By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, June 14: House prices in Sarawak are even higher than Penang, making it the third state in Malaysia with the most expensive houses after Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.
According to a report by the Economic Planning Unit under the Premier of Sarawak’s Department, National Property Information Centre (NAPIC) preliminary figures revealed that Sarawak’s average house price in the preliminary first quarter of 2021 stands at RM482,592.
It was just slightly lower than Selangor which stands at RM492,061 while the average price of residences in Kuala Lumpur peaked at RM763,234.
After Sarawak, Sabah and Penang took fourth and fifth places at RM464,907 and RM439,853 respectively.
Meanwhile, average house prices in Johor stood at RM367,266 while houses in other states are valued below RM300,000.
Despite being the third state with the most expensive residential prices, Sarawak’s home price has actually declined if compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 which stood at RM485,622.
However, this does not seem to ease the fact that in the same year (2020), Sarawak’s house price-to-income ratio hit an alarming 7.1, which is translated into ‘severely unaffordable’.
According to the standard set by United Nations and World Bank, house prices are considered affordable if the house price-to-income ratio is 3:1 or below.
For an example, if the median annual household income is RM45,000, the affordable median house price would be RM135,000 or below.
On May 23 this year, Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman cum Padungan assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen during a debate on the Governor’s speech at the Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN), stressed that given the household income of Sarawakians, house prices in Sarawak are considered the most expensive and unaffordable in Malaysia.
He said in 2020, the median annual household income in Sarawak was RM45,972, but the median house price then was RM326,500, compared to Penang, where the median house price was much lower at RM285,000, and the median annual household income was higher at RM64,688.
Perak had a similar level of yearly median household income as Sarawak which was at RM45,108, but the median house price was valued at RM231,300.
At the same time, based on the data by Malaysian Department of Statistics, the State’s population for the year 2020 stood at 2,560,600.
Kuching remained the highest division with the most number of occupants at 790,600, followed by Sibu (338,200) and Miri (298,400).
While Kuching remained the largest city in Sarawak with a population of 691,300, Miri which is usually dubbed as the second largest only recorded 274,100 for population, a short of 4,300 people compared to Sibu which now has 278,400 residents. — DayakDaily
