KUALA LUMPUR: The property sector may still be subdued, but the rental market in the Klang Valley is performing well, according to the residential property platform Speedhome.

“There are nearly eight million people living in [the] Klang Valley and the demand for housing has been increasing. The rental performance is not as bad as everyone thinks. According to our data, eight out of the top 15 areas we serve have had positive rental growth,” Speedhome chief executive officer, Wong Whei Meng said yesterday during the Allianz Malaysia-Speedhome forum on “Digital Innovation in Property and Insurance Market”.

Speedhome is an online platform connecting landlords with tenants that provides Allianz rental insurance protection, as well as house purchasing services.

The company has transacted 2,000 properties to date with a gross rental value of RM25 million to date. According to Wong, the company’s transaction records showed Cyberjaya, Petaling Jaya and Shah Alam to be the top three most popular areas for home rental for the first three quarters of 2019.

For mature communities such as Petaling Jaya, Wong said the average rental growth has been good, with a minimal rent of RM1,500.

Areas such as Bangsar, Mont Kiara and Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) were more popular among foreigners, he said, the average rent there is between RM1,700 and RM1,900. Wong also noted that the average rent in the KLCC area had rebounded, growing by 8% year-on-year.

The second-highest increase in rents is in the Old Klang Road area, probably due to the fact that there are new office buildings there, he said, and white-collar workers working nearby are willing to pay higher rent.

Meanwhile, areas with poor average rental growth on the platform include Kepong, Ampang and Bangsar.

Wong attributed the lower rent in Kepong to nearby tenants moving out because of traffic congestion, the result of on-going mass rapid transit construction.

Ampang’s poor average rental growth on the other hand, is mostly because of the age of the residential supply on the platform.

Some of the high-rise residential properties located away from the city centre such as Setia Alam, Kota Kemuning, and Puncak Alam also have low rental yield growth or rental rate performance.

“The main reason is because most of these properties belong to the township project and the population development of the community has not yet mature,” he observed.