Property Hunter Magazine Property Hunter Magazine Issue 54 - May 2014 | Page 35

Developers in Sabah building affordable homes old one as it is makes it easier for first time home buyers and the young generation to afford purchasing their own home. Previously the subsidy given to a low-cost unit was worth RM70,000, which is more than double the amount but it did not solve the root cause of the problem, which is people having a hard time paying a bigger lump sum up front for the deposit. He explained: “From a survey by SHAREDA, the main reasons why people are not able to buy or own a house are because of the inability to provide a 10% deposit and inability to secure a home loan from the bank.” SHAREDA also urged the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to instruct Bank Negara to set a quota for all 3,000 bank branches to approved housing loans for one million buyers. “The banks should perform their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by approving housing loans for one million buyers or 335 loans per bank. Thus, every bank should fulfill the quota of 335 loans for MyHome buyers at an interest rate of 4.5%,” he added. Currently, Bank Negara is applying a stringent ruling on loan procedures for instance adopting ‘net loan value’ and ‘net income’. The subsidy given is RM30,000 for one low-cost house with the selling price of RM70,000. The bank will assume that the house is on sale for RM40,000 and the buyer will still need to pay the deposit of RM4,000 or 10%. The meeting also highlighted the formation of HAREDA Berhad, a purpose vehicle (SPV) with a primary objective to facilitate members of SHAREDA to collectively construct affordable housing in Sabah and to help rehabilitate or revive any property development. explore, to invest and to develop more affordable housing and this is a part of SHAREDA’s CSR for the government and the rakyat. It is very hard for us to force or point a gun at any company to tell them to build houses but not to sell them at a high cost or to tell them to discard profit and do some charity. I don’t think anybody will do that, so we place them all under this umbrella. Goh said, “The formation of SHAREDA Bhd is actually to He added: “This company will also act as a special vehicle in case any member project faces financial difficulties or crisis to cause them to abandon the project. This body will assist them by injecting money from SHAREDA. And in return we will get something like probably unsold units which will be charged to SHAREDA as a security.” Buyers from Sabah can log on to www.shareda.com to view the complete list of projects that this scheme is applicable to. www.PropertyHunter.com.my 35