The iProperty.com Group, Asia’s leading network of property portals and owner of Malaysia’s No. 1 property and real estate website, today unveiled Part 1 of the results of its online Asia Property Trends Survey 2007. The Survey interviewed 2,066 local and overseas property buyers looking for investment opportunities in Asia.
The results will be released in two parts in Malaysia: Part 1, released today, reveals findings on foreign investors of Malaysian property and Part 2, which will be released later this month, will focus on the investment behaviour of local buyers.
One of the most prominent findings was that Malaysia, alongside Singapore and Thailand, features amongst investors’ top choices for property investments.
Fifty-five per cent of foreign respondents indicated that they were hunting for high-end or luxury properties in the US$100,000 to US$500,000 price range. In fact, 15 per cent said that they were keen to invest in property ranging from US$500,000 to US$1 million. A clear indication that they were serious and experienced investors was the fact that 34 per cent had bought at least one property over the past 24 months, with 23 per cent having purchased two or more properties in the same period.
Ninety-five per cent of those surveyed said that they intend to purchase property within the next 12 months, which strongly points to the fact that they are on an active hunt for investment opportunities. The foreign respondents strongly favour high-rise dwellings, with 55 per cent and 39 per cent voting for completed and newly-launched condominium units respectively.
The typical overseas property investor is a professional or senior executive (49 per cent), with an annual household income of well over US$40,000 (58 per cent).
Commenting on the findings of the iProperty.com survey, Patrick Grove, executive chairman of the iProperty.com Group said, “The iProperty.com survey results have confirmed the fact that there is a lot of foreign interest in Malaysian property. These foreign buyers have big budgets and are actively looking for high-end property investment opportunities here. This is quite a pleasant surprise actually, and it definitely augurs well for Malaysia’s property market as well as the `Malaysia My Second Home’ (MM2H) Programme, launched by the Government to attract skilled, affluent foreign property investors to Malaysian shores.”
The Survey also found `location’ to be the single most important factor property investors consider, at 2.5 times more important than the second most critical factor, price. How `friendly’ a country’s policies are to foreigners ranked third amongst the checklist of factors. Perhaps most surprising of all is the finding that as many as 37 per cent of those interviewed said that they would be willing to consider purchasing a property, without actually viewing it first.
The Internet is their primary property search tool
Sixty-seven per cent of foreign property investors said that the Internet is the first tool they turn to when initiating their hunt for viable properties in their country of choice. When asked what they relied on most for updates on properties available for sale, 64 per cent indicated the Internet.
The Internet featured prominently as the tool of choice, with 95 per cent of overseas investors using it to hunt for properties available for sale, 56 per cent to research on market trends, 50 per cent to update themselves on the latest property news, 33 per cent to research on developers, and 23 per cent to look for real estate agents.
Grove added, “We are pleased to learn that an overwhelming proportion of foreign investors use the Internet as their primary property search tool due to the rich and up-to-date content, accessibility, convenience and speed it offers. iProperty.com is committed to further enhancing our websites’ content and product offerings to serve them even better.”
