KUALA LUMPUR (June 5): The Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda) Malaysia and Mah Sing Group Bhd have commended the Government’s incentives for the property sector as part of its short-term Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana).

Rehda said it welcomes the incentives given to the industry and is particularly gratified that the following measures were announced:

i. Reintroduction of Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) for residential properties from RM300,000 to RM2.5 million, effective from June 1, 2020 until May 31, 2021;

ii. Exemption of real property gains tax (RPGT) effective from June 1, 2020 until 31 December 2021; and

iii. Removal of loan-to-value (LTV) ratio for the third housing loan onwards for properties priced at a minimum of RM600,000 during the HOC period.

“We believe that these measures will play a key role in reforming the economic standing of all industries by encouraging consumption as well as spending, and at the same time boosting employment,” the association said.

Meanwhile, Mah Sing also praised the Government for being proactive and accepting constructive feedback from the real estate industry.

It said the property-friendly incentives announced are timely and much needed as the HOC, which was first introduced in 2019, proved to be effective as it had garnered sales and more importantly, increased home ownership, especially among first-time homebuyers.

“The reintroduction of the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) is particularly appreciated as we secured 60% of our sales in 2019 from the previous HOC campaign. This bodes well for us to work towards achieving our 2020 sales target of RM1.6 billion,” Mah Sing said.

“The stamp duty exemption and the uplift of 70% margin of financing limit for the third housing loan onwards during the HOC period, along with the Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT) exemption would certainly benefit Mah Sing as our product mix echoes the Government’s policies and in line with market demand,” it added.