Rent-to-own scheme to be expanded - Zuraida

The government is looking to expand the rent-to-own (RTO) scheme for the bottom 40 percent income (B40) group on government-owned properties.

Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said this would help ease the burden of low-income earners who were facing difficulties in obtaining housing loans.

“Currently the government has transit houses (to cater to their needs) but once they move out (of the B40 category), they can find a property that they could afford,” she told reporters after the Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association Malaysia (Rehda) Annual Dinner 2018 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Besides the RTO, Zuraida said the B40 could also find properties priced RM160,000 and below which required them to pay about RM600 per month.

Earlier, Zuraida said that the National Home Ownership Campaign would be held for six months next year to help clear the backlog of unsold residential properties, especially those priced between RM300,000 and RM500,000.

“The campaign will be held in Kuala Lumpur and houses across Malaysia will be sold during the period. But it should also be held in other states, we will look into it. We hope to kick start it in January 2019,” she said.

Meanwhile, Rehda President Soam Heng Choon said that the government needs to expedite the setting up of a central housing data to enable stakeholders to make informed decisions on properties at hand.

Soam hoped the government would take over the role of building all social housing projects and would not compete with private developers in the open market.

- Bernama