NK Tong, acting president of the Real Estate & Housing Developers’ Association said the association was in favour of “robust regulations to deliver houses faster”.

“We want to build good solid homes but it has to be done quickly,” he said after attending the association’s Adilfitri celebration.

There were very clear and robust housing policies set by the housing and local government ministry. However, state and local authorities would often come up with their own interpretations and even introduce new policies, which made it taxing for developers.

Tong said developers were optimistic about the prospects of the real estate market in the second half of 2022.

With lockdown restrictions being lifted, people were visiting show units and showrooms again, instead of virtual tours during the lockdowns, when it was harder for them to access properties.

According to the annual Malaysian property market report for 2021, the property market has shown signs of recovery from the pandemic-induced slowdown. It said the volume of transactions increased by a marginal 1.5%.

The PropertyGuru website said recently that Malaysia was seeing a slow improvement in the real estate market and consumer sentiment in the market was likely to only improve as the year progressed.