SIBU: The building of 223,000 affordable housing units by the government and private sector next year will help to stabilise the prices of house in the market, enabling more people to own a house.
Assistant Housing Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, in giving this positive outlook yesterday, opined that this is BN’s commitment to provide one million affordable homes in five years as pledged in its election manifesto.
“More affordable homes are also in the pipeline for 2014 and with more of such houses by the government and private sectors through its mandatory CSR initiative, it is hoped that more people are able to own a house.
“Generally, it is a good budget. After the general election, it is time to come up with a budget that is friendly and progressive and able to catapult Malaysia to greater heights,” Abdul Karim, who is also Assistant Minister of Youth Development as well as Asajaya assemblyman told thesundaypost.
On the new initiative introduced for foreign ownership of landed property whereby only properties that are priced one million and above could be owned by foreigners, this would reduce speculation and demand for lower price range properties thus makes them available easier for locals, he observed.
This is especially so in Johore, Penang and KL where presently, many apartment units are snapped up by foreigners due to them competing with locals for purchase of units ranging from RM500,000 to one million.
This in some ways had escalated the price of properties especially in cities like JB, KL and Penang.
“With this new initiative, prices of units below one million would be stabilised and be more available for locals.”
Abdul Karim said apart from the new restriction on foreign ownership of properties, the Real Property Gain Tax has also been increased and is varied for locals and foreigners.
“This is another effort by the government to stabilise property prices and to prevent speculation,” he said.
Abdul Karim in giving his overall assessment of the budget, described it as a good budget that would propel Malaysia into a developed nation probably much earlier than year 2020.
“All sectors are looked into and I can see that it is so meticulously prepared. We are blessed to have good leaders and a good government who wholeheartedly commit themselves to the people and the nation,” he summed up.