KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will be seen as a deserted land if the issue of unsold surplus houses and properties now estimated to reach almost RM100 billion is not promptly addressed, said Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin.
Zuraida said the government has been carrying out various measures to overcome the problem including the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) and as a result, 21,000 units of houses valued at RM13.4 billion were sold in the first six months of this year.
“I was horrified to hear almost RM100 billion of houses were not sold, if these houses are without occupants, Malaysia will look like a deserted country.
“As such, we embarked on the campaign (HOC)…and we will be extending it to the end of the year, and if there is demand, we will continue in 2020. This is an effort to help the sales of expensive houses and clear the units of stock overhang,” she said during question time at Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
She was replying to a supplementary question by Steven Choong Shiau Yoon (PH-Tebrau) who asked on the effects of surplus of luxury houses to the economy if the problem is not addressed.
Zuraida also said that big data analytics of developing countries gives a more precise and integrated projection based on prices of luxury house nationwide.
According to her, the data system will be developed jointly with the National Housing Department and the state governments.
“At the moment, there are different state policies, some have 30 per cent low-cost houses in commercial projects while other states have up to 50 percent but there are no overall statistics in terms of luxury and low cost house prices.
“So the ministry hopes the projection (big data analytics) would be more accurate in future to overcome the problem of surplus luxury houses,” she was replying to a question by Tan Sri Annuar Musa (BN-Ketereh) on the targets placed by government in luxury home ownership by foreigners in the country.
Zuraida also said the sales of expensive houses to foreign buyers is subjected to the state government and the price threshold is different in each state.
She said for Selangor, Terengganu, Johor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, it is RM2 million while in Kelantan and Perak, it is RM1 million. – Bernama
