Malaysia's Unsold Completed Homes Climb to 33,094 in the First Half of 2026

Malaysia's residential overhang rose 8.6% to 33,094 completed unsold homes worth RM17.78 billion in H1 2026, while serviced-apartment overhang jumped 24.7%.

Malaysia ended the first half of 2026 with 33,094 completed but unsold homes on the market, worth RM17.78 billion. That is 8.6% more units than the 30,471 counted in the second half of 2025, even though the value of the pile barely moved. The figures come from the national property information centre's half-year Property Market Report, released on 10 September 2026 at a Ministry of Finance event.

A resilient headline over a softening core

The top line was strong. Malaysia recorded 187,320 property transactions worth RM105.12 billion in the half, with residential deals accounting for 110,998 transactions, or 59.3% of volume, but only RM47.11 billion, or 44.8% of value. The Malaysian House Price Index stood at 234.7 points, up 0.9% year on year, with an average house price of RM506,317. A price index rising less than one percent while unsold stock grows 8.6% is the clearest description of this market: prices are not falling, but nothing is clearing either.

The serviced-apartment pile is the sharper problem

Unsold completed serviced apartments reached 23,375 units worth RM19.33 billion, up 24.7% from 18,752 in the previous half. These are classified as commercial property in Malaysia even though people live in them, which means the headline residential overhang understates the true volume of finished, empty homes. More than half of that stock, 55.2%, is priced between RM500,001 and RM1 million — above what most domestic first-time buyers can carry, and aimed at an investor bid that has not appeared.

Johor carries the heaviest load on both counts, with 4,222 unsold homes and 9,946 unsold serviced apartments, a concentration that reflects years of high-rise development pitched at cross-border demand from Singapore.

The unsold stock is not only a luxury problem

By type, high-rise units make up 43.4% of the residential overhang and terraced houses 34.9%. By price, 37.3% of unsold homes are in the RM300,000-and-below band — nominally the affordable segment. That combination suggests the mismatch is as much about location and product as about price level. Developers launched 27,832 new residential units in the half with a sales performance of 16.6%, meaning fewer than one in five newly launched units found a buyer.

For a cross-border investor the arithmetic is mixed. Glopra's market data puts Malaysia's gross rental yield at 5.27% with prices up 1.7% over twelve months — income-led rather than growth-led, which is usually a defensible profile. But rental income depends on absorption, and a growing overhang is competition for every landlord in the same building.

Two qualifications belong here. Overhang is a stock measure, not a flow: it accumulates and does not tell you how fast new units are being added versus sold. And a national figure covers a country where Johor, Selangor and Penang behave like separate markets.

Sources: NAPIC Property Market Report First Half 2026 via Bernama https://berita.rtm.gov.my/niaga/senarai-berita-niaga/senarai-artikel/pasaran-hartanah-separuh-pertama-2026-catat-187320-transaksi/; The Star https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2026/09/10/malaysia-property-market-remains-resilient-with-rm10512bil-transactions-in-1h-2026---amir-hamzah; Malay Mail https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2026/09/10/malaysias-unsold-completed-homes-rise-86pc-in-h1-2026-but-market-is-resilient-says-finance-minister-ii/234679

Market data: Malaysia