Penang’s New Housing Rules Effective 1 February 2014
UPDATE: The new housing rules announced in the 2014 Penang state Budget approved at the Penang State Assembly and proposed to be effective from 1 February 2014 are designed to protect Penang from being adversely affected by a property bubble as well as ensuring that public housing and affordable housing are bought by genuine purchasers who are qualified first time buyers from lower and middle-income groups.
Public housing are low-cost houses up to RM42,000 and low-medium cost houses from RM72,500 to RM400,000 on the island and from RM72,500 to RM250,000 on the Seberang.
As a responsible government seeking sustainable economic growth and development, the Penang state government is careful to avoid the pitfalls of any property bubble that will bring hardship to the rakyat and damage the economy. Japan is a good lesson of the dangers of a property bubble. These housing rules were discussed with stakeholders especially those from the property industry who had objected to them.
The state government has set up a RM500 million Public Housing And Affordable Housing Fund to build 20,000 units of public housing and affordable housing in all 5 districts of Penang. This is the largest amount set aside by any state government in Malaysian history to build affordable and public housing. Naturally, these new rules are necessary as the state government is concerned that first-time buyers may not be given the first opportunity to buy them and reduce exploitation for speculative gain.
104 Units of Shared Ownership Scheme (SOS) & 51 Units of Rent-Buy Scheme
Further the State Government would also implement Malaysia’s first ever Shared Ownership Scheme(SOS), a historic joint purchase initiative between the state government and poor purchasers, for those who just miss out on getting a 90% or 100% bank loan, by offering a 30% interest-free loan from the state government whilst they need to borrow the remaining 70% from banks instead of a 90% or 100% bank loan. 104 units of low-cost houses in Taman Sungai Duri, Seberang Perai Selatan will be the pilot scheme for SOS. The State Government would also implement a “rent-buy scheme” of 51 units in Taman Seruling Emas Flats, Seberang Perai Selatan for the poor who are unqualified to obtain any bank loans or where banks refuse to lend any amount of loans to them.
As a people-centric government, the Penang state government wants to achieve housing democracy that allows every working family to own their own homes. Ensuring that public housing (low cost and low medium cost houses) is owned by the poor and genuine first time buyers is our priority. The state government is committed to assisting first-time buyers to have the opportunity to buy affordable homes and is willing to accept any criticism or face any legal challenges by those who oppose this commitment, whether from NGOs or BN.
The Penang state EXCO had during its last meeting refined the new housing rules for clarity and certainty as follows:
1. Public Housing – Low Cost And Low Medium Cost Housing
All low cost homes (up to RM42,000) and low-medium cost homes(up to RM72,500) purchased cannot be sold for 10 years from the date of Sale and Purchase Agreement. Those who wish to sell during the first 10 years must appeal to the state government and can only be sold to “listed buyers”. The price transacted will not be set by the state government but will be on a “willing buyer, willing seller” basis by both the “listed buyer” and the seller. Listed buyers are those who have registered with the Housing Department of the state government and are certified as low income groups that are qualified to purchase low-cost or low-medium cost housing. This 10 year rule will cover all past and future purchases. The balloting of houses will be subject to oversight by an auditing firm, the first time this is done by any state government in Malaysia.
2. Affordable Housing
Affordable housing is classified as houses which were initially purchased below RM400,000 on the island and RM 250,000 on the mainland. Affordable housing purchased can not be sold for for a period of 5 years from date of Sales and Purchase Agreement. Those who wish to sell during the first 5 years must appeal to the state government and can only be sold to “listed buyers”. The price transacted will not be set by the state government but will be on a “willing buyer, willing seller” basis by both the “listed buyer” and the seller. “Listed buyers” are those who have registered with the Housing Department of the state government and are certified as middle-income groups that are qualified to purchase affordable housing. This 5 year rule will only cover all properties transacted on or after 1 February 2014. In other words it will not be retrospective but affect only Sales and Purchase Agreement signed on or after 1 February 2014.
3. Purchases By Non-Citizens
Non-citizens can only purchase properties in Penang in excess of RM1 million and for landed property on the island must exceed RM2 million. All purchases of properties by non-residents will be subject to a 3% levy on the transacted price for Sales and Purchase Agreement signed on or after 1 February 2014. Exemptions are provided for purchases for industry purposes or for a purpose that promotes employment, education, human talent or promoting Penang as an international and intelligent city.
4. 2% Levy On Property Purchased After 1.2.2014 Sold Within 3 Years
A 2% levy will be imposed on the seller for all property sold within 3 years from the date of the Sales & Purchase Agreement(SPA) signed from 1 February 2014. In other words, this is not retrospective. Properties bought with the SPA signed before 1 February 2014 will not be subject to this levy. Only properties bought with the SPA on or after 1 February 2014 will be subject to the 2% levy if sold within 3 years. This 2% levy is not applicable to affordable housing.
Active discussions are continuing with the Bar Council, banks, property developers both in and outside Penang as well as other associations to brief them on the new housing rules which are in force for SPA signed on or after 1 February 2014 , except for low-cost or low-medium cost housing.
Source: Buletin Mutiara
I think this is very responsible & intelligent moves by the state government. Taking care of the lower income group, at the same time not really stifflying the property sector.
Many low cost and low medium cost housing rent out to foreigners. Should take action to this owners coz lost cost and low medium cost is not to rent out.
10 years cannot sell ? no problem, can rent to bangla and indo for 10 years rental. Is government is blind to see?
pg lang so rich, wer gt so many low income group? they wont stay in LC house, ask Guan Eng go see thier LC , many LC house rent to bangla, thailand, china, make massage business and LMC house mostly buy for sale, buy 100k sale 350k after complete, many empty many apply LMC house for invest only
Actually afforable housing with equivalent quality as HDB in Singapore has the highest demand. To resolve the LMC and low cost housing problem, state gov can just confiscate those low cost houses renting to Bangla and Indo. And then, sell it to the low income group at very low price….
@LMC
Then where are the banglas going to stay? Southbay Residence ah?…..:)
Actually the foreigners are really good source of rental income. At the moment no rules about forbid the renting to bangla or other malaysians…
let ‘s us all pray for price correction … at least 30% price drop
@Quek
I believe the rule is there, but no enforcement.
not so understand for the 2% levy. If i buy a house 350k in mainland and want to sell it within 3 years need to pay extra 2% levy? can anyone explain with me? thankz!
@chia
My understanding is, if you buy a RM500k property and then selling it not more than 3 years after you purchased it for RM600k, you need to pay RM12k (2% of selling price of RM600k) to the land office in order to have the ownership transfer to the new owner. On top of that, you need to pay RM30k (30% of gross profit of RM100k) to LHDN as RPGT.
Businessmen in Penang is sooooooooo gonna pissed off by what Penang CM did
@cullymi
(This 2% levy is not applicable to affordable housing.).so what does this mean?
@cullymi
This 2% not from the profit as what RPGT? walao means that even u sell at the buying price also kena buta 2%? Then which idiot going to do that, unless really need that money before jump from the XXXXXX.
@david
if all ppl buy and hold for 3 years, i think new house demand will be increase. In my perspective, most of ppl can be hold for 3 years bcos under construction already need to spend around 2 years.
Is Penang property still speculative in nature after all these?
@chia
Yup, that’s what the statement says. This 2% levy is not applicable to affordable housing, because you can’t sell your affordable housing within 5 years anyway…:)
For those dreaming of a white Christmas and a downward pricing correction, well continue dreaming….a pricing correction will happen, but upwards. With a spade of increase in cost from fuel, toll, GST, world commodities, sugar, etc, you got to be extremely naive and living under your shell to think a downward pricing correction is going to happen to property. To those still dreaming, the good thing is dream is free, no cost at all….even ghee price will head north….sigh…
Extend it to 5yr make it moreh effective. 3yrs is not long enough
end users (buyers) are the impacted party for any kind of inflations, as sellers may just top up the levy onto the selling price.
I like this comment 😀
When Bangla are staying at the construction site… complaining
Staying in a residential neighborhood… complaining because bringing down value
Staying in low cost area… complaining again
The best thing is that Bangla can be evaporated at night, then reformec into labor workers during the day !!!
Easy to comment, right??
Cooling measures are necessary to ensure healthy n gradual increase of value of houses, developers shd support CM measures. if prices shoot up too drastic, it will crash faster and everyone will get hurt even more, is a chain cycle. People buy properties in penang/Johor/kl because they show confidence of growth n potential in these areas. If no one wants to invest in Malaysia and starts to choose to invest in other countries, the growth will be stagnant. especially when there is no foreign investments. City dwellers shd have city mentality rather than kampong mindset. Invest for the long run, avoid short term gain!
agreed… thumb up@pinky
The worst of human greed can be seen in those greedy developers and ugly speculators …
Yes the rule is there. If some one buy Low cost or low medium cost then rent to foreigners it means he/she is not low-income.
it is not surprising, u can visit Taman Juru Heights. Many double storey terrace house (medium cost) has converted to a hostel foreign workers. Sony Perai use as dormitory for their foreign workers in big scale even Juru Heights also is high end bungalaow area.
this is an appropriate move by the state govt.
This will not completely curb speculation. All businesses are subject to some form of speculation. It’s business. We’re all in it. Buyers, sellers, businessmen.
The good that will come from this measure is – it will curb UNHEALTHY speculation. The types where irresponsible speculators simply book up majority of the units, wait for 1.5 years with no cost to himself, then sell at increased price at the expense of genuine buyers.
In the long run, this is good for the market. It is more sustainable as only ‘healthy’ speculation is practised.
We should support CM measures, this is really helpful to the low income citizens in Penang.
The economic like GDP has a way to deceive you, for example, our mom/wife as a home-maker, she don’t make salary and therefore no “production” to GDP, and she will be considered as volunteer-unemployed which will not affect the employment rate. But if one day, instead of living expenses, you decide that the money you pay your wife / mom as salary for home-maker, the GDP increased although your income did not increase, and the employment rate also increase.
I really think government shouldn’t do too much to intervene the market, just let it goes at its natural course based on real demand and supply in the market. Since the financial tsunami in 2008 and the persisting Europe sovereign debt crisis, it impacted our export to these countries, and yet we don’t feel much the pain and GDP growth steadily. I think property and construction of it contribute a big part of our economic, as a matter of fact our economic need it the property and construction industry.
Yes, some tuning/calibration shall be done to cool down the “heat” but not intervention.
I think the real concern is not the price but the title of the property selling to foreigner. I think government should forbid transfer of freehold title especially landed property, otherwise some trillionaire can own half the Penang / Malaysia.
Forget about the LMC, focus on planning and release adequate quantity of affordable housing progressively, prioritize for those in “greater need” such as those low income with big family with no house, after that making it benefit for all penang-citizen of various income group and demographic. After all, just like HDB flat in Singapore it’s not only for poor people. Making proper procedures and governing rules to manage it is important.
Please improve your England….very bad leh.@cyfong
@cyfong
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Just trying to understand a little bit more on what you have in mind, so when you said “…I really think government shouldn’t do too much to intervene the market, just let it goes at its natural course based on real demand and supply in the market….”, have you put into considerations the hardship that is felt by the middle income (as low income properties are subsidised by gov, so they are ok) due to escalating property prices caused by speculation?
However, I think no one can deny the economic benefits brought on by the construction industry in terms of jobs and contracts for local suppliers.
Again, when you said “…..I think the real concern is not the price but the title of the property selling to foreigner…”, I wonder why would the price not be the real concern, but agreeing with you that foreign ownership, especially on heritage properties, should be controlled.
So essentially, what you have highlighted is that more construction activity is good for the economy. Agree. But the way by which these construction activities is created, whether by selling more properties to foreigners, or invite more speculative money to buy these properties, or attract more tourists to rent these purpose built properties, etc, each has a different impact to the people’s standard of living. And this further emphasizes the need to “intervene” in the market to make things the way we think is beneficial to the people.
We should able to differentiate what s intervention and what is economic measure.
In an effective economy, the price is the equilibrium of supply and demand. If the market is efficient the price should be effective (“at equilibrium”) and there is nothing needed to be done. However, market isn’t at all time being efficient.
From the experience of China & SARHK government, it can tells that such effort of government’s intervention by levy extra tax/duty on the buy-sell in hope to control speculation and thus the price to no avail, because such extra tax and duty can be easily transferred to the buyer in a highly manipulated trending-up market.
Therefore if the government really want to cool down the heat, stable or bring down the residential property price. The government shall create more supply in the economy – building more affordable house to eligible citizen. Eligible doesn’t mean poor, priority shall be given to those who has greater needs, and gradually expands to all “classes” when the government ramp up with sufficient resources.
People are confusing about investing and speculating in property. It is not about the price, it is the cost and the yield, and for these it’s the location that matters. I have observed and believe it’s quite true that, the price of the property in Penang market is dominant by the 1st hand new property market, new bar in selling price set by the developers. We often forgot that whatever offer DIBS, etc by developer has been priced in the selling price, a project will normally take 3 – 4 years to complete the developer won’t sell at today price but set at new higher bar, and last but not the least is that the mark up that the developers enjoy – they do not need to sell out all units to breakeven and make profit.
Today, a decent apartment can easily cost RM500psf, a 3-rooms apartment of 1,300sf say in Bayan Lepas will cost 650K. In generally, you can tell how much is the rent, and there are so many vacant units. Mostly after expenses and tax, the yield can’t even beat the FD rate, that means we can’t cover the cost of money for the “investment” but we still buy it looking for capital appreciation we could not quantified yet far beyond horizon, simply we believe “because the property never come down” – Is this Speculation or Investment? I call this as “Chasing Greater Fools Game”.
Any suffering “Middle Class” who has not joined the “Investment Pack” bought more than 1 property. Maybe you should stop chancing greater fools, it may help you feel better. I recommend any financial goal can start with a financial plan, reduce expenses and increase your income.
Some of them link the price with inflation such as the price of char-koay-teow, but unfortunate to us they did not disclose how they quantify such information and their model for calculation of the future value / growth of property. However, I recommend to make a serious thought on the work of a professor of Yale University, Robert Shiller who, together with his colleague Karl Case, developed the predecessor index to the very famous and popular home price index in USA, Case-Shiller Index. In his book “Irrational Exuberance”, the resident property in US is very good hedging to inflation, however, for over 100 years after inflation adjusted the growth is only 6%.
Some said our property price still cheap compare to Singapore and Hong Kong, which will attract foreigner to “invest” and push up the prices. First of all, why compare to Singapore and Hong Kong, not neighboring country such as Indonesia and Thailand? Even Penang as an Island is nothing comparable to Singapore and Hong Kong, both are international financial hub, and both have more higher income per capita and also higher density of population per area. In addition, cheap doesn’t is same or better, buying in Penang and buying in London and New York is very different for the rich chainman. So why set higher bar for foreigner who has need to buy, after all foreigner buying only accounted 3% of total property transaction and besides we still have Malaysia Second Home program, just let it be part of the part of effective economy. Remember, for any seller there must be buyer to complete the transaction, they can sell to other foreigner, if there is not enough international exposure, they only can either hold it and sell to local which will then limit by the local’s income and affordability.
Lastly, there are many other thing the government could do and could have done, say for education, public transportation, improve our competitiveness, etc rather intervene the property market. After all, if we could not afford something, it doesn’t mean the price must be high, it is about affordability – our income and purchasing power.
No offense, just sharing my thought… and sorry for my broken language because I don’t live in England, Singh do.
We should able to differentiate what s intervention and what is economic measure.
In an effective economy, the price is the equilibrium of supply and demand. If the market is efficient the price should be effective (“at equilibrium”) and there is nothing needed to be done. However, market isn’t at all time being efficient.
From the experience of China & SARHK government, it can tells that such effort of government’s intervention by levy extra tax/duty on the buy-sell in hope to control speculation and thus the price to no avail, because such extra tax and duty can be easily transferred to the buyer in a highly manipulated trending-up market.
Therefore if the government really want to cool down the heat, stable or bring down the residential property price. The government shall create more supply in the economy – building more affordable house to eligible citizen. Eligible doesn’t mean poor, priority shall be given to those who has greater needs, and gradually expands to all “classes” when the government ramp up with sufficient resources.
People are confusing about investing and speculating in property. It is not about the price, it is the cost and the yield, and for these it’s the location that matters. I have observed and believe it’s quite true that, the price of the property in Penang market is dominant by the 1st hand new property market, new bar in selling price set by the developers. We often forgot that whatever offer DIBS, etc by developer has been priced in the selling price, a project will normally take 3 – 4 years to complete the developer won’t sell at today price but set at new higher bar, and last but not the least is that the mark up that the developers enjoy – they do not need to sell out all units to breakeven and make profit.
Today, a decent apartment can easily cost RM500psf, a 3-rooms apartment of 1,300sf say in Bayan Lepas will cost 650K. In generally, you can tell how much is the rent, and there are so many vacant units. Mostly after expenses and tax, the yield can’t even beat the FD rate, that means we can’t cover the cost of money for the “investment” but we still buy it looking for capital appreciation we could not quantified yet far beyond horizon, simply we believe “because the property never come down” – Is this Speculation or Investment? I call this as “Chasing Greater Fools Game”.
Any suffering “Middle Class” who has not joined the “Investment Pack” bought more than 1 property. Maybe you should stop chancing greater fools, it may help you feel better. I recommend any financial goal can start with a financial plan, reduce expenses and increase your income.
Some of them link the price with inflation such as the price of char-koay-teow, but unfortunate to us they did not disclose how they quantify such information and their model for calculation of the future value / growth of property. However, I recommend to make a serious thought on the work of a professor of Yale University, Robert Shiller who, together with his colleague Karl Case, developed the predecessor index to the very famous and popular home price index in USA, Case-Shiller Index. In his book “Irrational Exuberance”, the resident property in US is very good hedging to inflation, however, for over 100 years after inflation adjusted the growth is only 6%.
Some said our property price still cheap compare to Singapore and Hong Kong, which will attract foreigner to “invest” and push up the prices. First of all, why compare to Singapore and Hong Kong, not neighboring country such as Indonesia and Thailand? Even Penang as an Island is nothing comparable to Singapore and Hong Kong, both are international financial hub, and both have more higher income per capita and also higher density of population per area. In addition, cheap doesn’t is same or better, buying in Penang and buying in London and New York is very different for the rich chainman. So why set higher bar for foreigner who has need to buy, after all foreigner buying only accounted 3% of total property transaction and besides we still have Malaysia Second Home program, just let it be part of the part of effective economy. Remember, for any seller there must be buyer to complete the transaction, they can sell to other foreigner, if there is not enough international exposure, they only can either hold it and sell to local which will then limit by the local’s income and affordability.
Lastly, there are many other thing the government could do and could have done, say for education, public transportation, improve our competitiveness, etc rather intervene the property market. After all, if we could not afford something, it doesn’t mean the price must be high, it is about affordability – our income and purchasing power.
No offense, just sharing my thought… and sorry for my broken language because I don’t live in England.
@cyfong,
Thank you for taking time to share your thoughts. Your english is not that bad, i have seen worse in this blog. Their vocab only consists of “sour grapes” and “am tooi”, and “am tooi” is not even english….:)
@cyfong
That was a very long message of yours, but I will try to shorten things up, and justify to you why intervention is absolutely needed.
“….In an effective economy, the price is the equilibrium of supply and demand. If the market is efficient the price should be effective (“at equilibrium”) and there is nothing needed to be done. However, market isn’t at all time being efficient…”. You have said it yourself, the market isn’t at all time being efficient, therefore the price is actually far from equilibrium. The housing price on a small island like Penang can be easily manipulated with the absence of intervention.
“…Robert Shiller….In his book “Irrational Exuberance”, the resident property in US is very good hedging to inflation, however, for over 100 years after inflation adjusted the growth is only 6%…..”. In the 100-year period, the trend of general inflation and house price are not synchronized and totally not correlated. You have periods of extreme house price growth, and periods of slow growth, as well as periods of normal growth. As the market is not 100% efficient, intervention is needed to avoid periods of bubble growth and burst.
As for foreigners, since it only accounts for “3% of total transaction” (I suppose you are saying it is a negligible number), we should forbid foreigners TOTALLY from buying our properties. Why now? Because when it hits 10%, developers will complain stopping foreigners from buying will affect them too much. So while the number is still “negligible enough to not have any impact to the housing industry”, we should stop it now. We should encourage foreigners to rent instead.
Last but not least, it is no doubt that education, public transport, competitiveness have to be improved to increase the people’s purchasing power for “internationally traded goods”, we should make our properties a “non-international traded goods”.
I dont live in England, dont have too, to be able to communicate and write rudimentary English. A Person dont have to live in Penang to speak Hokkien properly. I guess your England is the best Penang can offer. You must be the pride of your village in being to articulate in English far superior than others. Much of your literature seems its very much copied from the net sphere and then you have added your own comments which explains the inconsistency of the flow of grammar and the key messages being shared. Spare me your false modesty by having a caveat of aplogising for your languange. If you dont mean an apology, dont say it son…This is not the Shang dynasty of Emperor Zhou’s time whereby flattery is needed to masquerade messages…@cyfong
if you bought a unit for 400,000M.R.do you honestly think that an overseas purchaser is going to pay you one million for the property,you must be dreaming,only can be sold to a local result no one will buy 500,000 units because they cant and they cant afford a million,so no sales, penang looses, not only the the loss of a sale but the loss of the purchases when the owners are here.i.i declare this plain dumb, revert back to 500,000MR.
Hey Anthony Fowke, yes you are right on this, I’m with you, the policy is plain dumb.
Instead, the state government should ban foreigners from buying totally, regardless of price. They are welcomed to rent. In that case, property prices will be more reflective of realistic yields. Cheers!
I honestly don’t think the increase of Penang property price is caused by foreigner purchase. May a minor effect, but definitely not the primary driver.
Naturally, these new rules are necessary as the state government is concerned that first-time buyers may not be given the first opportunity to buy them and reduce exploitation for speculative gain.
May I confirm that the 2% Levy On Property Purchased After 1.2.2014 Sold Within 3 Years, is applicable to all properties? or to certain range of properties?
kindly advice
hi,
SPA of affordable housing can put how many owner name inside & what is the relationship between them to the approval?
I would like to know the maximum number of people who can reside in a terrace house to minimize all kinds of dangers. Typically we have a situation now, houses are being rented by factories and used to house foreign workers. Each terrace house – say a 3 bedroom double story house is being lived in by about 20 – 30 foreign workers. This contributes certain problems to neighbors, safety and fire hazard when they start cooking. So is there a guideline or law specifying the maximum number of people per house?