KUALA LUMPUR (June 12): Mah Sing Group Bhd has donated RM3 million to Tabung Harapan Malaysia at the Finance Ministry in Putrajaya.

“This is a corporate social responsibility effort above and beyond what we are doing with Mah Sing Foundation which is more focused on teaching the nations’ young via our educational programmes,” said its group managing director Tan Sri Leong Hoy Kum.

“For the first time in Malaysia’s history, we are seeing a groundswell of support to crowd-raise funds for the country. Everyone is inspired to help in their own way and as a public-listed company growing with the nation and serving the people’s needs, we are glad to be part of this effort,” Leong added.

Mah Sing’s current focus is on affordable properties priced below RM500,000, as 79% are looking for homes below RM600,000.

“The current market is improving with a feel-good effect as the cost of living is reduced due to measures taken by the government such as zero-rated GST implementation,” Leong said, adding that Malaysia’s medium to long term outlook is positive, due to strong fundamentals such as young population and healthy gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

“We are also heartened by the Prime Minister’s announcement that the Government want banks to loosen lending rules for small businesses and first-time home buyers,” he added.

This will certainly be a boost to the property market and also benefit Mah Sing, as 71% of our buyers are 40 years old and younger, many of whom are buying their first property, Leong noted.

At 3.19pm, shares of Mah Sing were two sen or 1.72% lower at RM1.14, with 1.15 million shares traded, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM2.74 billion.