KUCHING, Nov 2: Special Officer to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government for Sarawak Voon Shiak Ni said the 2019 Budget by Pakatan Harapan (PH) government was thoughtful and people-friendly.
“Now, there are more avenues to help the people to own their first home. For the past five to 10 years, owning a home seemed impossible, especially those from low to middle income gap because houses were getting ridiculously expensive,” Voon said in a statement today.
With the recent tightening regulations imposed by Bank Negara in securing loans, Voon lamented that owning a house had become impossible for those between 30 to 35 years old.
“Thus, I am glad to see that efforts were put in PH budget to open up more avenues and financial assistance to enable more people to own their first home,” she said.
The PH budget is allocating RM668 million for Program Perumahan Rakyat to help the lower income group own a home.
Bank Negara has allocated a fund of RM1 billion to fund some housing loans for those earning not more than RM2,300 per month to buy a house priced up to RM150,000.
The 2019 budget has also approved alternative sources of financing such as property crowdfunding which can assist first-time home buyers to acquire their first house.
The reduction and waiving of stamp duty for the first RM300,000 for first time home buyers for houses priced between RM300,000 to RM500,000 and also the waiving of stamp duty for unsold properties priced below RM1 million are additional measures to help to reduce the costs of purchasing a house.
In addition, she said PH government had also relaxed the period for the loan repayment by civil servants to another five years .
“It is good that some new measures are introduced by the new PH government to open up more avenues for people to seek financial assistance to own their first home. An example, developers to reduce the price of houses by at least 10 percent starting next year.
“Among other things, it is also good to see that more funds are being allocated for the education sector and focus is given to the upgrading of schools and repair of dilapidated schools which is also one of the area that we expect the PH govt to address,” she added. — DayakDaily
