KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 4): More measures need to be taken to make houses more affordable, including strengthening the people’s finances, especially those within the middle-income group, said Asia’s global real estate technology group, Juwai IQI.
Co-founder and group chief executive officer, Kashif Ansari said housing affordability is a priority as it is pivotal in fostering economic stability and prosperity for the people, and hopes that Budget 2024 will help more families to own their own homes.
“When a family is insecure in their home, they experience all kinds of other negative impacts, from loss of incomes to worse educational outcomes for their children,” he said in a statement on the upcoming Budget 2024.
The budget is scheduled to be tabled in the Parliament on Oct 13.
Kashif said that to have stable finances, families need reliable incomes, low expenditure, the ability to save for the future and security in their home.
“Affordable homeownership helps to achieve three out of four of these goals, as it reduces and stabilises monthly expenses, provides a vehicle for accumulating savings, and guarantees a good roof over your head,” he said.
He said the government could also take a more targeted approach by providing grants for home buyers, subsidising interest rates for the lower and middle-income groups and reducing taxes and stamp duties when buying or taking out a mortgage.
“The government can reinstate the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC), as the last numbers indicated that HOC helped families save RM15.8 billion over what they would otherwise have paid in purchasing 117,538 homes.
“Total HOC sales added up to RM92.5 billion as of July 2022. By any measure, HOC has been a success and helped over 100,000 families set themselves on the path to financial independence,” said Kashif.
He also emphasised the need to reduce construction costs, citing data from the Building Cost Information Services Malaysia which stated that Portland cement costs rose 50 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in September, ready-mixed concrete costs increased by 23 per cent y-o-y, and the cost of sand is up 18 per cent y-o-y.
“When prices rise quickly on the materials fundamental to every construction budget, it leads to more costly new homes.
“The government has tools to reduce these input costs. Many materials are either imported or rely on imported ingredients or components, thus, by reducing import levies, Budget 2024 can make housing more affordable,” he said.
Kashif said that Budget 2024 can do many things to help more families achieve financial independence.
“We support these measures and look forward to a wealthier future for all Malaysians,” he added.
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Source: EdgeProp.my
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