Penang Housing, Local Government, Town and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo (pix) said yesterday that the state government has “lost” RM3.15 million in approval fees that have been waived for foreign property purchases in the state.

He said the state government had received 55 applications relating to the waiver of the 3% approval fee between Jan 1 and June 28, 2019.

“The RM3.15 million approval fees waived was from a total property transaction of RM105 million, at an average of RM1.91 million per applicant,” he said in a press conference here.

The condition for the waiver approval was that the foreigners cannot buy anything less than RM3 million for landed properties and not less than RM1 million for a stratified or high-rise unit on the Penang island, whereas the landed properties and stratified or high-rise properties on the mainland should not be less than RM1 million and RM500,000 respectively.

Meanwhile, Jagdeep also received a letter from the Penang International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI) chapter chairman Tan Sri Alex Ooi Kee Liang requesting the extension of the approval fee waiver.

“The request was raised during the last exco meeting, which will be continued by tomorrow,” he said.

According to him, the state’s initiative for the exemption of the approval fee was in line with the National Home Ownership Campaign 2019 (HOC 2019), a collaborative effort between the Housing and Local Government Ministry and Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia, Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association and Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers Association.

HOC 2019 has introduced incentives to new house buyers such as stamp duty exemption and a minimum of 10% discount on the sale price from the property developers.

On June 29, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced that HOC 2019 will be extended for another six months until the end of 2019 to encourage home ownership among Malaysians and reduce the number of unsold properties.

Source: Bernama