KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 — Up to 36 per cent of Malaysians prefer buying a new house compared with 17 per cent who will opt for the secondary market, online property portal PropertyGuru.com’s latest research findings shows. 

Its Malaysia Country Manager, Sheldon Fernandez said one of the key reasons, included sales packages from property developers, especially for middle income or younger buyers. 

“They may not have plenty of capital or savings to cover initial purchase costs such as the 10 per cent down payment, legal fees, and moving costs,” he said told a media briefing on the survey here today. 

Some 360 respondents nationwide were selected for the PropertyGuru Malaysia Property Market Sentiment Survey Report, which was released last month. 

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Fernandez said many buyers, especially those aged 35 years and below were from the middle-income mass segment who could not afford the house prices, lacked savings for a down payment and were unable to secure a loan. 

Notwithstanding, they find sales packages offered by developers, such as free home appliances, fixtures and the total offerings very attractive, he told a media briefing here today. 

The survey shows that 47 per cent of the respondents opted for 90 per cent home financing, 12 per cent managed to secure 100 per cent housing loan, while 25 per cent accepted 70 per cent to 80 per cent of home financing. 

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“It said 47 per cent of the respondents have yet to utilise their Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) savings in Account 2. 

“Another 31 per cent have used their savings once while another 11 per cent have withdrawn more than once to buy a property,” it said, adding 11 per cent of the participants did not qualify to make a withdrawal,” it added. 

Meanwhile, Fernandez said the PropertyGuru New Project Reviews section, which was launched January this year, would review up to 400 new residential properties projects in Malaysia by year-end. 

“So far, more than 200 new projects and neighbourhood reviews have been added,” he said.

Written from a consumer perspective, the section provides non-biased, comprehensive and buyers-centric information to properties seekers. 

PropertyGuru is now Malaysia’s property site market leader with 42 per cent market share as verified by leading independent cross-platform measurement company CornScore. — Bernama