The Penang State government has as its top priority, the provision of affordable housing for first time Penangite house-buyers. Towards this end, and recognising that property prices in Penang have risen in the past few years, no doubt, as a result of Penang being very attractive having regards to it competent, accountable and transparent administration, the Penang State government has embarked on a two prong mission, firstly, to cool housing prices by the announcement of various cooling measures in budget 2014 in December last year.

These cooling measures include the extension of the moratorium on the subsequent sale of low and low medium cost housing units to 10 years from the principal purchase; the moratorium on the subsequent sale of affordable housing units to 5 years from the principal purchase; the imposition of a 3% approval fee in relation to purchases by foreigners and the imposition of a 2% approval fee upon vendors for transactions executed within 3 years of purchase. This is further to the requirement that there is a limit on purchases by foreigners, namely properties not less than RM2 million (landed) and RM1 million (apartment) on the island and RM1 million (landed and apartment) on the mainland.

Other jurisdictions that have implemented cooling measures in the region such as Hong Kong, which, inter alia, doubled its sales tax on properties valued at more than HK$2 million in February 2013, so as to curb speculative transactions, have seen Hong Kong’s existing home prices bottoming out after falling as much as 5% from a peak in March, 2013. Further, new home prices in Hong Kong have dropped by 15% to 20% since October 2013 (according to a JP Morgan Chase & Co report last month).

Although the cooling measures which were announced in December 2013, came into force only in March this year, it is hoped that it will be effective primarily to curb speculation which will only give rise to spiralling house prices.

The second prong mission of the Penang State government is to make accessible affordable housing, in particular, to first time Penangite house buyers.

In this regard, together with Penang Development Corporation, we have embarked on several affordable housing projects which will deliver approximately 20,000 units of affordable housing in the next 5 to 15 years. A summary of these projects are enclosed herewith.

Apart from these public affordable housing projects, as you are aware, the Penang State government is also encouraging the private sector to build affordable housing whereby we will in return give them several incentives so as there is a workable formula for them to participate in building 100% affordable housing projects. Towards this end, the Penang State government is taking into consideration the views of all stakeholders, and will, in the near future, announce its guidelines for private developers who undertake such 100% affordable housing projects.

In fact, it should be noted that several private developers have in fact submitted such plans to build affordable housing, which todate is about 10,000 units.

Since December, 2013, when the new application forms (Borang PN1) for affordable housing (including the new range of RM200,000; RM300,000 and RM400,000 categories) were launched, more than 100,000 forms have been taken by the public.

Todate approximately 3,000 have been returned and registered in our system. Enclosed herewith is a summary of the number of applicants (for low cost, low medium cost and affordable housing units) in our system.

We understand that it might be difficult for applicants who are working to come and submit their forms together with all relevant documentation, especially during working hours. As such, I have decided to go on a road-show entitled ‘Mission: Home-Possible’, whereby officers from the state housing department together with PDC will be going from one parliamentary constituency to another every fortnightly on Saturdays, whereby, apart from showcasing our affordable housing projects, Penangites can come forward to obtain registration forms, update their status in our system and also submit their completed application forms.

This ‘Mission: Home-Possible’ for the parliamentary constituencies of Jelutong and Tanjong, will begin on 23.8.2014 at the foyer at level 3 Komtar, from 10am-5pm.

Source: Buletin Mutiara