By Farah Adilla – November 6, 2020 @ 8:55pm
KUALA LUMPUR: Property developer Glomac Bhd believes that measures for the property sector in the 2021 Budget will help encourage home ownership among Malaysians, especially first time home buyers.
Group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Seri FD Iskandar said the full stamp duty exemption on instruments of transfer and loan agreement for first time home buyers was good news.
Upfront payments had always been a burden for the rakyat when they are considering to buy houses, FD Iskandar told the New Straits Times.ADVERTISING
While tabling the annual budget, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz announced that the government would extend the stamp duty exemption until December 31, 2025.YOU MAY ALSO LIKE. The limit of duty stamp for first residential home is also increased up to RM500,000.\
The exemption is effective for sale and purchase agreement executed from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2025.
FD Iskandar said the Rent-to-Own initiative would also help boost home ownerships, but stressed that the government, as well as developers, can leverage its effectiveness via the Big Data.
“Big Data is important to know the when and where to build these Rent-to-Own houses. For example, if the data showed that 40 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product) was generated from the Klang Valley area, they need to build more of these houses in this area than in anywhere else in Malaysia,” he said.
Tengku Zafrul said the government would collaborate with selected financial institutions to provide a Rent-to-Own scheme.
The program will be implemented until 2022 involving 5,000 PR1MA houses with a total value of more than RM1 billion and reserved for first-time home buyers.
Tengku Zafrul also announced stamp duty exemption on loan agreements and instruments of transfer given to rescuing contractors and the original house purchasers is extended for another five years.
The exemption is effective for loan agreements and instruments of transfer executed from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2025 for abandoned housing projects certified by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government.
FD Iskandar welcomes the initiative, saying it would encourage property developers and contractors to participate in the abandoned projects.
“This would then help the original buyers of these projects. In the past, developers and contractors are hesitant to take on these projects due to its huge upfront commitment,” he said.
Meanwhile, FD Iskandar said he was hopeful that the government can create one centralised national housing agency to tackle these issue.
This will better facilitate and help developers to identify where the demand is to build more affordable housing.
He also suggested for the government to restart the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme with attractive measures to attract foreign investors here as a catalyst to stimulate the local property market.
This is so as the government needs to encourage foreign direct investment into the country, not only for various industries, but also housing.
It was urgent for the government to relook into this as Malaysia might be losing out to other Southeast Asian countries, FD Iskandar said.
