Rehda president NK Tong said at the height of the pandemic in the first half of 2021 (H1 2021), developers were very pessimistic (41% of respondents).
However, the number of pessimistic respondents polled in its property industry sentiment survey has since been moderating from 24% in H1 2023 to 22% in H2 2023, and 15% (in H1 2024).
The number of respondents neutral about the property sector’s outlook rose to 49% in H2 2023 from 44% in H1 2023. However, this dipped to 46% for first half of next year (H1 2024).
“The skies are clearing up now and things are looking better now,” he said.
Moving forward in the next 12 months, 37% of respondents are also looking to increase hiring, with 54% looking to freeze hiring while 9% are looking to reduce their workforce.
Additionally, Tong said 59% of developers are looking to expand their land banks in the next 12 months.
“It is not surprising given that during the pandemic there was a lot of wait and see,” he said, adding capital expenditure is also on the increase, according to the sentiment survey.
A total of 188 Rehda members responded to Rehda’s property industry sentiment survey.
Cost-cutting measures
In its property industry survey, Rehda said 84% of respondents said they were impacted by current economic conditions and have opted to take cost-cutting measures in terms of operations.
This meant freezing recruitment, offering less benefits and perks, salary reductions, rescheduling the launch of planned projects, reducing the scale of launches, and delaying projects due to poor demand.
About half of the respondents planned to launch their projects in H2 2023 (53%), with three-quarters anticipating their sales performance to be 50% and below.
Most of the planned launches are priced between RM150,001 and RM300,000, particularly in the states of Kedah, Perlis, Melaka, Pahang, Penang and Perak.
“The increase in the number of launches and sales is a positive sign the property market is slowly returning to normalcy,” Tong said.
“However, true recovery is still out of reach as developers are still struggling with challenges that have yet to be properly addressed such as material price hikes, cross-subsidisation as well as high compliance and utilities costs,” he added.