Government needs to create level-playing field, says Rehda
KUALA LUMPUR: The government needs to create a level-playing field in terms of perks and incentives to spur the market for both foreign and local property developers, said Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (Rehda) president Datuk Seri FD Iskandar.
FD Iskandar said while foreign investments are important in driving the country’s economic growth, the local developers deserve the same treatment and incentives given to foreign players.
“We are an open market — we definitely want foreign investments (for growth). Whether we like it or not, China is the big boy today.
“If tax incentives and pioneer status were given to foreign developers, I hope those incentives are given to Malaysian developers as well. We want a level-playing field,” he said at PropertyGuru 2017 Outlook Forum, here, yesterday.
Citing the influx of China developers in Johor Baru as an example, FD Iskandar said the state capital used to get 7,000 to 8,000 new housing units every year.
With the abundance of China developers, he said the supply had risen to 39,000 units last year.
Jones Lang Wootton executive director Prem Kumar concurred with FD Iskandar’s view.
He said while the China players were creating a market of their own, there was also a growing concern over the large scale and volume of construction in Malaysia by them.
“I will not be totally worried about China developers coming into the market. It does create some kind of knee-jerk reaction and people get a bit concerned.
“(They were asking) why are we allowing developers from China to come and compete with our own developers? The obvious answer is it is an open market.
“The crucial thing is for the government to ensure a level-playing field and have a more indepth approach to prevent local developers from being short changed if the government’s trend of allowing the entry of more foreign developers continues.
“We do not want a situation where at the expense of foreign developers, the local developers are not able to do what they are able to do,” added Prem.
He said it was important for the government to have an effective housing policy to monitor and address the issue of foreign developers’ influx in the country.
“We do not have a proper policy in place and this is entirely surprising.
“How are we going to monitor and control the foreign developers, especially when we do not have that kind of policy in place?” he added. Datuk Seri FD Iskandar President,
Rehda