And bear in mind that “people” goes beyond just population growth. As long as a city receives a lot of travellers, that’s considered “people” too.
Imagine a city which is growing and visited by ever more people year after year. What do you think will happen in regard to the demand for property there? Yes, demand will be RISE.
That city is of course Kuala Lumpur. The opportunities in Kuala Lumpur are definitely more diverse even if one prefers Penang because it’s growing steadily instead of at a fast pace like in Kuala Lumpur.
In a recent NST article about the latest findings in the MasterCard 2018 Global Destination Cities Index, Kuala Lumpur was still ranked seventh. By the way, this is seventh in the WHOLE WORLD. This is our third year at the same spot.
In 2017, we welcomed 12.58 million international travellers and most probably this figure would have increased by another 7.1% in 2018. That means we should have 13.46 million international visitors in 2018.
Foreign leisure and business travellers stayed an average of 5.5 nights and spent US$124 (RM514) in the city in 2017.
Kuala Lumpur ranked only 13th in the category of total visitors spending-wise. The top three countries where the city’s visitors came from were China (16.8% of foreign travellers); Thailand (11.8%); and Indonesia (10.3%).
Global Top 10 destination cities
Rank City 2017 arrivals, 2018 growth forecast:
1. Bangkok – 20.05 million 9.6%
2. London – 19.83 million 3.0%
3. Paris – 17.44 million 2.9%
4. Dubai – 15.79 million 5.5%
5. Singapore – 13.91 million 4.0%
6. New York – 13.13 million 4.1%
7. Kuala Lumpur – 12.58 million 7.5%
8. Tokyo – 11.93 million 1.6%
9. Istanbul – 10.70 million 19.7%
10. Seoul – 9.54 million 6.1%
There’s no doubt that the demand for accommodation (property) will increase because Kuala Lumpur hosts over 1.1 million international visitors every month.
Assuming they are all sharing rooms, this is still 550,000 rooms per month.
As long as we continue to be attractive to foreign students who come here for UK/Australia/US degrees via twinning or fully completed, the numbers will continue to rise.
While foreign students do not fly to and fro every month, their parents will definitely be visiting them here.
Medical tourism is another attraction. Malaysia earned RM1.3 billion in 2017 for medical tourism.
Let’s not forget the increase in demand from business travellers too. Asian cities already occupy half of the Top 10 list.
Frankly, it will soon be in the majority.
This article first appeared in kopiandproperty.com
Charles Tan blogs at property investment site kopiandproperty. He dislikes property speculators and disagrees that renting is better than buying. He thinks it’s either property or poverty. He is presently the CEO of an auction house auctioning assets beyond just properties.