‘Give first-timers full housing loans’
FINANCING WOES: Housebuyers find it hard to make downpayment, says Noh
BANKS should help tackle the problem of end-financing by giving full housing loans to first-time housebuyers. Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar said banks would only lend between 70 and 80 per cent of the property price.
“It is difficult for housebuyers to cough up the other 20 or 30 per cent,” he said, adding that many housing units that had been completed remained unsold due to endfinancing problems and issues of applicants’ loans being rejected.
“Even a house costing RM300,000 would be expensive to the potential buyers as they would have to come up with RM60,000,” he said at the Malaysia Property Exposition (Mapex) exhibition at Mid Valley Exhibition Centre here yesterday.
Organised by the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association Malaysia (Rehda), the three-day event involves more than 50 developers, including Mah Sing Group Bhd, Glomac Bhd, SP Setia Bhd and UEM Sunrise Bhd.
Also present were Rehda president Datuk Seri FD Iskandar and chairman of the Mapex committee, Datuk Ng Seing Liong.
Noh called on banks to complement efforts by the government in implementing various schemes to help people cover a downpayment or get a more affordable loan so that they could buy their first home.
These include schemes such as MyDeposit and MyHome, which offer incentives up to RM30,000 per home, benefiting homebuyers and housing developers.
Noh, in expressing regret over the lack of participation by banks in Mapex this year, said they should work with Rehda’s 1,400 members and come up with creative solutions on how to help more people get on the property ladder.
“I also want to encourage housing developers to build their houses first and sell them later, a concept which has only been agreed by a mere 14 housing developers.”
He pointed out that the government was already going the extra mile to help the Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister at Mapex in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. With him is Rehda president
Pic by Aizuddin Saad
people by implementing a transit home programme in urban areas with access to public transportation.
Under the programme, eligible applicants will be able to occupy studio units for a fiveyear period at affordable rental rates which
are lower than market rates.
He said the government had spent some RM202 million to help revive projects that had been abandoned or were facing delays.
Noh said between 2009 and August this year, there were 206 such cases.