KUALA LUMPUR (June 30): The government has extended the Home Ownership Campaign for six months, till December 31 this year, announced Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin, following strong interest in the campaign and recommendations for an extension from home buyers and developers.

She said this in a statement today, in which she also said the campaign, which began as an initiative under her ministry in January and launched by the prime minister, has received good response from home buyers and housing developers. The initial date of completion for the campaign was June 30.

She also said the HoC was a collaboration with home developers’ associations like the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association or Rehda, the Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (Shareda) and the Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (Sheda)

Separately, the Ministry of Finance affirmed that it has accepted Zuraida's request in support of Rehda's appeal to extend the HoC period for another six months.

"To encourage the increase in the level of home ownership among Malaysians and achieve the objective of reducing the number of unsold houses, the government has agreed to extend the HoC for another six months, from July 1, 2019 until Dec 31, 2019. The HoC is for housing developers registered with Rehda, Shareda and Sheda," it said in another statement.

Under the HoC, a house priced between RM300,000 and RM2.5 million -- purchased from a developer registered with Rehda, Shareda and Sheda -- gets a discount of at least 10% and a stamp duty exemption of 100% that is limited to the first RM1 million of house's value. The remaining value is subject to a 3% rate. There is also a 100% stamp duty exemption on the entirety of the loan agreement.

Meanwhile, besides the HoC, Putrajaya has also made available other incentives for first home purchases -- regardless of whether the home is purchased from a housing developer or from the secondary market.

For example, first time home buyers get stamp duty exemption on the memorandum of transfer and loan agreement for home purchases priced no more than RM300,000. For purchases of homes priced between RM300,001 and RM500,000, a similar stamp duty exemption is applicable -- but limited to only the first RM300,000 of the house's price. These are applicable on purchases where the sale and purchase agreements were completed between Jan 1, 2019 and Dec 31, 2020.

"For first home purchases, that is for those who have yet to own their own residence but intend to purchase one from developers who are not registered with REHDA, or for purchases made in the secondary market, they can apply for stamp duty exemptions under this incentive," it added.

According to the MoF, citing a report from the National Property Information Centre (NAPIC), the number of unsold residential properties in Malaysia rose to 32,313 units valued at RM19.86 billion as at the fourth quarter or 2018. 

This, it said, reflected the long-standing issues of home ownership, as well as the mismatch between the supply and demand of houses in the market. "Compared to the fourth quarter of 2017, this represents a 30.6% increase in the volume of residential units unsold and 27.0% increase in the value of residential units," it cited.