By Farah Wahida:
Despite the Sabah stand-off, Kota Kinabalu’s property market remains robust with prices on level with Penang and Kuala Lumpur, according to HwangDBS Vickers Research.
“New condominium launches in town are hitting RM600 psf to RM900 psf (S$240 – S$360 psf) with some breaching RM1,000 psf (S$400),” said HwangDBS analyst Yee Mei Hui.
Property transactions in the state have also risen more than two-fold in the past eight years, reaching RM4.4 billion (S$1.76 billion) in 2011 or contributing three percent of Malaysia’s total.
“Transaction volume in Sabah has also surpassed 10,000 per year since 2008, with 2011 chalking an average transacted price of RM429,000 (S$171,889) which was 34 percent higher than Malaysia’s average of RM319,000 (S$127,815),” said Yee.
Local demand for Sabah homes is driven by rising household income and commodity prices, while foreign buyers are mainly from Brunei, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, more developers from Peninsular Malaysia have shifted their attention to Kota Kinabalu including Titijaya, Bina Puri, IJM Land, Bolton, Mah Sing and SP Setia.
“With landbank getting scarce in the city, the developers are maximising profits by launching high-rise residential and mixed projects. Condominiums are also becoming more popular because they are more affordable than landed properties and come with a variety of facilities,” Yee noted.
Furthermore, “more non-local developers are jumping onto the bandwagon by acquiring land or tying up with local developers in Kota Kinabalu. The more significant ones are SP Setia’s 60-acre RM1.6 billion (S$641.1 million) Aeropod mixed development and Mah Sing’s acquisition of two parcels of land for the RM800 million (S$320.5 million) Sutera Avenue commercial project”.
Farah Wahida, Editor of PropertyGuru Malaysia, wrote this story. To contact her about this or other stories email farahwahida@propertyguru.com.my
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