KUCHING, Sept 30: Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers’ Association (Sheda) president Augustine Wong Chung Ho is urging for the extension of all Cagamas (National Mortgage Corporation of Malaysia) initiatives to include properties in Sarawak.
This is one of Sheda’s appeals to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) as Augustine noticed seemingly an unequal treatment by commercial banks to Sarawakians where some initiatives are not open to Sarawakians despite being national.
“In 2020, Sarawak recorded only about 4 per cent of the approved residential transaction total for Malaysia, while our impairment rate is only at 0.5 per cent showing that Sarawakians are generally better paymasters.
“However, it was noted that certain rent-to-own (RTO) schemes such as HouzKEY and others offered by commercial banks in West Malaysia are not extended to purchasers in Sarawak although there were requests made to the respective banks by local property developers,” he said.
Augustine urged BNM to take Sheda’s appeals seriously to review some of the policies such as setting a minimum quota for housing loan approvals and business financing for Sarawak as the Covid-19 pandemic persists.
While BNM cannot dictate what commercial banks should do, it is equally important that BNM looks at the macro policy so that a more balanced financing could be allocated to Sarawak economic activities especially those negatively impacted bythe Covid-19 pandemic, he stressed.
“Sheda has sent a formal letter of request to Bank Negara’s Sarawak representative for its onward transmission to federal policy makers.
“Sheda believes that its involvement would set a clearer vision for policy makers when it comes to financing related to Sarawak housing industry,” said Augustine in a statement yesterday (Sept 29).
On Sept 24, there was a discussion between Sheda and BNM Sarawak to talk about issues related to project financing, end financing banking guidelines and general banking issues affecting house buyers and property developers. — DayakDaily
