PETALING JAYA: PropertyGuru Malaysia is open to sharing anonymised data on homebuyer and renter behaviour with the Housing and Local Government Ministry (KPKT), potentially giving policymakers access to early signals of housing demand as the government moves towards a more data-driven approach to planning developments.
PropertyGuru Malaysia and iProperty Malaysia managing director Vic Sithasanan said the company has not yet been approached by KPKT, but said its platform data could complement conventional housing statistics by showing what consumers are searching for before those intentions translate into actual transactions.
The offer comes as KPKT moves towards using big data to guide housing development under the National Housing Policy 2026-2035, including determining the type, price and location of homes needed in particular areas.
Vic said PropertyGuru’s role in the housing ecosystem gives it visibility over the earliest stages of a consumer’s property journey.
“I think where we can assist is in terms of giving them those leading indicators and being able to capture some of those buyer and renter intent ahead of time,” he told SunBiz.
KPKT has said it plans to introduce a big-data analytics system from 2027 to guide decisions on the type, price and location of housing developments, in a move aimed at reducing mismatches between supply and actual demand.
The National Property Information Centre (Napic), meanwhile, provides transaction, stock and overhang data that tracks the market after projects have been launched and transactions have taken place.
He said the company would be willing to share broader market trends provided individual users could not be identified and data-sharing complied with Malaysia’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).
“Yeah, as long as it’s anonymised and, you know, we adhere to PDPA, and as long as we’re sharing trends and those kinds of things, I don’t see why we can’t share those.”
While transaction data can show where homes have been bought and at what prices, platform activity can potentially reveal where people are looking, what types of properties they are considering and whether they are searching to buy or rent before a transaction takes place.
Vic said this is particularly relevant to the broader challenge of matching available housing with the needs of households.
“For us, if you look at the business as it is and you look at what we stand for, we want to be able to help buyers and sellers meet at the right point where a transaction can happen,” he said, adding that the philosophy also shaped the company’s view of the wider housing market.
PropertyGuru sees itself not simply as a listing platform but as part of the process of helping consumers navigate a market in which there can be hundreds of thousands of properties available across PropertyGuru and iProperty, spanning both sale and rental listings.
“We want to make sure that that process is very efficient. We also want to make sure that it’s a process where property seekers who are either looking to buy or rent have a good time on the platform.”
The need for better matching has become increasingly important as Malaysia grapples with the apparent contradiction between continued concerns over housing affordability and the existence of substantial unsold housing stock.
The latest Napic data showed that 14,201 completed residential units priced at RM300,000 and below, worth RM2.77 billion, remained unsold as at the first quarter of 2026, accounting for 43.3% of the country’s total residential overhang.
Vic said PropertyGuru’s own data and consumer research suggest that demand has not disappeared.
More than half, or 56%, of respondents in the company’s internal research said they planned to buy a property within the next two years, while more than 60% of those intending to buy were looking for an affordable home priced below RM500,000, he said.
“I think there’s a lot of intent in the market. I think the problem is, as I alluded earlier on, is really about how can we match properties effectively to user needs.”
He described this as almost a “product-market fit” issue, where the supply available at a particular point in time may not necessarily correspond with what consumers are looking for.
That mismatch, Vic said, could involve more than price alone. “It is not just the sticker price. I think it’s about total affordability or holistic affordability of a home that comes into factor as well.”
A home may appear affordable based on its selling price, he said, but households may face significantly higher living costs if the location lacks public transport and requires one or more cars.
Asked whether the government’s affordable housing programme should ultimately be judged by the number of homes constructed, sold or occupied, Vic said actual occupation by households is the more meaningful outcome.
“Logically, if you look at something like this, it would be obviously homes that are occupied by families that are happy to, you know, they’ve got a home and they love it,” he said.
For PropertyGuru, the government’s move towards data-driven housing planning could therefore create an opportunity for private-sector platforms and public-sector data to work together – combining information about what has already happened in the market with signals about what consumers may be looking for next.
