The government seems to have teamed up with public limited company Prosma Bhd and Sekretariat Komuniti Prefer Malaysia (SKPM) to undertake a rent-to-own (RTO) scheme for households earning at least RM5,000 per month, reported The Sun Daily.
Although the Ministry of Finance as well as the Domestic Trade Ministry have not yet responded to questions regarding the particulars of the collaboration with both entities, SKPM has been appointed to oversee 50,000 houses under the RTO scheme.
SKPM also owns the scheme, while Prosma is the holding company responsible for acquiring properties.
Based on the records of Companies Commission Malaysia (SSM), Prosma was created in August 2016, with its Managing Director Ros Aida Abdullah and Roslizawati Abdullah holding a majority stake.
Zamri Abdullah is the Chief Executive of Prosma and Chief Secretariat of SKPM, while ex-civil servant Datuk Paduka Ab Malek Ranting serves as the Chairman of SKPM.
Prosma and SKPM launched the RTO scheme in 2015 and began interviewing the first batch of applicants in 2016. Since then, they have approved 3,000 applicants, but they still need to screen about 71,000 other applicants.
According Prosma CEO Zamri, they had earmarked RM500 million to RM1 billion this year to purchase houses for the RTO scheme.
“This is a private initiative. We get funding from the bank and the funding is backed by the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry, from whom we have already obtained consent of RM200,000 per house for up to 50,000 units.”
He noted that the initiative is intended for families with a household income of at least RM5,000 per month. These homes have a minimum size of 900 sq ft, costing between RM300,000 and RM500,000 depending on its location.
Besides the address, the rental prices of the RTO units depend on the cost of the home. For instance, a flat at Manjong in Perak worth RM200,000 will be leased for RM700 to RM800 per month.
“We are about to sign contracts with the first batch of successful applicants this month and by end of 2017 we expect to deliver at least 240 units in Perak and 133 units in Penang.”
Zamri explained that qualified applicants only need to fork out a down payment of 10 percent. The prospective tenants have the option of paying in cash, use their Employees Provident Fund (EPF), or pay in installments during construction.
Furthermore, the applicants don’t need to get any housing loans, as Prosma will handle this matter. After paying rent for 30 years, the tenant will eventually own the unit, and the rental money gathered will be used to pay the bank.
“Applicants only need to pay rent, which includes maintenance fee and quit rent. If they have extra funds, they can ‘redeem’ the unit earlier, after 10 or 15 years, instead of the full 30-year period,” he added.
Image sourced from Malay Mail
Radin Ghazali, Content Writer at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email radin@propertyguru.com.my
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