Selangor has bulk of residential units
03/03/2005 The Sun

KUALA LUMPUR: Supply of residential units in the country rose marginally by 1.3 % to 3,401,687 units in the third quarter of last year (3Q2004) from the same period in 2003. This was revealed in the latest Residential Property Market Report prepared by the National Property Information Centre (Napic), which was released in late January. Napic comes under the purview of the Ministry of Finance's Valuation and Property Services Department.

The bulk of this stock (about 26%) was located in Selangor, followed by Johor, which accounted for
over 16%. Perak and Kuala Lumpur had the third- and fourth-largest stock, with about 9.4% and 9.1%, respectively.

According to the Napic report, 561,944 units were under construction nationwide in the quarter under
review; Selangor accounted for over 31%, followed by Kuala Lumpur (12.2%), Negri Sembilan (11.3%) and Johor (10.4%). A total of 575,325 units were in planned supply; with the highest number of units in Selangor (23.6%) and Johor (20.18%).

A closer look at the development hot spot, Selangor, found that most of the existing supply was located in the Petaling district (311,102 units, or 34.8%), followed by Hulu Langat (218,691 units, or 24.5%) and Gombak (117,641 units, or 13.2%).

Petaling also had the must number of units in planned supply for 3Q2004, with 41,581 units, Gombak came second with 31,004 units and Hulu Langat was third with 29,454 units of the total 136,179 in planned supply.

Johor, which has historically recorded worrying surplus numbers where supply and future stock of residential units are concerned, has seen no slowdown in development. According to the Napic report, supply rose - albeit marginally by 1% - to 552,156 units in 3Q2004.

And while units under construction in the southern state increased 4.3% to 58,532 units in the quarter under review, a slight softening was seen in the planned supply category, where the numbers planned eased by 2.4% to 116,108 units.