RM18bil worth of unsold houses as at end of last year

PETALING JAYA: There are 27,746 houses worth some RM18.45 billion that have been completed but have yet to be sold at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022.

Local government development minister Nga Kor Ming said most of these houses, or 9,323 units, were priced between RM500,001 and RM1 million.

In a written parliamentary reply, Nga said products supplied to the housing market should match the demand.

He said among the factors behind the mismatch in supply and demand was prices that were not affordable, based on the locality, styles of houses that buyers were not interested in and locations that had no public transport access or were distant from economic centres.

However, this was actually an improvement compared to the 35,592 completed houses worth RM22.45 billion left unsold in the first quarter of last year.

Nga said the ministry was studying the data for unsold houses to determine a suitable solution, while developers were encouraged to conduct feasibility studies before embarking on any development.

“The ministry will also develop a housing data centre, using big data analytics, as a centralised reference source for housing data,” he said.

He added that the ministry will further assess the causes of mismatch in supply and demand in the housing sector which has led to the high number of unsold houses.

“Once the housing data centre has been developed, the ministry expects this issue to be handled more effectively through more accurate and careful planning.”

He was replying to a question from Rosol Wahid (PN-Hulu Terengganu), who asked about the government’s efforts to address the overhang of houses priced between RM500,000 and RM1 million.