More than half of Malaysians surveyed want to own a home within the next six months, according to the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (Rehda).

However, stringent lending rules continue to be a major deterrent, association president Datuk Seri F D Iskandar said.

In a poll of 1,655 respondents, he said 56% were looking to own a home within the next six months, primarily within the KLCC area and Kuala Lumpur city centre.

“About 38% of them are first-time house buyers, 30% repeat buyers, 23% investors, 6% expatriates and 3% tenants,” he said last week at a media briefing on Rehda’s House Buyers’ Survey 2017.

According to the survey, over a quarter of respondents said they would purchase a property within the next six to 12 months, 12% were unsure and 6% said they would like to own a home immediately.

Iskandar said the respondents’ preference to purchase property within the KLCC area and Kuala Lumpur city centre was “unrealistic.”

“If you want to buy a property in Damansara Heights or even Bangsar … then you’re going to be prepared to pay for it,” he said.

Apart from KLCC or the city centre, other sought-after locations in the survey in ranking order were Petaling Jaya, Cheras and Bangsar, Puchong and Shah Alam, and finally, Cyberjaya.

Iskandar said the bulk of the respondents were looking for property for self-dwelling purposes. Other reasons to purchase (in ranking order) were for family dwelling, rental yield, upgrading, holiday homes and investment.

The preferred property of choice were apartments/condominiums, followed by terrace/cluster/townhouses. Semi-detached homes, serviced apartments, bungalows/villas and commercial/shoplots ranked third, fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, in the survey.

In terms of preferred property size, 34% of respondents said they were looking for a home that ranged between 1,000 sq ft and 1,500 sq ft, while 33% preferred units that ranged between 800 sq ft and 1,000 sq ft.

As for pricing preferences, 41% of respondents said they were looking for property that ranged between RM300,000 and RM500,000, while 32% were eyeing homes priced between RM500,000 and RM750,000.

Source: TheStar.com.my