The market isn't short of homes. It's short of the right homes
The market isn't short of homes. It's short of the right homes, in the right place, at a price buyers can get a loan for.
REHDA's latest survey of 181 Peninsula developers shows how stuck things are:
63% have no plans to launch homes in the second half of 2026.
77% faced financing issues, mostly rejected end-financing, worst for homes priced RM500k to RM700k.
59% hold completed unsold units. Above RM1 million is the biggest unsold band at 33%, then 2 to 3 storey terraced homes (29.3%) and semi-D or cluster homes (28.6%).
Construction costs rose about 13% between March and June this year.
NAPIC tells the same story. Nationally, 33,094 completed homes are unsold. KL alone has 3,687 unsold homes worth RM1.92bn, plus 6,343 unsold serviced apartments worth RM6.41bn, and that serviced-apartment stock is up about 60% in six months.
And who's buying? Around 80% are owner-occupiers, mostly aged 29 to 44. Speculation is low. These are families buying a place to live.
So the bottleneck isn't demand. It's product fit, location and financing. As an architect, I see this early. Too many projects start from what developers like to build, not who will buy or whether the bank will say yes. Get the location, price band and layout right at the drawing board, and more of those unsold units never get built.
Building the right homes, at the right prices, in the right locations starts with designing for the buyer, not the brochure.
Talk through product fit before you launch — call 03 7664 2052 or visit /contact.
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