Rent unsold housing units to youth, says think tank

PETALING JAYA: A think tank has proposed that developers kill two birds with one stone by renting out unsold housing units to youngsters who cannot yet afford to own homes.

Lau Zheng Zhou, the executive director of economic and policy research at the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, said it was reported that some 83% of residential units remained unsold in the category of homes below RM250,000.

“Since we have so many unsold properties, why don’t we rent them out to people, especially the youth?

“If we leave the units just like that, we lose the opportunity to gain income.

“At the same time, the government will not have to increase the number of affordable homes,” he told FMT on the sidelines of the industry-government open dialogue titled “Seeking true value in the property market” yesterday.

Lau said the move would help those who were unable to afford down payments.

“It is one possible solution to overcome the problem faced by youth these days,” he added.

“Young people have high income potential. Maybe they can’t afford it now, but they might be able to afford it later.”

He encouraged private developers to adopt a rent-to-own scheme with support from the government so that more young people could have houses.

“This scheme is still new in our country,” he said. “So we are hoping that property developers will offer it.” - FMT