The Penang government plans to extend the House Ownership Campaign (HOC) to the year-end following implementation of the movement control order (MCO) and imposition of Emergency which is expected to continue until August.

State Housing, Local Government and Town and Country Planning Committee chairman, Jagdeep Singh Deo said this measure was aimed at reducing the burden of new house buyers during this difficult time and for economic generation in the real estate sector.

“In Penang, we have almost 3,000 unsold houses worth RM 2.9 billion but out of this number, only 0.8 per cent of affordable homes priced under RM300,000 are still unsold. We will try to assist this sector as it is important in ensuring cash flow in the market,” he said at a news conference, here, today.

The HOC was introduced as an incentive to new house buyers, namely, stamp duty exemption and a discount of at least 10 per cent of the sales price from housing developers in encouraging house ownership among the locals.

Jagdeep said the state government had approved almost 4,000 applications for low-cost, low medium-cost and affordable homes.

He said it was committed to having a supply of affordable homes with prices ranging from RM42,000 for low-cost units, RM72,500 for low medium and up to RM300,000 for various affordable units.

Source: Bernama