The Malay Economic Action Council (MTEM) said the money collected can go towards developing affordable housing.

“We prefer the Johor model, where developers are forced to pay a certain fee to buy themselves out of the quota, so that at the very least, it would benefit the people,” MTEM CEO Ahmad Yazid Othman told FMT.

He said in 2017, Johor collected around RM600 million from developers for the conversion of Bumiputera-status lots. The funds were used to build more than 6,000 affordable homes in the state.

“This is how you resolve a situation that seemingly supports a particular community. You can leverage on it to support everyone,” he said.

“I think this should be the standard way to resolve this problem.”

Yazid disagrees that the policy is to blame for the majority of unsold houses.

He said statistics by the National Property Information Centre (Napic) showed that 75.5% of the unsold lots were non-Bumiputera lots.

“How is it possible then, that the Bumiputera housing quota is responsible for pushing up property prices?” Yazid asked. “Clearly the math doesn’t add up.”

He said Bumiputeras still have one of the lowest property and asset ownership rates.

“We understand the concerns and the need to support the developers in resolving some of their pain, but we cannot do it at the expense of the social objectives of the policy.”

Meanwhile, Bumiputera property group Hartabumi also supported keeping the policy, but said the mechanism could be tweaked.

“All the stakeholders in the property industry need to realise that at the end of the day, there must be a mechanism, a comprehensive solution to uplift and increase home ownership rates among Bumiputeras,” said Hartabumi CEO Radzi Tajuddin.

“You must have discussions, and you also must sacrifice certain things,” he added.