Fateh Iskandar Mohamed Mansor, president of the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association, said the agency would be able to advise developers in the private and public sectors on building the right product with the right price, location and timing, as well as oversee rent-to-own schemes.
“We need to do more to help people own houses. Private developers probably have deep pockets to build affordable houses, but the smaller developers may need incentives,” he told a media briefing on a Property Industry Survey and market outlook for 2018.
He said end-financing remained the main challenge and Rehda hoped the government would come up with ways to ease the people’s burden in terms of financial assistance. The highest number of loans rejected were applications for housing loans for houses costing RM500,000 and below.
Fateh Iskandar hoped that the government would also help ease the developers’ cost of doing business.
“There is a need for a holistic approach, and we have also asked for the government to lower or waive development charges and the conversion of land premium cost, as well as construction and compliance costs which are unnecessary for developers, among other things,” he said.
Malaysia’s population is expected to rise to 33 million this year, but there was a shortfall of three million affordable houses, based on an estimated requirement for 8.3 million houses with four persons per home, as stated by the National Property Information Centre.
He said the government was in the midst of building about one million affordable houses, and some four million were being constructed by private developers.
Fateh Iskandar said Rehda and others involved would conduct a study on the oversupply of offices and retail shops in shopping centres and commercial buildings.
A recent Bank Negara Malaysia report sounded a warning of a risk to macroeconomic and financial stability if the property glut was left unchecked.
Fateh Iskandar added that Rehda also needed big data for the property industry in the country as such information would help them to better coordinate demand and supply.
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