PRESS STATEMENT ON BUDGET 2009

29 August 2008, Kelana Jaya

Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (REHDA) President, Datuk Ng Seing Liong welcomes the various incentives and measures to promote home ownership and investment in the property sector announced in the 2009 Budget, namely: -

  1. Provision of a RM330 million allocation to Jabatan Perumahan Negara (JPN) to complete PPR low cost housing units
  2. Provision of another 33,000 low cost houses by Syarikat Perumahan Negara Berhad  (SPNB)
  3. Stamp duty waiver for transaction of houses RM250,000 and below
  4. Improvements to terms of Treasury Housing Loans
  5. Extension of the Housing Credit Guarantee Scheme
  6. Reduction of withholding tax for REITs dividends from 15% for individuals, to 10%

Datuk Ng hopes that with the JPN and SPNB given the mandate for provision of low cost houses, private sector developers could be exempted from having to provide low cost housing quotas in their projects and be allowed to focus on market driven segments of housing.

REHDA also lauds the Government’s efforts to enhance construction productivity and quality via CIDB training programmes. The Association, however, stressed that whilst such measure is aimed at improving quality in construction and workmanship, the biggest challenge will remain to attract local youths into the construction industry to be trained by CIDB and retained by the industry, thus reducing dependence on foreign labour. 

 Issued by:

Datuk Ng Seing Liong, PJN, JP
拿督黃騰亮  太平局紳
PRESIDENT
REAL ESTATE AND HOUSING DEVELOPERS’ ASSOCIATION MALAYSIA