Relook property financing regulations: PropertyGuru

PETALING JAYA: PropertyGuru has called on the government to relook the current regulations on financing and lending, especially for first time home buyers.

“Feedback from industry stakeholders – real estate agents, end-financiers, property developers and homebuyers, show a clear consensus; that it may timely to re-look current lending policies to make it more conducive to obtain financing,” said country manager Sheldon Fernandez.He noted that loan rejections have become one of the top reasons for low transaction volume.

“Our own customer sentiment survey shows that difficulty in attaining bank loan approvals is a key area of growing dissatisfaction among buyers. Most affected are middle income households who do not quality for low-cost schemes but also find it difficult to buy from the market due to financing issues,” he added.With the Budget 2016 just around the corner, he opined it is an opportune moment to re-visit the financial measures put in place, which have served their purpose well in reducing speculation.

Quoting data from the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association, out of 10,877 units launched in the first half of 2015, only 4,373 were sold with loan application rejections being one of the top reasons for unsold units.Importantly, most of the unsold units are within the RM500,000 to RM1 million range, which is the preferred choice for most middle-class urban families, clearly indicating an unaffordability issue within the property sector.-TheSunDaily