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Sunday, April 6, 2008

Real Estate Cycle (Part II)

But the slower take-up rate for luxury properties should not be viewed as an across-the-board phenomenon as foreign individual buyers, experts said, were still scouting for local assets. A downside in demand for larger transactions like en bloc commercial property acquisitions by overseas institutional buyers is, however, possible as investors adopt a wait-and-see attitude to safeguard their portfolios. “Foreign direct investment is going to be sustained but definitely there will be a wait-and-see attitude in certain industries especially on the bigger ticket purchase items like en-bloc sales. “Foreign individual investors are still coming in,” real estate consultancy Zerin Properties chief executive officer Previndran Singhe told The Edge on the sidelines of a forum discussing the impact of the recent national elections on the country’s real estate sector. The forum was organised by the Malaysian chapter of the International Real Estate Federation or better known as Fiabci. Speaking at the event earlier, Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute chief executive officer and director Datuk Dr Michael Yeoh said foreign investors were still deliberating on the Malaysia’s investment climate following the unprecedented outcome of the recent elections. “We cannot exclude any possibility,” Yeoh said.
(The Edge 4-4-2008)