Henry Butcher (M) Sdn Bhd chief operating officer Tang Chee Meng says the quarterly drop in 4Q2016 does not surprise him, considering the current soft market.

Going forward, Tang says the residential market in all the Malaysian states will remain soft in 2017. He thinks the market has yet to bottom and the soft market conditions will persist for the rest of this year and possibly the first half of next year. He says the decline in the volume and value of residential property transactions only just started in 2013 and 2015, respectively.

According to the National Property Information Centre's data, the number of residential property transactions in 2013 was 59,210, down 8.06% from the 64,402 in the previous year, although the value was up 7.19% to RM16.22 billion in 2013.

The number of residential property transactions in 2015 was 59,490, an increase of 1.23% while the value of the transactions dropped 11.34% to RM10.35 billion.

"The outlook for the overall residential property market will remain soft in 2017 with continued declines in both volume as well as the value of transactions, but prices are not expected to dip significantly" Tang says.

According to the Property Market Report 2016, the volume of residential property transactions in Malaysia dropped by 16.61% last year to 49,608 transactions from 59,490 transactions in the previous year. Total transactions value in 2016 was down 9.51% to RM32.97 billion from RM36.46 billion in 2015.