MOST developers want Putrajaya to help homebuyers by extending the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) programme to December 2021, said Soam Heng Choon.

The Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda) president said some 90% of developers who participated in the HOC said they had garnered sales through the programme throughout the second half of 2020. 

He said this was based on Rehda’s industry survey among 134 respondents. 

Soam said the survey also found 87% of respondents agreed that HOC was effective in helping them clear stocks. 

“We are hoping this HOC will be extended till the end of this year, it will definitely help the property industry,” said Soam during a press conference today.

The HOC 2020 -2021 was announced by the government in June last year under the National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana) to spur the property sector.

Under the initiative, successful applicants can enjoy 100% stamp duty exemption for the instrument of transfer for any residential home purchase up to a value of RM1 million, and for properties worth more than RM1 million and up to RM2.5 million, a 3% stamp duty needs to be paid for the instrument of transfer. 

The HOC programme is slated to end in May. 

From June 2020 to February 2021, the programme successfully completed the sales of RM25.65 billion in Malaysia.

Of the RM25.6 billion sales, 22% (RM5.54 billion) were completed properties, and 78% (RM20.11 billion) were properties under construction.

In terms of units, 34,354 houses were sold, 18% (6,309) were completed properties and 82% (28,045) are houses under construction. 

“We lost the first two months in 2021 due to the movement-control order (MCO). Sales were picking up in the third and fourth quarter in 2020, but sales galleries were quiet in January and February,” he said. 

He added that Rehda anticipated demand for property to pick up again in the next two months. 

The availability of vaccines and more economic sectors opening up helps with the home-buying sentiment, Soam said.  

“We have seen a surge and a pent-up demand in retail sectors. We complained the crowd is not complying with the standard operating procedure.  

“Currently, we still have interstate travel restrictions. If recovery MCO states want to come to KL to buy a property now, they cannot.”  

In line with that, he believes the opening of borders will further help the property industry. 

“There is always a necessity for the government to pump into the economy.  

“Helping the property industry indirectly helps the construction industry, which indirectly helps other industries,” he said, adding that the effect spills over to close to 200 industries. 

This includes the manufacturing industry for cement supplies, the IT sector under services industry as property agents flocked to online platforms, as well as the media and advertising industry.  

The two other top requests from developers are that the government allow regulated Interest Bearing Scheme for homebuyers and for 90% loan margin for the third home purchase, Soam said.  

“The first, developers think it will help because homebuyers will not need to pay their current rental and at the same time pay for interest when the drawdown already happened from the bank.”  

For the latter, Soam said it is already being done. – March 30, 2021.