Reducing the time needed to secure building approvals will help to lower developers' holding costs and allow them to pass savings on to home buyers, said the Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association (Rehda) Malaysia.
Its president, Datuk NK Tong, praised the initiative of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to speed up the process of local authorities granting development approvals.
"Developers can then plan how much a project will cost once there is a key performing indicator (KPI) that local authorities need to benchmark against," he told Bernama.
Tong acknowledged that there will still be difficulties because the land is a state concern and each local body has its schedule for providing approvals.
He emphasised the significance of all states supporting the federal government's strategy.
"We want to have proper approvals, no shortcuts, just expedite it. We believe something can be done just like how we expedited our passport application process without compromising on the security features. Not only do we want approval time to be reduced, but we also want the government to be consistent on this matter," said Tong.
Anwar, who is also the Finance Minister, has said that the government is aware that shortening the time to grant development approvals will help ease some of the difficulties that real estate developers currently face.