Sabah property market expected to surge

KOTA KINABALU (July 15): The already high property market value in Sabah is expected to increase in the second quarter of this year following the new diesel price targeting in Peninsular Malaysia.

Housing and Urban Development Board (LPPB) chairman Datuk Masiung Banah expressed concern that if there are no government enforcement measures against the current rise in building material prices, the property market in Sabah could surge by between 10 and 15 per cent.

Masiung in a statement on Monday opined that the increase in raw material prices is influenced by the rising transportation costs in the real estate sector, which is not listed to receive any government cash subsidies.

“The price of building materials in Peninsular Malaysia has increased by between three and five percent. This certainly means that shipping to Sabah by sea will involve higher new prices,” he said, adding that logistics costs involving the process of transferring ships at Port Klang also influence the increase in raw material prices.

The Kuamut assemblyman is currently on a three-day working visit to Kuala Lumpur.

He pointed out that the building material cost index released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) in the middle of last month showed that the prices of plywood, iron and cement recorded an increase of up to 1.7 percent.

According to him, the transportation costs for Sabah and Labuan are higher compared to Peninsular Malaysia, and this will also contribute to the rise in raw material prices in Sabah’s construction sector.

He said that although the Madani government has assured that the prices of raw materials in Sabah and Sarawak will not increase following the diesel price targeting in Peninsular Malaysia, what is happening now is that the rise in prices is uncontrollable.

He urged the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living not only to monitor but to go to the ground to investigate every complaint.