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Developers in Sabah recognised for building affordable homes at SHAREDA Nite 2013, presented and witness by Minister of Local Government and Housing, Datuk Seri
Hajiji Haji Noor accompanied by SHAREDA President, Mr Francis Goh and SHAREDA Vice President cum SHAREDA Nite Organising Chairperson, Dato’ John Chee
commercial banks as well as Bank
Islam in the country to provide
loans to all first time house buyers.
All this while, housing developers
in Malaysia had been helping the
government by complying with
the quota of building low cost and
medium cost houses.
Shareda believed that the
government’s promise of building
one million affordable homes would
not be fulfilled if the developers
and government agencies could not
market their products because the
buyers failed to secure loan from
the banks.
At the same time, the commercial
banks only collected profits
from the housing developments
without doing any corporate social
responsibility and give incentive or
facility to the needy to own homes,
Goh said.
SHAREDA agrees with the National
Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Malaysia for the setting up of a
housing bank in order to ease the
burden of low-income earners. Out
of 50,000 low-cost houses that had
been completed only 7,000 were
sold.
About 50% of the bank’s profits
depended on housing transactions
including bridging loan. With more
than 3,000 branches of commercial
banks in Malaysia, each bank should
be given a quota of approving
housing loans for 335 units each in
order to achieve the government’s
target of one million home
purchasers.
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Meanwhile, Goh said SHAREDA also
objected to the proposed Property
Investor’s Club in Malaysia because
it would hurt the market and
prevent genuine property buyers
from making a purchase. SHAREDAa
felt that the Registrar of Societies
(RoS) should not allow the club to
conduct its activities of p rospect
buying which as a result might see
them gaining higher profit than the
developers.
SHAREDA to Continue Effort
An umbrella company will also be
set up by Sabah Housing and Real
Estate Developers Association
(SHAREDA) to group all its members
in a coordinated and continuous
effort to provide cheap, affordable
houses to the poor in the state.
The company, to be known as
Shareda Bhd, will serve as a special
purpose vehicle (SPV), whose
primary objective is to facilitate
members of the association to
collectively construct affordable
houses.
The umbrella company will be
funded by SHAREDA members
either in cash or in land, and
who would develop affordable
housing projects by way of pooling
resources. The SPV will help explore
the opportunities for SHAREDA
members to carry out affordable
housing projects with less monetary
aims.
SHAREDA aims to raise a start-up
capital of between RM18 million to
RM30 million for the company which
would pay back to contributing
members in the form of share
dividends. More than 2,000 units of
affordable homes were expected
to be launched this year as part of
SHAREDA’s commitment to build
10,000 units of affordable homes in
the state.