Property expert Ernest Cheong said the market could only recover after the economy turned the corner.

“Just because we have changed the government does not mean the market will heal in the blink of an eye. It may take more than five years,” he told FMT.

Commenting on the prediction by the Malaysian Property Agents Institute that the property market would grow slowly in the coming year and until 2020, he said this was “just a dream”.

“The government has changed, but the cost of living remains the same.”

Another property expert, Siva Shanker, however disagreed with Cheong, saying the feel-good factor following the change of government would translate into a better economic outlook.

Siva said the market was often driven by sentiment and not so much by data.

“I believe that we have reached the bottom of the U-curve which is the usual cycle of the property market.

“Unfortunately this time, the downward cycle has been there nearly six years and the first two months of this year. We registered a small growth compared with the first quarter last year, so that is a good sign.”

He acknowledged that this alone was not enough to judge whether or not the market was improving.

“We need a lot more data to be very sure of the market, but from the little data that we have, we are at the bottom of the U-curve. I strongly believe that when 2018 finishes, we will register a small negative growth compared with 2017, although growth will be very small,” he said.

He said he expected an improvement within the next two years, although it would likely be minor.

“Nevertheless, any improvement, however small, is still an improvement. Some sectors of the market have much higher overhang and they will take longer to recover.”