Malaysia: Planning approvals to build serviced apartments in the state of Johor will be postponed from this year to prevent oversupply in the market.
The head of the Johor government Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the postponement is to allow the department of town and country planning to draft guidelines to address the issue.
“The guidelines will include a check on approval criteria for the construction of serviced apartments and a feasibility study to ensure the situation of oversupply can be avoided. Views from those involved in the housing sector, including the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (REHDA), housing developers as well as other stakeholders would be taken into consideration in preparing the guidelines,” he said.
He said the state government will move to ensure that most of the serviced apartments built in Johor are placed in the international zone.
Last year, the Johor property market saw 11,459 housing units launched, with 3,995 units of serviced apartments and 7,464 others being terrace and detached houses and bungalows.
According to Khaled, only demand for serviced apartments had fallen, as from the 3,995 units launched in 2014, only 1,022 or 26 per cent.</p
