KUCHING: Poor demand has forced housing developer Prima to sell its properties at a loss.
Prima is offering a discount of 28 per cent from their original price to cut further loses, revealed Batu Kitang assemblyman Lo Khere Chiang.
“It is completely irresponsible and presumptuous of (DAP) Chong (Chieng Jen) to accuse SUPP leaders of cheating people into buying houses in the Prima housing matter,” said the SUPP assistant publicity and information secretary.
Lo, who is also Batu Kitang assemblyman and Padawan Municipal Council (PMC) chairman, said, “Low demand for properties owing to poor domestic consumption has forced developers to lower prices and sell at a loss to cut further losses”.
He urged Chong, who is also state DAP chairman, to check his facts before simply hurling accusations at SUPP.
According to Lo, Chong’s statement was trying to mislead the public into thinking that the previous government under Prima was making handsome profits.
“I too, welcome this reduction of 28 per cent by Prima Housing because the discount comes from Prima, a federal entity while the buyers who benefit from this discount are all Sarawakians,” Lo added.
Lo said fact of the case is that the economy has gone down after GE14, adding, “According to Bloomberg, Malaysia’s stock market is Asia’s only loser of 2019”.
He said that normally, inflation takes place in a stable, robust and a growing economy. Prices of goods and services inflate due to growing demand for the same.
“Today we see the development of an unwelcome economic scenario; deflation. This is the first time in many years that we have seen deflation in the market taking place.
“Prices of raw materials are still going up even as the ringgit weakens. The ringgit fell due to uncertainty of the new PH govt. The new government has given investors the jitters. So when more ringgit moves out of Malaysia, demand for ringgit drops and the currency depreciates,” he said.
Lo further added that the PH government has made things worse as it has refused to fulfill or has delayed election promises.
He attributed “U-turns” and unfulfilled election promises to investors shying away from Malaysia. Therefore, the ringgit is not strengthening even though oil prices are now on the uptrend.
“Malaysia has spent billions bailing out companies like MAS according to news reports from reputable sources like Malaymail, Bloomberg and Asiaweek.
“The Wall Street journal reportedly alleged that the Perjawa steel bailout was perhaps one of the biggest bailouts in the 1990s. And all these bailouts were done with money from Petronas – 30 per cent of Malaysia’s oil revenue from Sarawak.
“Sadly, today, the new PH government is still bailing out MAS. How many times do we need to bail out MAS? Shouldn’t we just sell off MAS to the private sector and allow the private sector to run MAS efficiently so as to make a profit?
“If not for the 30 per cent oil revenue siphoned from Sarawak to benefit Malaya, our lack of competitive edge would have brought the ringgit even further down,” he added.
Lo said as reported by Bloomberg, an overall lack of confidence had seen international investors pulling out from the Malaysian markets.
Ever since GE14, with the introduction of SST and the withdrawal of GST, public confidence appeared to have gone down and investments may have flowed out from the country and that was the most likely reason for the downward trend of our property markets, he added.
