To spur the growth of the property market, real estate association, the Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents (MIEA) has urged the government to extend the incentives offered during the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) to first-time home buyers in the secondary market. “Consumer preferences may have shifted from the primary to the secondary market as the demand started to grow year-on-year.

“This is evident from the statistics (attached below), that first-time home buyers (FHB) in the secondary market have increased to 61.55% in 2019 as compared to 57.57% a year ago,” MIEA president Lim Boon Ping told Property Advisor. In 2019, the number of properties transacted stood at 133,939 and out of that 82,437 was the FHB in the secondary market. However, the number of properties transacted in 2018 was higher by 56,987 but the number for the FHB in the secondary market was lower by 4%.