KOTA KINABALU: DAP Sabah is concerned about the tussle between state Housing and Local Government ministry and Sabah Housing and Real Estates Developers Association (Shareda) over the ruling by Housing Controller to force developers to reduce the selling price of houses by 10 percent.
However, the drastic decision made by the ministry would not solve the core problem that people were actually facing, its Political Education Director cum Public Policy director Phoong Jin Zhe said here yesterday.
According to studies, house price in Sabah is most unaffordable in Malaysia and it is difficult for middle-low income class to own a house here.
Instead of controlling the selling price of houses, Phoong said the government should consider restricting the speculation of housing market which was one of the main factors pushing up the property prices in the capital.
“Simply force developers to reduce selling price is like slaughtering a goose that lays eggs which would possibly destroy the entire market.”
“Since housing is a necessity and basic rights for all the over-speculated housing market in Sabah should be controlled and restricted in order to allow everyone an equal opportunity to own a house.”
“It cannot simply be based on free market theory because when housing price keeps going up, middle and low income group would be unlikely to chase up the increasing price in property market.”
“Therefore, we agree that the government should impose related policies to intervene the market and help to rebalance or redistribute it through government force,” he said.
Phoong said there were many ways in which the state government can do to help the poor to buy a house.
“Instead of building more affordable houses, we can adopt “cross subsidization” mechanism which was successful in many foreign countries by re-adjusting the market to offer equal opportunities for all.
“By this mechanism, state government imposes a tax on high-end properties and uses the money to subsidize the middle and low price housing units.
“It would not kill developers and yet the government could help the middle and low income group to buy a house,” he said.
Other than that, he added that by imposing taxation to restrict speculation in property market could be strengthened, such as Real Property Gain Tax, to stop the speculation behavior in the market which would eventually bring injustice and inequality to people and the nation.
“A city that comprises middle class who cannot affordable to buy a house and pessimistic about the future would not be a great city.” Phoong said, adding that DAP Sabah hoped this issue can be resolved holistically.