Govt to develop guidelines for foreign ownership of Forest City properties

PETALING JAYA (Sept 2): Putrajaya will come up with more explicit guidelines related to foreign purchases of properties into the RM410 billion-Forest City in Johor to help investors avoid making risky decisions, said Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin.

In a report by The Star, she said her ministry will be meeting its developer Country Garden Pacificview Sdn Bhd, the state government, local authorities and Iskandar Regional Development Authority tomorrow to find out more about the project as well as what had happened before the new government took power to develop a clear direction on foreign ownership in the development.

She added that her ministry will then produce a report which will be submitted to the Cabinet before the government looks into issues related to foreign property ownership in Forest City.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had on Monday (Aug 27) said non-Malaysians would not be allowed to buy properties in the Johor mega-development and be issued visas to live there.

In response, Country Garden Pacificview had said all its transactions complied with Malaysian laws and refuted claims that it had issued permanent residency to its buyers.

The Prime Minister's Office then issued a statement the next day saying foreign purchases were allowed, subject to certain conditions which have been publicly disclosed.

Moreover, property purchases do not guarantee automatic residency in Malaysia, it added.

Meanwhile, Zuraida said she expected building costs to drop by 10% on lower raw material prices following the implementation of the Sales and Services Tax (SST).

She also revealed that the new National Housing Policy, which will be unveiled at the end of this month, will include three categories of affordable housing.