THE Selangor government is studying the price threshold for home ownership for foreign buyers to address the problem of unsold luxury homes in the state.

Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari said the question of whether to maintain the current threshold of RM2 million was currently being discussed by the Selangor Housing Real Estate Board.

He said Selangor had the highest price threshold for foreign buyers in the country.

“We will also study the effects of the move (to lower the price threshold) because at the same time we want to protect house prices and do not want various unwanted side effect as well as social impacts.

“In the next two or three weeks we will reach a decision, either to maintain the existing limit or to reduce it,” he said, at the Selangor government department’s monthly assembly in Shah Alam, today.

He said this when asked to comment on what the Selangor government was doing to overcome the supply overhang of luxury homes in the state.

Amirudin said the new price threshold for foreign ownership of RM600,000 from RM1 million as presented in the 2020 Budget was very low.

“In Shenzhen, China, a 1,000sq ft house is priced between RM5 million to RM6 million so the foreign ownership price threshold of RM1 million or RM2 million should not cause any problems for them (foreigners),” he said.

He also said that as a measure to further encourage the B40 group to buy homes, the Selangor government would be enhancing the rent-to-own programme. – Bernama, October 15, 2019.