The Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (REHDA) has called on the government to enlarge its First Home Financing Scheme (MyDeposit) allocation from RM200 million currently.
President Datuk Seri FD Iskandar said it was to ensure more first-time house buyers benefitted from the scheme which offered financial assistance between RM3,000 and RM30,000 or 10% of the house’s price to eligible applicants.
“The downpayment of 10% is the biggest hurdle in the home ownership drive by the government,” he said at the opening of Malaysia Property Exposition (Mapex) 2016 here today.
The three-day event until Sunday was officiated by Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk Dr Loga Bala Mohan.
Meanwhile, at the press conference later, REHDA Patron and former president Datuk Ng Seing Liong explained that most of the home loan applications were rejected even before the applicants filled out the necessary forms.
“That is why our numbers (of rejected applications) are different from that of banks,” he said.
REHDA had previously claimed that over 50% of housing loan applications were rejected by the banks, however, in its response to the allegation the Association of Banks in Malaysia said the rejection rate was only 20.39%.
On MAPEX 2016, Ng, who is also its organising chairman, said they hoped to register between RM300 million and RM500 million worth of bookings, compared to RM300 million in the previous expo.
“It is estimated around 30,000 and 50,000 people will visit Mapex 2016,” he said.
Mapex 2016 offers some 25,000 units of residential, commercial and industrial properties from 80 exhibitors, including first-timers — the government-backed projects Federal Territory Housing Project, 1Malaysia Civil Servants Housing Programme and Rumah SelangorKu scheme.
