By Bosco Wong
Francis (right) stressing a point at the talk while Chew (left) smiles in approval.
KOTA KINABALU: The Jabatan Perumahan Negara (JPN) has been urged to build more ‘lease-and-own’ affordable home scheme in Sabah, to cater for those earning below RM2000 per month.
The Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (Shareda) president Francis Goh in making the call said based on their property survey the demand for such scheme is very high particularly from the low income group.
The low income group cannot get a bank loan to buy a house because of their low income so we hope the JPN can help by increasing the scheme such as the People Friendly Housing project in Sabah to enable them to rent for RM125 per month and after 30 years they are given the priority to buy the unit, he said.
Francis was speaking at the ‘Shareda Afternoon Talk: What the Captains Say…Impact of Budget 2014 Towards Sabah ’s Real Estate Industry’ held at Wisma Kinsabina on Friday.
On the impact of good service tax (GST) towards the property market in Sabah , he said whether we like it or not it will indirectly increase the selling price of the property in future.
“We can see the market will be slow down because of the uncertainty for the bank policy in granting loan for house buyers for example, you can only borrow 70 per cent of the loan to buy a third house.
“Although the demand is still there but the market will be dampened because not many people will get a loan,” said Francis.
And there will be huge supply of affordable home in future particularly in the Sabah market and we foresee that in five years to come, about 50,000 units of affordable homes will be built and this demand is market driven, he said.
On the impact of GST to the property market in Sabah, he said in the context of real property gain tax (RPGT), it does not affect much because only less than 1 per cent of foreigners are buying houses in Sabah .
“But how the GST is being implemented will create an impact because we are concern that 6 per cent will be imposed to the commercial real estate,” said Francis.
“So how the payment will be made is not clear to us yet whether like the stamp duty where it is included when the sales and purchase agreement are signed or can be absorbed into the selling price which is included in the bank loan and we are still waiting for the guideline from the relevant authorities,” he said.
Francis also lambasted some property analysis especially those from Peninsular Malaysia for commenting that the prices of properties in Sabah are expensive.
“In fact they only analyzed several projects located in the unique site or prime city land especially those at the sea front such as Harbour City , KK Waterfront and others.
“So obviously the price is high because the land is unique and the selling price is from RM700 to RM850 per sq ft which is still lacking behind Penang and Kuala Lumpur if compared,” stated Francis.
“I think it is unfair to say our properties are expensive because on average most of Shareda members are selling at an average of RM300-RM400 sq ft particularly for their projects outside of Kota Kinabalu area,” he said.
“We also need to understand that the cost of building materials in Sabah is 30 per cent higher than the peninsula,” he said.
For instance, he said the iron steel is selling at RM1,800 per tons in peninsula compared to Sabah it is RM2,250 per ton whilst a 50kg of cement is RM18.50 in Sabah and RM15 in peninsula.
Meanwhile, Shareda organised the talk with the objective to provide a better understanding on the latest announcement of Budget 2014, in particularly towards the real estate industry in Sabah.
It is also to highlight the forthcoming GST and RPGT, and also to propose the formulation of strategies with relevant stakeholders to cushion the budget implementation.
The talk were presented by Crowe Horwarth senior manager Dennis Wong, Shareda deputy president Chew Sang Hai, Taylor Hobbs principal consultant Liaw Lam Thye, RHB Bank representative Liew Kui Choi and Ronnie Ang as moderator.