THE government is responsible for both helping people own homes and reducing the country’s property overhang, said the Finance Ministry.

“We can help people buy affordable homes and gain access to financing, but we also have a balancing role to play.

“It doesn’t help the economy if there’s a large property overhang,” Johan Mahmood Merican, the ministry’s national budget office director, told a post-Budget 2020 forum in Kuala Lumpur today.

He was replying to a question on why Putrajaya is seen to be on the side of developers, helping them clear units by lowering the property price threshold for foreign buyers.

When tabling the budget on Friday, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said foreigners will be allowed to buy completed apartments and condominiums in urban areas priced at RM600,000, down from the RM1 million set previously.

“This is to reduce the stock of unsold properties. Our target is aimed at unsold completed units in 2020. After that, we will review the progress,” said Johan.

The forum, held at Bank Negara Malaysia, was attended by Axcelasia Taxand Sdn Bhd’s Dr Veerinderjeet Singh, World Bank Group’s Shakira Teh Sharifuddin, Universiti Malaya Professor Dr Edmund Terence Gomez, International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance deputy president Professor Dr Mansor H. Ibrahim and Sage 3 Capital Sdn Bhd’s Ravindran Navaratnam. – October 14, 2019.