Housing supply up, completions down
The Sun 10/7/2006

PETALING JAYA: The country's supply of residential units showed an increase while completions declined in the first quarter (1Q) of the year, the National Property Information Centre (Napic) reported.

It noted that the total inventory of residential units rose 1.1% to 3.695 million units in 1Q2006 from the previous quarter, with terraced units remaining the main contributor at 39.9% (1.476 million units) followed by low-cost houses with 14.6% (539,732).

Selangor and Johor continued to hold the concentration of units with a combined total of 42.8% of total inventory. The districts of Petaling and Johor Baru contributed most to the total inventory in their respective states, Napic reported.

It said the quarter had fewer residential completions compared with the corresponding quarter in 2005. A total of 42,276 units were completed, making it 15.2% lower than 4Q2005 and 14.8% lower than 1Q2005. "Selangor and Johor had the most completions with 15,478
and 7,485 units respectively, while Putrajaya and Labuan had the least with zero completions for 1Q2006.”

The total incoming supply of residential units fell 0.6% to 618,274 units, with those under construction declining 1.3% (7,707 units) whereas starts rose 12.4% with 4,274 units.

"The decline in the incoming supply was less than the previous quarter's 2.6% decline. Kuala Lumpur [3,405 units], Malacca [1,879] and Johor [1,843] had the biggest drops in incoming supply, while the biggest increases were in Penang [3,291] followed by Kedah [2,809]," it said.

Starts in 1Q2006 rose to 38,843 units compared with the previous quarter's 34,569 units, with Selangor (14,656 units), Johor (5,642) and Penang (5,013) contributing the most.

According to the report, 2- and3-storey terraced homes marked the highest number of incoming supply for 1Q2006 with 123,564 units, while condominiums and apartments were second with 119,210 units.

For units under construction, 1Q2006 had, 579,431 units, a drop of 1.3% from the previous quarter's 587,138 units. "Selangor had the highest units under construction with 182,954 units followed by Johor [67,379] and Putrajaya [721] and Labuan [308] had the least," it said.

Overall, the report noted that the planned residential supply in the country rose marginally by 1.1% to 638,878 units while new planned supply rose significantly by 40.7% from 4Q2005. "KL [4,554 units] and Johor [1,920] had the biggest increase in planned supply. Penang and Negri Sembilan had a reduction in the number of new planned supply with 1,389 and 1,191 units respectively."

In the quarter under review, Kuala Lumpur's existing residential stock is mainly located in three districts - KL (84,579 units), Batu (69,372) and Petaling (69,150). Selangor’s existing residential stock was situated in Petaling (346,394 units), Hulu Langat (251,564) and Gombak (126,117) districts. Johor's existing residential supply is mainly located in Johor Baru, Batu Pahat and Muar.