PETALING JAYA: Landlords in “hot spots” are advised to retain their original tenant and average rent this year in order to reduce potential losses, according to home rental platform Speedrent.
“I believe that whether it is sale or rental of the residential industry, the market for buying or renting a house, if the location of the property bought by the owner is not so strategic, in order to reduce losses, the owner has to consider lowering the rent,” its CEO Wong Whei Meng (pix) said in a statement today.
Wong stressed that the monthly rent of a non-landed residential unit, if it is located in a low demand area, should not exceed RM1,200, while it should not exceed RM1,800 for landed property.
“As for hot spots, this year’s rent increase is limited. So it’s advised that you retain your original tenant and average rent according to the rental market. Rental benchmarks are easily found on major rental platforms,” he noted.
According to Speedrent, the sales performance of the residential market has been sluggish in the past year and the performance of the rental market has been mixed.
In 2018, Wong said, Speedrent compiled up to 150,000 worth of search data and listed out the top five and top worst rental inquiries, adding that it has up to 38,000 unique website visitors and more than 150,000 search inquiries.
He said the results reveal that the most popular areas searched by tenants are Damansara Damai, Ara Damansara, USJ, Ampang and Puchong.
He said the areas where tenants have high inquiries have some common points, mainly, close to office buildings, good traffic connectivity, rent in line with market prices and improved living functions.
“Close to Petaling, Damansara Damai has become the area with the highest demand for the platform. Compared with the rent of apartments in Petaling, the rent is 20% to 30% cheaper.
“According to the data, tenants are less likely to inquire about Bangi, Semenyih, Serdang and Puncak Alam. Most of the areas searched are more remote and in the southern part of Klang Valley,” Wong added.
Speedrent connects landlords and tenants directly. With more than 30,000 properties across Malaysia, it aims to improve the rental process with a ‘No Deposit’ scheme for tenants and RM26,000 property insurance provided by Allianz for landlords.
