Rosli Said

Inter-relationship between the housing market and housing finance system: evidence from Malaysia

The Malaysian housing market and associated housing finance system have expanded significantly as a result of rapid urbanisation since the late 1980s. The key aspect of this paper is to analyse the inter-relationship between the housing market and housing finance system in Malaysia. The paper employs Vector Autoregressive approach and Granger Causality test to empirically investigate this inter-relationship. In Malaysia, no housing studies has actually looked into or used this approach to identify the inter-relationship between these two elements. The key findings show that there is a strong inter-relationship between the housing market and housing finance system. The direction of causality shows that there is a bi-directional relationship between the housing market and housing finance system. These inter-relationships provide evidence that sound performance of the sub-markets within the housing finance system is a determinant prerequisite of the robustness of the housing finance system, if a healthy performance of the housing market is to be achieved.

Comparison of REIT Dividend Performance in Nigeria and Malaysia

The global survey of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) has indicated a high performance nature of REIT as an investment vehicle for the real estate sector. Studies have been conducted across the REIT markets of America, Europe and Asia-Pacific with similar result of high income yield to the investors. However, there have been no report of the Africa REIT except South Africa Property Unit Trust and Property Loans Stock that features in the EPRA Global REIT survey. In an attempt to assess performance of Nigeria REIT and bring it to global awareness, this paper investigates the performance of Nigeria REIT (N-REIT) in its 7 years of existence (2007 to 2014) using Malaysia REIT (M-REIT) as a benchmark and possible improvement. The study adopted risk adjustment return analysis of the dividend distribution over the period of the REITs establishment. The study found that Nigeria REIT underperforms the benchmark, Malaysia REIT, both in terms of average return 4.8% and risk adjusted return -6.77% per annum against the Malaysia REIT 7.5% and 2.47% respectively. There is no significant differences in the risk return ratio for the two REITs. The underperformance of the Nigeria REIT suggest that the superior performance of REIT does not apply across all REIT markets, suggesting that differences in REIT structure and features can be a determining factor(s) in investment performance. The study recommends an increased capitalisation, market transparency and external management option for N-REITs performance enhancement. The non-evaluation of multivariate effect of these factors in this study is considered to be a limiting factor. Such study could be a future research focus. Key words: Dividend return, Malaysia, Nigeria, REIT performance, risk adjusted return.

Benchmarking developed property portfolio markets in Malaysian-listed property companies

This paper aims to benchmark the level of performance and volatility of Malaysian-Listed Property Companies (MLPCs) within developed countries over the period January 1994 to December 2014. This re...

Macroeconomic Determinants of Non Performing Property Loans in Malaysia

Non-performing property loans pose a huge threat to any country’s economic stability. This paper examines the effects and relationships of macroeconomic factors in determining the possible outcomes of non-performing real estate loans in Malaysia. It also examines some banking sentiments in their receptivity towards the conditions in terms of number of loans approved, rejected and applied. Using Stepwise Regression Approach, it was shown that Gross National Income responded significantly negative to the number of Non-performing Property Loans in Malaysia relatively close to the study conducted in Greece where GDP growth seems to be the dominant and main determinant in terms of non-performing loans compared to other macroeconomic determinants. At the same time, Unemployment responded significantly positive, where levels of unemployment would cause the inability of private individuals to repay their loans or debts. At the same time, sentiments of consumers shown that Applications for Non-residential Loans decreases as Non-performing Property Loans increases. Surprisingly, this study also shows that as Non-Performing Property Loans increases, the number of Loans Approved for Non-Housing Property Loans increases as well. This shows that Banking Sentiments in loan approvals are not affected by the conditions of economy when it comes to Non-Residential Properties.

SUSTAINABLE HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IN SABAH

Sabah is one of the states in Malaysia has shown remarkable growth in housing industry where its housing sector has thrived owing to growing market and active supply and demand dynamics. However, the rapid increase in housing price has created greater concern among the researchers about the sustainability of the housing sector in this country. The aspect of sustainability has seem been neglected by the industry players. Consequently, it will give impact to the environment which contrasts with the aim of the built environment to create sustainable development. This is because affordable housing is always being associated with cheap and low-quality houses. This research is aim to assess the best area in the state of Sabah to build sustainable affordable housing scheme. The results indicate that area with high utility degree is the best area that conforms to the sustainable housing affordability factors. Likewise, an area with a lower ranking in utility degree can be described as a worst-performing area. The originality of this research has contributed to a real picture of sustainable housing affordability in Malaysia, particularly the state of Sabah. Keyword: COPRAS, MCDM, Sustainable, Housing, Affordability Rosli Said, Rohayu Ab Majid, Anuar Alias, Yasmin Mohd Adnan & Muhammad Najib Razali Sustainable Housing Affordability in Sabah