Malaysian Property 'Top Choice' in Asia
1/15/2008
Malaysia ranked as the “top choice for investors”, closely followed by Singapore and Thailand in the survey of 2,066 foreign professional property investors.
Location ranked as the single most important factor property investors consider, 2.5 times higher than the second most critical factor, a property’s price. How ‘friendly’ a country’s policies are to foreigners ranked third amongst the list of investor priorities.
The report found that the typical overseas property investor is a professional or senior executive (49%), with an annual household income in excess of US$40,000 (58%).
Luxury high-end property is most in demand with 55% of foreign respondents stating their intention to buy property in the $100,000 - $500,000 price range, while 15% of investors said they were looking to spend in the vicinity of $500,000 - $1million.
Almost all of those surveyed (95%) said they intend to invest in Asian property in the next 12 months, while 34% said they had already purchased a property in the region during the last two years. Nearly a quarter of investors (23%) revealed that they had purchased two or more properties in the same period.
Respondents strongly favoured high-rise dwellings, with 55% interested in buying a completed property and 39% wanting off-plan or new-build apartments. Interestingly, 37% of property investors surveyed said they would be willing to consider buying a property without having viewed it first.
“These foreign buyers have big budgets and are actively looking for high-end property investment opportunities in Malaysia,” said Patrick Grove, executive chairman of the iProperty Group. “This definitely augurs well for Malaysia’s property market as well as the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme, launched by the government to attract skilled, affluent foreign property investors to the country.”
Rise of the Internet
The Internet featured prominently as the research tool of choice, with 95% of overseas investors using it to hunt for properties available for sale, 56% to research on market trends, 50% to update themselves on the latest property news, 33% to research on developers, and 23% to look for real estate agents.
Grove added: “We are pleased to learn that an overwhelming proportion of foreign investors use the Internet as their primary property search tool due to the rich and up-to-date content, accessibility, convenience and speed it offers.”
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