KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 19): IJM Land Bhd is putting homebuyer fears of economic and job security at ease with insurance coverage for buyers of their residential products.

The scheme is called "HomeTIPS" or Triple Insurance Protection Scheme where buyers are insured for personal accident, term life and unemployment benefit, which comes into play upon the signing of the sale and purchase agreement and lasts for 36 months from date of signing.

The risk coverage covers when an individual is involuntarily terminated from gainful employment due to say, closure of a department or downsizing exercise, or suffers death or total permanent disability due to accident or natural causes. The premium for the scheme will be borne by the developer.

IJM Land managing director Edward Chong said, "This is a time where people are concerned about short-term uncertainties and outlook."

"A lot of people may defer the decision to buy a house. When this happens, more often than not, people 'miss the boat' to buy a house, especially after a few years, the market has recovered and the price of a property you were looking for is either no longer available or the prices may have increased to a level beyond your expectations.

"So, IJM Land thought, 'What can we do to assist this group of people to make the decision to buy today?' This is why we came up with HomeTIPS," he told a news conference today.

The HomeTIPS is in collaboration with Allianz Life Insurance Malaysia Bhd and Allianz General Insurance Co (Malaysia) Bhd to underwrite the three insurance schemes.

"The requirements for eligibility for this scheme is that the buyers home loan must have been approved, the buyers age is between 18 and 64 years old, the property is purchased by an individual or individuals not a corporate entity, and the person must be gainfully employed on regular full time basis for at least 30 hours per week," said Allianz General Insurance head of commercial business John Yep.

If the buyers are to sell the house before the end of the 36 months, the unemployment benefit portion of HomeTIPS will cease but the personal accident and term life schemes will follow the buyer.

The scheme is applicable to selected residential developments, not including all joint venture projects, with selling prices between RM300,000 and RM2 million.

On why not for products beyond the RM2 million price tag, Chong said individuals who can purchase homes beyond RM2 million would probably have the means to deal with any unexpected incidents.