For me property investment is a long journey of self-discovery and similar to life; there are up and down, the good and bad moment, the tough and the easy moment.

PROPCAFE did not stop here and until today PROPCAFE is still learning. In order to be one fundamentally strong and shrewd property investor, you don’t quit or stop learning during the bad time.

The market is soft but it is not something unusual to PROPCAFE. If you got yourself the right product, good or bad time is irrelevant. Do not let the fear stopping you from moving forward.

• It is during this time where it separates the boy from the man.
• It is during the bad time you learn the most.
• It is during the bad time you can differentiate the good from the bad.
• It is during the bad time, the most unorthodox creativity and innovation will surface from its shadow of darkness.
• It is during the bad time, you able to see what it takes to be really in love with property. (or SO, partner, business partner, friends)
• It is during the bad time, you don’t have to fight with the rest, and you can have your own sweet time to think and make a decision, no need to queue overnight, pampered with choices, freebies and treated like one true customer.

So back to the question does it affect us? Yes, in a good way. Over this winter time, I had seen how PROPCAFE members re-structure their buying trend, in term of product, location, investment horizon, financing and the list can goes on to the extent of studying the trends in Malaysian property market.

Along the way, out of desperation and depressing market, PROPCAFE moved out from the comfort zone, explored the unexplored, made few hard head bangs on the wall and REALLY learned a lot.

Talking about banging our heads on the wall, now we learned to wear helmet now!

In the year of 2015, PROPCAFE members acquired 13 properties with approximate value of RM$7.25m comprises of new launch, sub-sales, auction and also semi new launch (dropped out unit which is near to completion).

One of the highlight moments of 2015 was 6 out of 13 properties were done in the last minutes year end shopping; inked on the dotted line in December 2015 itself.

More often if not that we read or hear about the property market outlook. Seldom as it is, we hardly hear about the trends in the Malaysian property market.

For those who have been long enough in the property industry should be able to spot on the changes of the trends in Malaysian property market.

Unlike fashion or lifestyle trends, the evolution of the trends in Malaysian Property Market is rather slow and sometime is almost unnoticeable but it does exist.

So let’s has a brief touch on the topic of “TRENDs” this time

Malaysia Property Market Trends – Back in October 2015, I came across this digital article about trends in the Malaysian Property by theedgeproperty.

Quite an interesting article though. Have a click on it if you do have spare time. After reading this article, “The Force within me was Awakens” – the word of “trend” been in my mind until today and then other words such as trendsetter, trendies, fashion trend, coffee trend, food and drink trend, market trend and somehow my mind gone a little bit wild to dark side of sex trend of 2015. 😳

Sex trends for 2015?  😳 Kid you not; there is Sex Trends for 2015! Opps.. wait a minute, sorry wrong picture here. Not going to talk anything about intimate topic here although I am quite open about it, perhaps I will leave it to my next write up. What I meant was The SEX+Y Trends for property market in Malaysia.

I started to ask myself a question, how these all other trends are interrelated and to what extend it will influence the property market trend?

Why as a property investor we need to understand and study the trends in Property Market?

And I discovered all these trends regardless of market, social, fashion, food and drink and not to forget sex and property having one thing in common –

 

“time + human behavior”

There will be a point in the market where the baby boomers ( > 52 yo) as the major purchasers will starts to shrink slowly due to factors such as aging, health, financing limitation, retirement mindset and lesser risk appetite will be replaced by the next younger generation.

There will be a transition where the Generation Y and Millennials emerging as the biggest pool of property buyer in the property market and this is the nature universal law of property market

Fast forward 5 to 10 years from now, think about it as who will be the next first home owner? Generation X ( age between 35 – 52) by now should already own their first home. ( you should be worry if you are Gen X and still does not own one yourself)

So who will be the next wave of mass market buyer hunting for their first home? This is one of the most difficult conundrums for the experts. 🙄

I am not an expert and I am making few assumptions here where most people start to buy their first property after graduated and started to contribute in the workforce for average of 2 – 5 years of service ( where their income becoming stable and ready to settle-down ) and not withstanding the fact that one of the main driving force for getting their first home is due family or marriage.

This group should fall within the age range of 25-34 and this group of buyer is the today’s Millennial. 💡 (age between 20-34) .

Now look around you and see whether you know or can identify any of the millennial 😀

Source of reference :*Below link will be a bit technical. Click only if you are interested to digest it 🙂

1. Young buyers in the property market by the borneo post
2. Property development: The influence of demographic changes on the actors and the Malaysian housing demand (preferences) – preliminary findings (housing consumers) by Hafiszah Ismail1, Abdul Hadi Nawawi2, Zainal Mat Saat3m, Centre of Postgraduate Studies, Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
3. Future Trend in Malaysian Property Market: Going to be Vertical by Daniele Gambero

As a developer and property investor, how much do you really understand the Millennial? If you want to stay ahead in the game for a longer horizon, understanding the trend and behavior of purchasers in property market is equivalent important as others factors.

I am not saying that this parameter outweighs others common factors that we already known such as demographics, demand vs supply, price, location and accessibility but I am merely trying to highlight that *trend in property market ( *influenced by human behavior due to change of environment)  is one of the hidden factor in the equation of property investment that most people tend to omit.

So let’s start with a simple illustration below to find out more what their characteristics

And if you want to know the top 50 brands for millennial .

You will be really surprised. Actually I am expecting #facebook and #instagram to be in the top 3 position.

Now we understand, in the near future, the Millennials will be the new blood and major force in the property market scene. We have to learn  to understand thing is changing over time, trend is built over it regardless whether you are willing to accept it or not.

The baby boomers and Gen X preferences or successful formula is no longer necessary applicable to this little unique daring ( or darling ) Millennials. 

Nevertheless there will be still some common basic ground despite generation gap in the methodology of property hunting. Understanding  the behavior of Millennials will do you no harm but giving you some extra edges in your property investment over the long term horizon.

Let’s see where the trends in Malaysia property market will be heading to as we are moving forward from now on.

Based on the article about trends in the Malaysia Property by theedgeproperty.com.my – I am doing a cover version for the trends in the Malaysia Property Market and this is what I gathered here :

1. Mixed-use developments (aka Fully Integrated Lifestyle Development)

The upcoming Millennials will be the mass force behind the property buying scene. Their behavior is more towards lifestyle and wants all “NICE” things within their one-arm length that come with service like a hotel.

“It is so cool, your new place got everything, got so many happening cafe, nice restaurant, cinema, gym, awesome shopping center, cool offices and a beautiful park too! How I know? I see many people shared it over #facebook and #instagram!” 🙄  😆

Example of few current mixed-use development project : KL Ecocity, REV.O Bukit Jalil , Pavilion Bukit Jalil, Tropicana Gardens , Pavilion Damansara Height , Sunway Velocity , EkoCheras, and Tropicana Metropark

2. Aged care facilities

The baby boomers are getting older. Matter of time that this will create demands on medical health care facilities, aged care facilities and elderly friendly lifestyle property to maintain their independence and lifestyle as kids nowadays hardly stay with their parents anymore when they had grown up. So now staying near to hospital is not bad after all.

“Oh God, my lovely wife..no one will care for old people like us anymore, our kids now all grown up and having their own family, we don’t want burden them, but don’t worry my love, I will be with you and grow old together, let me look for a new home for our retirement together” 😆 

According to an article by PropSocial , the top 3 retirement homes of Malaysia are

1. The Green Leaf by Gracious Homes Sdn Bhd
2. AraGreens Residence by HSB Development Sdn Bhd
3. GreenAcres by TI Homes

More Read Up on senior/elder/retirement home friendly

i. Models of senior living for Malaysia

ii. How to make your home senior-friendly

3. Smaller intelligent homes

Size is getting smaller to accommodate mass market affordability level but with the advance of technology innovation (booming of tech apps), creative practical layout, innovative design concept or some creative furniture and “SMART” ID, new generation likely to be able to accept the smaller size being compensated with technology.

 

Maybe the tagline is ” Size does not matter but “Smart” does matter”  😛

4. The dual key concept

Contradicts to No:2 , this is for those who die die want to have a few generations staying together where a common practiced culture by the Asian or for those

“Kid, you stay with me because you cannot afford a house by yourself” 🙂 I love Asia! But there is another Chinese old saying that ONE mountain not able to store TWO tigress  ( Direct translation : There is no way two women able to live under the same roof )

The dual key concept is the concept of living allowing the flexibility of two or more families/couples/tenant staying together under the same unit yet maintain some privacy due to the layout design concept where mainly having  separate entrance, master bedroom, living, dining and kitchen. In the event if there is any argument or fight, this will enable you need not to see his/her face daily yet you can maintain your daily activity but well definitely not for long term though.

You might want to consider this option, if you fight with your partner or your partner’s family most of the time and yet your partner wants to stay together with his or her family 😆  😆  ( Okey I am just joking )

Example of dual key concept project : The Duo @ USJ 1

5. Green homes

The Incredible Hulk Type; even Rolex also came out with Green Colour Submariner and it is one of the highly sought after color in the submariner series albeit at a premium price than the conventional model. 

It seems like the Green concept is getting more acceptable despite the higher cost of owning one. Honestly I don’t have any comment on this. Well but to some extent, the Millennial today likely to be more health and environmental conscious but then again the price of mother nature is subjective to individual.

It will remains as an open debate at least in Malaysia till the day when a lower cost of alternative solution able to untie this knot.

“Please give me one Green Latte with my own cup and need not the plastic bag”

However from the excerpt of THE GREEN HOME CONCEPT – ACCEPTABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS A. Alias*, T.K. Sin, W.N.A.W.A. Aziz Centre for Studies of Urban and Regional Real Estate (SURE) Faculty of Built Environment, University of Malaya

Differences in Designs between Conventional Home and Green Home
The main difference between a conventional home and a green home is that the conventional home used up 30% more energy compare to green home. Green home which was developed by YTL is situated at an environmentally friendly place which is at the Maple of West Sentul, where it is surrounded by the greenery. This allows for the green home to maximise its exposure to the sunlight to generate the required energy. Conventional home can be built anywhere. The trees and shrubs surrounding green
home can act as the natural shades to cool down the house.

Definition of Green Home
Most of the respondents answered ‘an energy efficient home’ as their answer for the definition of Green Home. This is evidenced by 68% respondents answering the question positively. The rest of the respondents answered this question negatively i.e. ‘is the same as the Green House’ and ‘home which has lots of plants’. This happens because the respondents do not know what actually a green home is. The exposure to green home is still low in our country. Some of the Malaysian might have heard of green home but they do not have any idea and adequate understanding about green home. This eventually will lead to low demand of green home in Malaysia and them developers who develop green home will face problem to sell this type of houses.

Some of the example of green homes concept development : Setia Eco Glades, Sunway Rimba Hills, Ken Rimba, Bandar Rimbayu and The Light Collection

Which is your preference among all the five mentioned above? Being the greedy me, I wish to see more property development which comprises of ALL the five trends above.

That’s all folks, I hope you all enjoy reading it.

Before I pen off here,  PROPCAFE would like to say a big thank you to all our readers who have been supporting us and wishing everyone Happy New Year! – let’s us embrace 2016 together with loads of joy and happiness.

Special thanks to our two millennial angel for their lovely photos :

#chelseachang – fb : chelsea chang  ig : @chelseanothome

#victoriayinyin – ig @victoriayinyin

and some awesome ID picture credits to our infamous ID guru The MakeOver Guys #MOG

Other photos credit : Google Images

This is JJ the intern of PROPCAFE