KUALA LUMPUR: The next phase of Malaysia’s property market is expected to be driven less by flashy listings and more by data-driven solutions that help buyers make quicker, better-informed decisions.
MyRumahBaru co-founder and CEO Melvin Soh said AI-powered property matching could become standard practice by 2027, but the bigger shift will come from greater transparency and easier access to critical information.
He said details such as flood risk, crime rates, past transaction prices, and developers’ track records are increasingly seen as factors buyers want to know upfront before committing to a purchase or viewing.
“Property platform MyRumahBaru is positioning itself around that changing landscape, focusing on what it describes as an ‘enrichment layer’ that gives buyers and renters a deeper context behind a listing.
“The platform also uses AI tools to filter and qualify genuine interest early in the process, helping reduce unnecessary viewings and shorten decision-making cycles.
“As the market becomes more data-driven between 2027 and 2030, the emphasis is expected to shift towards trust, efficiency and informed decision-making rather than simply widening the pool of listings,” he told SunBiz.
Soh noted that MyRumahBaru platform provides transaction transparency and unit-level locality data including flood risk, crime rates and developers’ track records, giving buyers and renters deeper insight before committing to a deal.
On the technology front, Soh said it has adopted an AI-native operating model across much of its business, with many internal workflows managed by a lean team supported by agentic AI tools.
Rather than relying heavily on manpower expansion, MyRumahBaru views scalability as a matter of increasing productivity and employee leverage while maintaining a fast pace of execution.
Further, Soh said the industry is also preparing for wider use of virtual reality technology, which is expected to become far more common by the end of the decade as production costs continue to fall.
“By 2030, buyers and renters could be touring homes virtually before deciding whether to meet an agent in person, changing the way property transactions move through the sales cycle.
“Industry observers say that would mean physical viewings are more likely to involve serious and qualified prospects, allowing agents to spend less time on unproductive appointments while improving conversion rates.
“The shift could also improve efficiency across the sector, with fewer viewings needed to secure a deal and better returns for agents handling increasingly informed clients,“ he said.
Soh also noted that blockchain technology, meanwhile, is still viewed as a longer-term project for the property market, particularly in areas involving land ownership and title management.
He said progress in that space will depend largely on government agencies such as the National Property Information Centre and the Department of Director-General of Lands and Mines, rather than private property platforms alone.
“The focus over the next two to three years is less about adding new features and more about building trust within the ecosystem.
“That means creating a better relationship between owners, tenants and agents, while reducing discrimination, misinformation and unnecessary friction during the transaction process.
“If the trust layer is strong, growth will come naturally and scale over time. But without that foundation, even the best product features will have limited impact,” Soh said.
He said that, as economic uncertainty and supply chain pressures continue to weigh on the broader market, platforms that can help users make confident and informed decisions quickly are likely to stand out.
Soh pointed out that the milestone MyRumahBaru aims to reach is scaling from the current confirmed-appointment volume to more than 10,000 confirmed appointments per month, while maintaining a 90%+ show-up rate.
“That is the real test of whether AI-qualified, performance-based matching can sustain its quality at scale, or whether it breaks under pressure.
“If we achieve that, it signals the model is working as a transaction infrastructure rather than just a pricing experiment,” Soh said.
He said the bigger concern is the speed at which AI could commoditise the agent’s role before the industry has time to reprice it.
“If buyers and renters increasingly self-serve through AI and bypass agents, commission structures will compress and the RM200-per-confirmed-appointment model will come under pressure.
“Our assumption is that agents remain part of the transaction as the human layer that closes deals; if AI shifts the closing point earlier in the journey, we will need to adjust quickly.
“Other risks such as trust events or platform policy changes are manageable. The structural risk is agent disintermediation, and that is the one trajectory we need to stay aligned with, not react to after the fact,” Soh said.
