KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah housing industry is hoping that the national 2022 Budget will provide more measures and incentives to curb the rising cost of doing business and to endure the post-pandemic economic recovery period.
The Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (Shareda) said the private sector needs alternative short terms solutions to survive after a challenging two-year period badly impeded by the Covid-19 pandemic.
As the government gears up to reopen the various business sectors, Shareda has outlined several proposals for the authorities to consider reviving the economy.
Its president, Datuk Chua Soon Ping among others hopes the government extends the incentive of homeownership campaign (HoC) stamp duty to another six months till June, 30 next year for residential property prices between RM300,000 to RM2.5 million.
He said during the HoC extension from Jun 1 to Dec 31, this year most states in Malaysia were still in Movement Control Order (MCO) phases, thus potential homebuyers only had limited time to view the show units.
Shareda urges the government to continue the allocation of RM300 million to build 10,000 units of affordable homes which have been ongoing since 2014.
"This will encourage the participation of the private sector to build more affordable homes under MyHome scheme, which offers incentive up to RM30,000 per unit for first-time homebuyers and private housing developers," said Chua.
Shareda also proposed that the government extend the MCO and national recovery plan phases to Mar 2022 nationwide. This is to protect the interests of affected parties for their inability to meet the contractual obligations due to the pandemic, he said.
Due to the sluggish property market, Shareda also proposed to the government to review the real property gains tax (RPGT) introduced under the PENJANA 2020 that exempt Malaysians from paying the five per cent RPGT for the disposal of residential property from Jun 1, 2020, till Dec 31, 2021.
"Shareda proposed to the government to review the RPGT rates to zero imposition on transfer or disposal of properties from the sixth year onwards or downward revision of RPGT rate," said Chua.
Hence, there will be savings and financial relief to help the B40 and M40 home buyers to own a home, especially under the affordable housing scheme, he said.
To relax the bank's stringent lending policy, Shareda also proposed to the government to provide incentives to help improve the approval rates for B40 and M40 applicants, especially first-time homebuyer.
Also, the government should consider certain alternative measures or proof of income to supersede outdated stringent standards set for the local house buyer to obtain end financing, he said.
To attract niche foreign investors to participate in the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) campaign, Shareda proposed to reduce the threshold price from RM1 million to RM600,000 per unit of residential property for highrise development and commercial suites in Sabah.
He said the sale of the local stock to foreigners will help to stimulate the economy and its related downstream business.
In the meantime, it proposed to the government to allow eligible and fully vaccinated foreign investors to enter Malaysia with strict standard operating procedures imposed