To Sell or Rent: How to Market Your Properties In Malaysia

Last updated: 2024/08/29 at 12:20 PM

OYAGSB UUM

4 Min Read

Author, Nurwati Ashikkin Ahmad Zaluki

After years of employment, it is most likely that you now own a property, which can be in the form of a house or a piece of land. It may also be that staying in the same house for years and with your children all grown up and living elsewhere, you (and your spouse) are left living in the big empty house. So you may decide to move to a smaller house. What can you do with your existing house?

Here are a few suggestions. First, you can sell the house and, of course, you will definitely make a capital gain from the sale. Everyone knows that a real estate will appreciate in value. You can then use the proceeds from the sale of the house to buy another property. Second, you can choose to keep your house but rent it out. In this way, you will earn income on a monthly basis from renting out your house. Finally, you can still keep your house but turn it into a homestay business. In the last two scenarios, you have nothing to lose as you will still own your house while earning some extra money out of it.

The decision to sell or rent out your properties is an investment decision in real estate. As a personal choice, I would prefer to enter the homestay business rather than to rent out my house on a monthly basis. Of course, once a house is rented out, you will receive a fixed monthly income over the rental contract period without having to carry out much promotional activities or hassle.

Nonetheless, venturing into a homestay business is quite challenging especially in promoting your house to attract potential guests. Furthermore, you will also have to compete with existing and more established homestay operators who have been in the business longer. But surely you will earn a higher income if you are able to bring in more guests to book your house for a longer number of days. This is because income from the rent of a homestay is charged on the number of days occupied by the guest(s).

Subsequent to joining a few groups of homestay business operators via WhatsApp and Facebook, I learnt that there are several ways to market a homestay business or your properties. One of the ways is to advertise them in any of the following links:

Other than using the above channels, you also can run your very own website or simply register at some popular classified platforms by uploading interesting photographs of your homestay that appeal to potential guests. Several of these marketing channels can also be used to increase your homestay market, as well as to sell or rent your properties.

Dr Nurwati Ashikkin is an Associate Professor of Accounting and Finance at OYAGSB.