Positive outlook for Malaysian property market

There are many reasons for investors to be optimistic about the prospects of Malaysia's real estate sector.

Writing for The Star Online, managing director of SDB Properties Teh Lip Kim explained the country's housing market is "still relatively underpriced" in comparison to other south-east Asian nations like Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong.

He added property prices in Malaysia are likely to continue to rise, despite the government discussing measures to slow growth down.

One proposal is to increase the minimum amount foreigners have to spend in order to buy real estate in the country - this currently stands at RM500,000 (£101,093), but could climb to RM1 million.

However, the expert pointed out this is likely to have little impact, as the majority of transactions conducted by overseas purchasers are already over the RM1 million threshold.

When the suggestion of raising the minimum purchase price for foreign buyers was first made earlier this month, an anonymous source told the press the rate may vary between Malaysia's regions, citing the Iskandar Malaysia economic corridor in the state of Johor as one location where this figure could be reduced to RM800,000.