Once heralded as the tin mining capital of the world, the silver state of Perak has a heritage of industrialised beginnings that can be traced closely to the economic progress of the country. In fact, tin was the reason why many credited Perak as the place where initial millionaires of Malaya first resided; it’s where they first minted their wealth as the state’s natural supply kept pace with global demand especially from Europe and the US in the late 1800s to the early 1900s.

The tin business however eroded with time as more competing suppliers joined in the race to serve global customers and at the same time, challenged by advanced technological innovations that have powered other emerging industries to the forefront. These have eclipsed tin as an important economic commodity.

History may have its way again if the efforts of the Perak State Government prove to be on point as they court foreign direct investments and the brains for innovation to her industrial parks. The road to success may be a long one as many around the world are also adopting the same strategy but as the state grows in prospect, no matter the quantum it can amass, so shall her state economy and the property sector, which will inherit some success, if not restoring the appeal it once had back a century ago. In the same breadth, the state is also looking at oil palm and eco-tourism as another potential economic contributor to the state.

In the residential property sub-sector, Perak recorded the third-highest number of property transactions in Malaysia during the first half of 2020 with a total of 14,266 transactions, contributing 12.4 per cent of the total number of transactions in the country. Nevertheless, the residential property market was already experiencing a slowdown even before the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) in March 2020.

During the first nine months of 2020, Perak’s volume and value of residential property transactions registered a five per cent and 14 per cent increase respectively compared to the same period in 2019. This is somewhat surprising as the lockdown imposed during the MCO was anticipated to result in a slowdown in sales activities as experienced in the other states. Moreover, the statistics show that there was a three per cent reduction in the volume and a marginal 0.7 per cent drop in the value of residential property transactions during the first nine months of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018. This anomaly is likely due to the time lag of about six months in the capture of transaction data by NAPIC.

Almost 80 per cent of the residential properties transacted in Perak in the first nine months of 2020 were those priced below RM300,000 whilst those priced under RM200,000 alone made up more than 53 per cent.

In terms of overhang properties, NAPIC’s data showed that Perak had the third-highest number in Malaysia with 4,644 units. Overall, prices seemed to have eased due to the oversupply while most of the unsold properties were high-rise and high-end landed houses.