Malaysia will see a property buying trend that is already present in other global cities later this year, says Juwai IQI co-founder and group chief executive officer, Kashif Ansari.
Residents who fled the city during the worst of the pandemic, he claimed, will begin to return in large numbers, driving up buyer and renter demand in central districts.
"The housing market is influenced by the economy. Income and employment growth will have a positive impact on the real estate market," he said.
Agents in Kuala Lumpur, according to Kashif, are already seeing an increase in activity.
While prices are stable, the number of transactions is increasing, and there are more situations where multiple buyers are competing for the same home, he said.
"We expect residential transactions to increase as the economy continues to recover in the run-up to the general election," he said.
In 2021, the global real estate company achieved a record number of residential property sales, with 31,000 transactions completed globally, 41 per cent more than the previous year's 22,000 transactions.
Kashif said that the company's sales team was the most important factor in its success in 2021.
The company, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, has a global network of 23,000 agents in 20 countries.
"In the past year, many of our locations reported record results. In Malaysia, our team worked very hard to help home buyers and sellers, despite the pandemic. We transacted a record number of both sales and rentals in Malaysia in 2021. Outside of Malaysia, our fastest-growing locations were Canada, Australia, and Vietnam," he said.
Kashif said that the company's financial results were bolstered by historically strong real estate markets in a number of locations.
He said that the synchronised global economic recovery, historically low financing, buyers' excess savings, and a massive shift in buyer preferences all contributed to strong home markets in many of the countries in which it operates.
"We have built a global company that operates in a variety of markets. This international diversity is a great strength that allows us to seek growth wherever it may be found around the world," he said.
Meanwhile, Kashif said that the two markets that have seen the most price growth are Canada and Australia.
According to the Reserve Bank of Canada, Canadian home prices rose 18 per cent in 2021, nearly doubling the growth rate of any other year in recent history.
According to CoreLogic data, home prices in Australia rose even faster, ending the year 22 per cent higher than they began.
Moving forward to 2022, Kashif believes that with a strong team and technology in place, it will be able to build on last year's success and produce even better results.
"We believe that the Malaysian residential market will consolidate this year. The greatest demand in 2022 will be for landed homes and units with larger interior spaces and access to abundant outdoor recreation," he said.