Malaysia's property market is anticipated to benefit over the long term from Beijing's One Belt One Road (Obor) initiative, according to Orkney Holdings Executive Chairman Rafiq Jumabhoy in a report by the Sun Daily.

He told this to the participants of this year's PropertyGuru Malaysia Real Estate Summit that was held on Wednesday (16 August).

In particular, Rafiq believes that there will be opportunities for real estate development in Obor nodes, as well as opportunities to build industrial and logistics facilities in international hubs. Services offered by Malaysian firms are also anticipated to see higher demand from China and other countries in Asia.

While new skill sets are needed to tap these opportunities, this isn't a problem for Malaysia given its young population, which is also expected to drive the demand for residential properties in the future.

However, there's a need to rethink the facilities that will be constructed in the country due to technological changes. "We need to have training and financial infrastructure that supports new kind of development, and think long term" he explained.

Builders should also adopt an asset management mindset instead of a developer's mindset, said Rafiq. This is because asset managers are more focused on the functionality, layout and design of buildings, while developers are more concerned with constructing and disposing a property.

Regarding the status of the real estate market, he noted that some parts of Malaysia are doing well, while property transactions at other places are sluggish.

"But I think there will be a lot of oversupply. Creating a blanket statement would be wrong, but I think in Iskandar and Kuala Lumpur we can see it. However, in a Selangor setting you can't be definitive that it's going to be an oversupply, because there is still an undersupply" he added.