Rent-To-Own scheme relaunch by October
> Prosma CEO says it expects to get new mandate from govt, partner SKPM working on rebranding
PETALING JAYA: Prosma Bhd is rebranding and relaunching its RentTo-Own (RTO) scheme by October, following a fresh mandate from the government, said its CEO Zamri Abdullah ( pix).
“Sekretariat Komuniti Prefer Malaysia (SKPM) is working on the rebranding now. We may change the name of the scheme, but it has not been finalised yet. SKPM is deciding on the details now,” he told SunBiz.
SKPM is a community created on the back of a private initiative to assist the government in providing residences to Malaysians and has been appointed to manage 50,000 houses under the RTO scheme.
SKPM is the scheme owner, while Prosma is the holding company tasked with acquiring assets for the scheme.
According to Zamri, SKPM and Prosma are working with the Finance Ministry and the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry (Domestic Trade Ministry) to refresh a mandate issued to SKPM under the previous administration.
This news comes after SunBiz tried to get confirmation from both ministries of their involvement in the scheme. The two ministries are yet to respond to SunBiz’s queries.
Zamri said the current mandate was given in 2012 under the National Blue Ocean Strategy to SKPM chairman Datuk Paduka Ab Malek Ranting. The mandate, he said, comes with a letter of support from the Domestic Trade Ministry to obtain financing for up to RM200,000 per house.
The mandate was given by Datuk Ahmad Maslan, who was then deputy finance minister, and Datuk Seri Hasan Malek, who was then domestic trade, cooperatives and consumerism minister.
“The mandate was issued under different administrations at both ministries, so Prosma and SKPM are getting the mandate refreshed and updated with the current administration. The mandate is still valid and, so far, there have been no changes to the mandate,” he added.
Zamri, who is also SKPM chief secretariat, said he had a meeting with the Domestic Trade Ministry last month and is now waiting for the official document of the refreshed mandate.
He said the ministry also advised him to obtain consent from the Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Ministry, as the RTO scheme is related to the housing industry.
“We have already informed the ministry and they have acknowledged our RTO scheme and given their consent. They will monitor our scheme,” Zamri added.
SKPM and Prosma have also approached the Finance Ministry as part of the process of refreshing the mandate.
However, they have yet to meet with the ministry and are still waiting for a meeting to be set up.
Prosma began signing contracts for the scheme with eligible tenants last month and has signed 70 contracts valued at RM10 million in total as of Aug 1. It aims to sign 500 contracts in total this year.
Asked to comment on the refreshed mandate, Tiger Synergy Bhd managing director Shirley Tan said it will be carrying out a due diligence before signing the sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with Prosma.
“We were shown copies of the letters of support from the government before signing the memorandum of understanding. We expect to sign the SPA some time next month and will carry out our due diligence before that,” she said.
Tiger Synergy is developing the Telaris Gombak affordable condominium project, which has a gross development value of RM100 million. It will be sold en bloc to Prosma for the RTO scheme.