John Tan Duo Zer (council member), Datuk Quek Siew Hau (vice president), Datuk Seri Chua Soon Ping (deputy president), Chew Sang Hai (president), Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Mohd Shafie Apdal, Datuk Johnny Wong Chen Yee (vice president), Wesley Chai Meng Kong (vice president), Benny Ng Su Pei (council member) and Raymond X. Chan Y.H. (council member).
KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Mohd Shafie has called on developers and members of Sabah Housing And Real Estate Developers Association (Shareda) to work closely
together to complement the State Government’s initiatives and implementation of housing policies.
This is important for the growth of the housing and property sector in Sabah through better planning, whether in the city or township, to be equipped with basic infrastructures or amenities, especially water and electricity supply, road networks, tourism developments, health and wellness facilities, etc.
Shafie said this when he received a courtesy call from Sharedaled by its president, Chew Sang Hai, at his office recently.
He stressed that buildings must be of good quality, practical and user-friendly, especially for those in smaller towns.
He added that currently, the state government is looking into several aspects on good policies and how to improve the mechanism for planning townships and rural areas to serve the community with better amenities.
Soon, some of the more prominent local authorities like the Kota Kinabalu City Hall, Sandakan and Tawau Municipal Councils would be empowered to approve development plans under their jurisdiction instead of the Central Planning Board (CB) after the revamping of certain procedures and policies to de-centralise and restructure the role functions of the CB.
This should reduce unnecessary delay and regulatory burdens on the government agencies in order to move towards a more conducive business environment.
This is in line with the aspiration to meet the World Bank Ranking Standard towards a developed nation status. This will surely speed up the approval process for Development Plans (DP) and Building Plans (BP).
If there is any delay faced by developers in obtaining such approval, the Chief Minister assured that he will give his personal attention.
However, his top priority still stands firm for the rakyat and to protect their interest as housebuyers, according to Shareda in a statement yesterday.
Shareda also said the Chief Minister had urged developers to settle all land dues, expedite the process of subdivision and issuance of title to all their purchasers.
He said a housebuyer will feel proud to receive and grasp the title deed of the property purchased.
On the eligibility of a residential buyer in obtaining a housing loan, the Chief Minister is very concerned and much aware of the
market sentiment in the supply and demand of housing. His administration is looking into ways and means to look into alternative source of financing for Sabahans (B40) to secure housing loan.
Shareda also seeks the blessing and consideration of the Chief Minister to expand the guidelines of the State Economic
Planning Unit (EPU) on the acquisition of properties in Sabah by foreign interest at the threshold value of not less than RM1 million for the purchase of 2-3 units of properties instead of one property only.
The Chief Minister is contemplating to establish our own Sabah-MM2H programme under the tourism sector to act as a catalyst to lure
more foreigners to buy or invest in Sabah properties. This will surely give a spin-off effect to boost the economy and growth of the real property sector and its related downstream businesses in the state.
Shareda informed that the nationwide Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) 2019 stamp duty exemption which commenced since 1 January 2019 till 30 June 2019 for sales of residential properties valued at RM300,001 to RM2.5 million, has stimulated a slight improvement in the sales of residential properties in Sabah that transacted 605 units
at a total value of RM329 million to date.
Hence, Shareda is optimistic that the property market in the second half (H2) of 2019 will see a slight improvement in the delivery from the stimulus package with the extension of stamp
exemption from 30 June 2019 to 31 December 2019.
Shareda opined that this stimulus move would boost the confidence sentiment of the depressed property market and thanked the Sabah and Federal Governments for their foresight to give the stamp duty exemption in the instrument of transfer and loan agreement. Subsequently it has also alleviated the overhang market and boosted the property market nationwide.