High time to relax lending rules, says MD

Mah Sing set to gain from govt’s plan to review home loan application process

KUALA LUMPUR: Mah Sing Group Bhd said it is time that lending guidelines for first-time house buyers are relaxed, as market sentiment and demand for affordable housing are improving.

“It is high time that lending rules are relaxed – it has been about four years since the cooling measures were imposed on the property sector,” group managing director Tan Sri Leong Hoy Kum said after the Mah Sing AGM.

“Demand for property is there but many first-time house buyers are still unable to secure loans,” he added.

Early this month, the Pakatan Harapan government announced plans to review the loan application process to make it easier for Malaysians to buy their first home.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said there would be a new mechanism to facilitate the bank loan application process for first-time home buyers in the country.

Bank Negara had enforced several cooling measures for the sector in 2013, including tighter lending rules, to address high property prices.

Leong noted that Mah Sing would be a major beneficiary if lending guidelines for first-time house buyers were relaxed, as 74% of its 2018 targeted sales for residential properties are priced below RM500,000.

A large portion of the group’s target market are first-time house buyers, with 70% of its buyers below the age of 40.

With the potential measures to relax lending guidelines and improving market sentiment, Leong said the group was optimistic for the year ahead.

“Market sentiment is also improving, as the government is implementing measures to address the cost of living through petrol subsidies and and the zero rating of the goods and services tax,” he said.

Leong added that the property market was supported by the demand-supply gap, whereby there was an average of 123,902 new households emerged per year between 2012 and 2017, but only an average of 88,000 new houses completed during the period.

The group is maintaining it RM1.8bil sales target.

Asked if Mah Sing was looking to expand overseas, Leong said it was open to the possibility, but was currently “very busy” in Malaysia.

Mah Sing has RM2.2bil worth of project launches planned for this year, and said it would continue to push for more launches towards the second half of the year.

Separately, in a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the group announced the resignation of its chairman Gen (R) Tan Sri Yaacob Mat Zain, and the redesignation of Tan Sri Siti Norma Yaakob from independent director to chairman.