Page 413 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 2

STS508 Suraya Ismail
At a more granular level, similar observations can be seen at the state level.
New launches of property developments in states like Kuala Lumpur and Pulau
Pinang in 2016 have generally skewed towards higher priced properties, even
as income dynamics in the state suggest that these upcoming units would be
unaffordable for the population. Most strikingly, in Pulau Pinang, all properties
launched in 2016 were priced above RM250,000, with the bulk of the newly
launched properties situated in the RM500,000 to RM1,000,000 price bracket.
To put this in perspective, the calculated market median-3 house price—the
price of an “affordable” house—for Pulau Pinang in 2016 was RM194,724.

3. Conclusions
This paper has used existing data available to explain housing affordability
trends in Malaysia. However, more could be done to collect data at the right
spatial scale in order to devise more specific evidence-based policies for the
country.

References
References for this paper can be found in “Making Housing Report”, at
Khazanah Research Institute’s website: www.krinstitute.org

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