But the PPBM Supreme Council member said he was placing his trust in the “clever people” who are working with Lim and the relevant agencies.

“I will leave the clever people at Bank Negara and the Economic Planning Unit to figure this out. But I think if we solve the problem of low wages and income we will solve the housing problem,” Kadir said in a blog post today.

Kadir echoed concerns over the manner in which FundMyHome was launched.

“While it is customary for the government to accept proposals from the public, the manner the people-to-people funding was made public exposes the government to allegations of cronyism and nepotism,” Kadir said.

He is believed to be referring to a statement by tycoon Tong Kooi Ong, who said his company EdgeProp Sdn Bhd had presented its proposal for the “FundMyHome” scheme to Putrajaya so that it could be included in the budget.

Under the FundMyHome scheme, buyers pay 20% of the property price which will then be placed in a trust account to pay off the 5% annual investment return to the participating institutions for a five-year period.

The balance of 80% will be contributed by participating banks. There is no monthly repayment for the first five years, after which buyers either sell the home, buy out the remaining portion of the property not owned by them at market price, or refinance the home.

Property experts are sceptical of the scheme, and have questioned if it would benefit buyers.

Kadir, who said former finance minister Daim Zainuddin had also called those who drafted the budget “clever”, quoted a Singapore fund manager who warned that such a scheme could fail with people losing their money and the government being forced to bail them out.

“On the hot subject of housing, the real issue is affordability. Prices have skyrocketed but incomes have not. Profiteering makes the situation worse,” he said.

Saying he was from the old school who had yet to fully embrace digital banking, Kadir said: “These online banking, crowdfunding and cloud storage things still do not convince me.”

Kadir said while Lim could announce FundMyHome as a policy, he should have requested proposals “from as many parties as possible” to give the government more options to choose from.

“Of cause we want this project to succeed. But this is the first ever such financing scheme in the world and we cannot stop the people from wondering and asking questions,” he said.