Article by Freemind Works

Budget 2018 will be announced on 27 October. And next year’s budget will be an important one, as Malaysia’s 14th general election is around the corner, now widely expected to be held in the first quarter of next year. Many also believed that this budget is about creating a “feel-good” factor.

Discover how the budget 2018 will impact the property market, click here

Unlike previous years, however, analysts believe that for next year, Malaysia will be starting the year on better footing as the global economic conditions are improving.

How does this translate to us as a Rakyat?

As I did my own research on this, I discovered that on top of Malaysian’s wish list is simply:

Easier access to home ownership

In 2015, a report by Khazanah Research Insitute showed that residential properties prices in Kuala Lumpur and Penang were both ‘severely unaffordable’. And under 11MP (2016 to 2020), the government set the target of building 653,000 homes for the poor, low-income and middle-income households.

The Budget 2018 could see announcements of further initiatives for the government’s on-going affordable housing programme; PR1MA and PPA1M.

But, this is not a clear-cut solution. As at 16 August, 2017 only 8,475 units of out of the original 500,000 units of the affordable housing has been completed.

The other major concern for home ownership or investment is having your loan approved. More than 50% of loan application is rejected.

There is a suggestion to create a specialized bank for matters of housing financing with relevant mechanisms. This would aid Malaysians who wish to purchase a house but have trouble doing so (due to absences of documents and illegibility given by conventional banks).

This could also solve the problem of excessive properties which are unsold.

Increase allowances and income

Salaried people now worry about their take-home pay, as costs are rising much faster than wages. If you are single and living in KL, you need at least RM2,700 a month to survive. Many turn to a second job to earn an extra income.

More worryingly, a recent Bank Negara survey showed more than 75% of Malaysians find it difficult to even raise RM1,000 to meet emergency needs.

The same survey also showed that only 6% of salaried Malaysians can sustain themselves for more than six months if they lose their jobs, the main source of their income.

The middle-class (the so-called M40) is also not spared from the impact of higher living costs as their income remains stagnant. The income stagnation is one of the anxieties of the middle-class. While Malaysians enjoy a higher standard of living, their income has not growing as much as the costs.

For the medium income group earners, there is a possibility for the government to cut personal income tax rate in Budget 2018 as well as introduction of a new tax
exemptions.

My take is, why not take matters into your own hand and discover how you can create an additional RM20,000 to RM60,000 a year with property investment?

Find out more here >> Budget 2018 Talk

And good news for Penangites, we will be organising a one-day Budget 2018 talk to give you the highlights of the Budget 2018, details as below:

Date: Saturday, 28 October
Time: 9am – 6pm

And for the first 17 Penang Property Talk readers, you can come and listen to the Budget 2018 talk for FREE! Enter the coupon code “propertytalk” (case sensitive) when checking out to get your FREE seat.

As seats are limited, register your seat here now:

>> Budget 2018 Talk

– Kaygarn Tan

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