Real estate agents are forecasting for Sabah, a state in East Malaysia, to experience a V-shaped recovery in the market in 2021, according to a survey conducted by Juwai-IQI, reports the New Straits Times (12 October 2020). Juwai IQI's Sabah Property Survey and Index – Quarter Four (Q4) 2020 report also said recovery will continue in 2022 and beyond and residential prices and rents are expected to trail national trends and that first-time buyers would drive the activity. Juwai IQI group executive director Kashif Ansari said that compared to national trends, Sabah has more local first-time buyers and more local upgrade buyers, but fewer local investors and foreign buyers.Some 39 per cent of Sabah's new-home transactions in the first half of 2020 involved first-time local buyers, compared to 34 per cent nationwide for such transactions by local buyers in the respective states."Sixty-three (63) per cent of real estate agents expect first-time local buyers to complete a higher number of transactions in Sabah in the year to come," said Ansari. He indicated that this is a positive sign as it shows that first-time buyers are entering the property market in Sabah at a faster rate than investors and foreign buyers.