The Ministry of Territories has tightened the approval for the construction of new office buildings in the face of an oversupply in the market.
Federal Territories Deputy Minister Datuk Loga Bala said new office building projects will not receive the green light from the ministry, the exception being the construction of corporate buildings for businesses’ own use.
Loga (from second right) visiting the Mapex’s booth accompanied by FD Iskandar and Mapex organising chairman Datuk Ng Seing Leong.
At the recent opening ceremony of Malaysia Property Expo (Mapex) 2016 on April 15, he shared that the ministry has been tasked to build 80,000 units of affordable houses, of which 50,000 units will be located in Kuala Lumpur, 20,000 in Putrajaya and 10,000 in Labuan.
The project is expected to be completed before the next election.
“In order to meet these targets, my ministry has been partnering with private developers to build affordable houses under the Rumah Mampu Milik Wilayah Persekutuan, and as of February, a total of 39,416 affordable houses have been approved for development, under construction or completed in the Federal Territories,” he said.
In addition, for Perumahan Penjawat Awam 1Malaysia, the Prime Minister Department has been tasked with delivering 100,000 units of affordable houses for civil servants by 2018, in which 10,000 units are targeted in KL.
Meanwhile, Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (Rehda) president Datuk Seri FD Iskandar urged for Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to ease the stringent loan application rules and allow for more flexibility in loan application for affordable house buyers.
Addressing the differing statement by the banks and Rehda, in which the loan rejection rates were stated at around 20% and at 68% respectively, he explained that it may be due to different criteria in accessing the issue.
For Rehda, homebuyers who book a unit but unable to secure a loan were considered in their assessment, whereas the banks may only take account of paper applications in their statistics.
The difficulty of preparing for down payment is one of the biggest problems in home ownership.
“The 10% deposit which buyers have to cough up at the time of the signing of Sales and Purchase Agreement is often the barrier to home entry,” he said.
Unless they have parents who are able to assist them, many genuine buyers, especially first-time buyers, many of whom are young couples, do not possess the necessary savings to cover the initial 10% down payment, said the president. - StarProperty