A CALL has been made for the government to address a potential glut in affordable housing that arose from ever increasing government and private sector schemes, The Edge Markets reported.

“We don’t want an oversupply of affordable homes like what we had with the PPR (People’s Housing Project) where there was an oversupply years ago,” said CBRE WTW Kuala Lumpur director Ungku Mohd Iskandar Ungku Ismail at the real estate consultancy’s media briefing yesterday.

CBRE WTW, a property valuer, has warned that there is still no single government body that monitors the quantity of affordable homes by private developers and government entities such as PR1MA, RUMAWIP and Rumah Selangorku.

First time homebuyers now also have access to properties priced at about RM300,000 offered by no less than 10 government agencies who do not communicate with one another, CBRE WTW claimed.

There are 21 non-landed home developments which were completed in the Klang Valley in 2017, supplying an additional 8,300 high-rise homes into the region, bringing the cumulative supply to 46,400 high-rise homes.

There will be an incoming supply of about 14,000 high-rise homes entering the Klang Valley property market, Iskandar said.

“This is a fundamental issue that the government needs to take a look at. We don’t want to have an overlap among the various agencies as this may result in an oversupply of affordable housing,” said CBRE WTW Malaysia managing director Foo Gee Jen.

Affordable housing schemes appear to be concentrated along the northern and southern Klang Valley areas such as Rawang, Puncak Alam, Semenyih and Sepang.

On the retail sector, Iskandar said the increasing competition between malls have resulted in a change in the tenant mix of malls.

New retail and neighbourhood malls are focusing more on food and beverage tenants instead of accessories and apparel tenants, he said.

In 2017, there was a supply of 2.7 million sq ft of space into the retail market where the occupancy rate was about 83%, and by 2020, the cumulative retail area will be increased to 71 million sq ft.

Bank Negara Malaysia, in its latest quarterly bulletin published in November, said the number of unsold residential properties is at a decade-high, with a majority of units being in the RM250,000 and above price category, beyond the income of most Malaysians.

The central bank said the oversupply of office space and shopping complexes in the major states is expected to be exacerbated by incoming supply, potentially becoming more severe than during the Asian financial crisis. – January 18, 2018.