Gov’t Urged To Control House Prices

Pavither 26 Apr 2019

National House Buyers Association vice-president Brig Gen (R) Datuk Goh Seng Toh has called for the establishment of a price control mechanism to keep the escalation of residential property prices in check. 

With the government being able to control the prices of cooking oil, sugar, petrol and other things, Goh believes that a price control in the housing arena is feasible, reported The Sun Daily.

Read More: A Simple Guide To Inheriting Property In Malaysia 

Goh is seemingly puzzled with how the country has allowed “a laissez-faire situation to persist in the housing arena” when housing is more important compared to sugar and cooking oil.

“We’re practising certain limit and price control when we dictate the prices of affordable houses and low-cost houses so it’s a matter of extending that. Drastic measures need to be done before we end up with a homeless society,” he stated after a panel discussion on “Housing in Malaysia: Policy Discourse” organised by Khazanah Research Institute (KRI).

Data from KRI’s latest report showed that housing affordability worsened significantly from 2012 to 2014 due to supply not catering to demand.

Within this period, the median multiple affordability rose from four to 5.1 percent, while the median house price climbed at a compound annual growth rate of 23.5 percent from RM175,000 to RM280,000.

With this, Malaysia’s housing market is categorised as “severely unaffordable” and “seriously unaffordable”, as it exceeded the 3.0 limit for housing affordability.

Commenting on the issue, National Housing Department director-general Jayaselan K. Navaratnam revealed that its ministry has never thought of imposing a price control over house prices, as it is considered an open market with fair trade.

But while he believes that any form of price control will affect the economy and deter investments, he noted that all states have their own “price control” schemes in place.

“It’s not to bring down the price but to manage the price,” Jayaselan said, while pointing to Malacca, which has set suitable prices for homes.

KRI chairman Dr Nungsari Ahmad Radhi was also against the idea of price control as it could bring about a floor price and eventually lead to developers not offering anything that is below the floor price.

Image source from The Sun 

 

Let us help you determine your eligibility and how much the banks will loan you using our ‘Home Loan Pre-Approval’, with a 99.9% accuracy! Click here.

POST COMMENT

You may also like these articles

Government at Fault for Rising House Prices? Taxes on Rakyat and Developers Root of Unaffordable Housing

  Malaysia’s Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association (REHDA) insists that they are not the only ones at fault for the country’s expensive homes.According to REHDA President Fateh Iskandar

Continue Reading26 Oct 2017

Make House Prices Affordable to Local Buyers

 To resolve the supply and demand mismatch, house prices in Malaysia needs to be tweaked to make them affordable for average wage earners, said Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) director of resea

Continue Reading31 Jan 2019