State Housing Development committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said the proposal was good as it would help reduce the financial burden of house buyers.
“It is our hope that this proposal will prioritise first-time homebuyers, as well as prospective first-time purchasers, instead of millionaires,” he told reporters today.
Jagdeep was asked to comment on a proposal by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi for a lower mortgage interest rate.
Jagdeep, however, said the federal government should have invited state housing executive councillors from each state for any national meeting on housing issues to enable the states to raise issues in the meeting.
He said Penang was still facing problems of high loan rejection rates, but noted that this was not unique to the northern state.
Jagdeep said the National Housing Council would stand to benefit from suggestions made by the different states, which would come in handy in formulating new housing policies.
“This policy affects the housing sector in every state, so it is pertinent to get their views,” he said.
Jagdeep said a joint memorandum by the Penang government and state opposition leaders had been submitted to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) on the high loan rejection rates, but there had been no response even after a year.
He added that the problem of high loan rejection rates posed a hindrance to many trying to purchase their first homes.
He was, however, confident that the housing industry in Penang is on the rise.
“We have seen a very healthy market where property transactions are concerned, whereby year-on-year for residential transactions, Q3 2016 saw transactions at a value of RM1,345.11 million as opposed to RM1,493.37 million for Q3 2017,” he said, adding that this was an 11% increase.
During a recent high-level committee meeting on housing, Zahid said Putrajaya would submit a proposal to the central bank for a lower mortgage interest rate, in a bid to reduce the overall financial burden of Malaysian homeowners.
He said the proposal would be part of the National Housing Policy 2.0, which would also include a review of the freeze on property development projects worth RM1 million and above that came into effect last November.
His announcement was made on the same day that BNM raised the overnight policy rate (OPR) by 25 basis points to 3.25% during its Monetary Policy Committee meeting. This was the first increase since July 2014.
Earlier today, Jagdeep visited the construction site of the state’s affordable housing project, The Rise, on Jalan SP Chelliah, in the state’s first spot check for the year on the progress of the construction.
The Rise is one of 18 planned projects by the state government, and is now about 65% complete.
“Out of the 18 planned projects by the state government for various types of affordable housing, six have already begun and are at various stages of development.
“Among the six projects, one has been physically completed, namely Suria at Bandar Cassia in Batu Kawan, with 520 units of affordable housing, ranging from RM72,500 to RM220,000, having been completed at the end of last year, and we are now pushing for the CCC (Certificate of Completion and Compliance) to be issued,” he said.
Apart from The Rise (2,093 units), two other projects, namely Jiran Residensi in Kampung Jawa, Butterworth (707 units) and Dua Residensi in Teluk Kumbar (694 units), are 90% and 60% completed respectively.
Two other projects were recently launched by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng: Sandilands Foreshore in George Town (803 units) in September, and the Ladang Byram project (76 units), which was launched on Jan 21.