By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, May 25: A total of 318 applicants have benefitted from the Sarawak government’s Housing Deposit Assistance Scheme (HDAS) which offers RM10,000 as upfront deposit payment to homebuyers.
Public Health, Housing and Local Government Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian said HDAS has been Sarawak government’s 2021 initiative to overcome and spur the housing and real estate activities.
This initiative he said, provides cash assistance to the eligible applicant by giving a grant of up to RM10,000 for the house upfront deposit payment.
“Under the 2022 Sarawak Budget, an allocation of RM10 million has been approved through my Ministry for Mutiara (Mutiara Mortgage and Credit Sdn Bhd) to implement this initiative and is targeted to benefit about 1,200 first time home buyers in Sarawak.
“To date, 15 private developers have registered and have taken part in the HDAS initiative.
“As at April 30, 2022, Mutiara has approved 318 applications amounting to RM2.3 million,” said Dr Sim while delivering his winding up speech at the Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting here today.
He reported that out of the 318 applicants, 236 applicants are HDC (Housing Development Corporation) homebuyers with total grant value amounting to RM1.49 million and 82 applicants are private developer homebuyers where the total grant value was RM810,962.
Meanwhile, RM8 million has also been allocated to Muatiara by the Sarawak government to provide loan assistance for homebuyers from the the low-income groups (B40) and middle-income groups (M40) to provide loan assistance in house purchasing.
As of today, Dr Sim who is also Batu Kawah assemblyman (GPS-SUPP) said Mutiara has approved a total of RM68.5 million involving 1,259 house buyers and has disbursed RM38.3 million to 887 successful applicants.
He said the interest was charged at one per cent for B40 group (monthly income of below RM4,395) and three per cent for M40 group (monthly income of below RM9,730).
“As of April 30, 2022, Mutiara’s collection report recorded zero arrears from the borrowers,” said Dr Sim. — DayakDaily
