KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 27): A property industry group says Budget 2018 does not provide any measures to arrest the problems in the real estate market and offers no incentives to assist first time buyers.
 
The Association of Valuers, Property Managers, Estate Agents and Property Consultants in the Private Sector of Malaysia (PEPS) also said the budget has failed to tackle the revival of the property market.

“The property industry and property market are still faced with many challenges and problems such as oversupply, overbuilding, high costs and mismatch between supply and demand and issues on end-financing,” PEPS said in a statement, shortly after Budget 2018 was presented in Parliament today.
 
The government announced in the budget that it will pump in a total of RM2.2 billion to increase home ownership through various initiatives.

This includes RM1.5 billion for Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia to build 210,000 units of affordable homes, priced below RM250,000, over the next two years.

“This is a very laudable move by the government to address the affordable housing issues interms of financial capacity to buy and also to assist in increasing the supply of affordable homes,” PEPS said.

It added that the home affordability issue — particularly within the middle 40% of the population — was due to a mismatch between house prices and income levels, the lack of state land released at cheaper price for affordable housing, and high infrastructure and compliance.

In addition, PEPS also said PR1MA’s extension of its stepped-up financing to include properties built by private developers, is a “welcome news”.

Currently, PR1MA, in collaboration with Bank Negara Malaysia, Employees’ Provident Fund and four local banks, offers a flexible financing scheme for its houses, which will provide eligible buyers with a significant reduction in monthly home loan instalments at affordable levels.

On building materials, PEPS is hoping for the government to extend the incentives for using industrial building systems (IBS) to property builders and housing developers in the future.

Under Budget 2018, the government has allocated an incentive of RM2.5 billion to repair over 2,000 dilapidated school buildings nationwide by using the IBS.

According to PEPS, IBS is recommended as a measure to reduce building construction costs and to speed up the construction period of a development project.

To promote IBS, PEPS said government is urged to provide incentives to both builders of pre-fabricated housing components and also to developers who adopt the IBS.