In a bid to address the lack of down payment issue faced by most home buyers, Maybank Islamic launched its own rent-to-own (RTO) scheme, which will be open to the public in Q1 2018.
Dubbed HouzKEY, the scheme will feature housing projects within the Klang Valley of five property developers – Mah Sing, Gamuda, Sime Darby, EcoWorld and SP Setia – for its pilot launch.
“We intend to progressively expand our offering to include properties in other locations throughout Malaysia as well as include more developers over the coming months to give Malaysians an even wider choice of homes to invest in,” said Maybank Islamic CEO Datuk Mohamed Rafique Merican.
Based on the Syariah principle of Ijarah, the RTO scheme involves leasing, which includes the option to acquire the property after servicing rent for 12 months.
To qualify, applicants must have a household income of at least RM5,000 while committing to a five-year minimum rental tenure. They will be subject to a flat rental rate for the first five years.
They can also acquire the property at a locked in rate, terminate agreement with no further obligations or continue rental tenure with two percent annual rental step up.
Conducted fully on a digital platform, the scheme allows applicants to pick the property of their choice on Maybank2own.com, with the bank giving the decision within a day.
Thereafter, customers will have to pay the three months’ rental deposit within a one-week period.
“HouzKEY is a milestone achieved by Maybank Islamic, and we believe it will help address a growing concern in Malaysia for affordable homeownership,” said Rafique.
“We are constantly looking at introducing products that offer a better value proposition to our customers. HouzKEY promotes financial inclusion by offering an alternative path to homeownership. We take pride that it is the first such product in the market.”
Maybank Islamic expects the scheme to have a portfolio size of at least RM1 billion during its first year of launch.
Image sourced from The Sun.
This article was edited by the editorial team of PropertyGuru. To contact them about this or other stories email editorialteam@propertyguru.com.my
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