Its president Chew Shang Hai said some initiatives in the 2020 Budget would only benefit developers in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor, but not in Sabah.

He cited as an example the decision to lower the threshold of properties for foreign buyers from RM1 million to RM600,000.

“This is not likely to benefit developers in Sabah because international investors will only buy properties from the first tier-market like in Kuala Lumpur and Penang. They won’t invest in a second-tier market like Sabah,” he said at the launch of the Sabah Property Expo 2019 at the Likas Trade Centre here today.

Chew said regulators needed to improve the perks on property investment in Sabah, such as introducing a special Sabah My Second Home programme.

“This concept leverages on Sabah’s autonomy and immigration matters. The government can also lower the property threshold to RM500,000.

“This will improve Sabah’s competitiveness to attract foreign property buyers,” he said.

He said another initiative left out of the budget for Sabah developers was Rent-to-Own scheme funding.

“Sabah developers require special consideration. Rent-to-own schemes require capital beyond their resources.

“At present, RTO financing schemes are restricted to public-listed developers in the Klang Valley,” he said.

Chew appealed to the Sabah government to act as a conduit to the federal regulators to allow Sabah developers to access the scheme’s financing programme.

By doing so, he said Sabah developers would be able to build homes for first-time buyers who were unable to obtain conventional housing loans.

Earlier, Chew said property prices in Sabah were considered the highest in the country because of development costs, which were about 20% more than those in Peninsular Malaysia.

He said this was because 95% of the building materials needed for construction in the state were imported.