The number of empty homes
across England rose to more than 216,000 units by October 2018 – highest since
2012. This accounts for £53.6 billion in value.
The biggest rise in
long-term empty homes (of over 6 months) was in Portsmouth. In London, the
number of empty homes is now 22,481, representing £10.7 billion worth of
property. Of this, the highest numbers were in Southwark (1,766), Croydon
(1,521) and Camden (1,210). Outside London, the ones with the highest empty
homes include Birmingham, Durham, Bradford and Liverpool.
A yet-to-be published
report suggests that almost 50 million homes or roughly 22% of urban housing
stock in China is vacant. That’s a huge supply. Vanke, a major property
developer in China, will focus on survival for next three years.
The overhang in Malaysia
increased to 32,313 units valued at RM19.9 billion in 2018, an increase of
about 30% in volume and value. Most of which are in Perak (2,905 units) and
Kuala Lumpur (2,692 units).
Meanwhile, unsold,
unconstructed units also increased to 19,865 units, up by 57.3%. In addition,
unsold, under construction units also rose to 80,984 units, an increase of 31%.
The number of new
launches recorded in 2018 was 66,040 units, a contraction of 15% compared to
2017. To address the overhang, the Government has announced initiatives
including Home Ownership Campaign, exemption of stamp duties and other
administrative support.
The real problem is
lenders are rather cautious and may have breached or are close to breaching the
broad property sector limit set by Bank Negara. Unless the property market is
addressed holistically by creating a National Housing Corporation that
deleverages banks/developers and addresses the B40 issues with subsidy support/guarantees,
it will be a piecemeal/incremental effort that only cause sustained
indigestion.
References:
1. Number
of empty homes in England rises to more than 216,000, Julia Kollewe, The
Guardian, 11 Mar 2019
2. Over
30% increase in unsold residential properties in Malaysia, Eugene
Mahalingam, The Star, 30 Apr 2019
3. A
shocking 50 million empty homes in China, Vision Times, Nov 24, 2018
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