Selangor Dredging hoping for property incentives in Budget

PETALING JAYA: Selangor Dredging Berhad (SDB) hopes that the government will introduce policies and incentives to further revive the local property sector, especially for first-time home buyers.

In a statement yesterday, the property developer’s managing director Teh Lip Kim said to encourage new home ownership and a robust property sector, the government should introduce a policy where a first-time home buyer will get higher margin financing and a longer loan tenure of 45 years to 50 years.

“The leaders of tomorrow are the younger generation who are expected to carry economic growth forward in forthcoming years.

“Since a number of them struggle to own their first home, we hope that the government would provide encouragement for them to realise this dream with the necessary policies and incentives, ” she said.

She also hoped that the government would extend the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) beyond 2019.

Under the campaign, first-time home buyers get stamp duty exemption on the memorandum of transfer and loan agreement for property purchases priced no more than RM300,000.

For purchases of between RM300,001 and RM500,000, a similar stamp duty waiver is applicable (limited to only the first RM300,000 of the house price), and applicable for sale and purchase agreements completed between Jan 1,2019 and Dec 31,2020.

“At SDB, we have encountered numerous cases whereby potential purchasers had paid their booking fees only to withdraw subsequently as their housing loans were not approved, ” Teh said.

According to the National Property Information Centre (Napic), the number of overhang residential properties as at the first half of 2019 has accumulated to 32,810 units.

These units are worth RM19.76bil.

Teh is hoping that the government will introduce cost-sharing mechanisms with the relevant service providers during the property development phase.

For instance, she said the cost of infrastructure – pipes or cables to connect to the utility service – are currently wholly borne by the property developer and can be hefty figures.

“As a developer, we are subject to pay various costs to local councils and various authorities and agencies. All these costs contribute to the development cost of the intended project; for example, the cost relating to utilities, which the developer has to contribute towards, ” she said.

Teh is hoping that the government would simplify the process of applying for bumiputra quota release, as the current process is taking a long time.

Source: TheStar