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House Financing Must Be Given Serious Attention In Budget 2017

Last update: 12/10/2016

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 (Bernama) -- Property portal, PropertyGuru, is suggesting that more attention be given, in the 2017 Budget, to access to housing loans following the increase in the supply of affordable houses.



The portal, in a statement, said with Malaysia's property market experiencing a serious downturn, action needed to be taken to instil consumer confidence and to revive the local real estate sector.



A recent customer sentiment survey conducted by PropertyGuru showed that loan rejections remained one of the top reasons for low transaction volume.



This has been further corroborated by data from other sources showing loans growth in Malaysia reached its lowest in the past decade.



Quoting data released by the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association, the portal said only 39 per cent of 7,172 new houses launched in first half of 2016 were sold compared with 52 per cent out of 9,938 units available in second the half of 2015.



Propertyguru Country Manager Sheldon Fernandez said it was better for banks to provide housing loans rather than property developers which could use their funds for other purposes such as developing their land banks and housing projects.



The Gen-Y demographic need loans to buy houses and our statistics show that 84 per cent of buyers take loans to finance their house purchase; 47 per cent opt for 90 per cent loans, while 25 per cent opt for between 70 and 80 per cent financing, he added.



-- BERNAMA