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PETALING JAYA (April 17): The Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) is not a "cheap sale" but meant to reduce the burden on homebuyers with the government incentives such as stamp duty waivers, said Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda) president Datuk Soam Heng Choon.
He was responding to EdgeProp.my managing director and Editor-in-chief Au Foong Yee's query on the effectiveness of bringing back the HOC this year to boost the property market in light of the negative impact from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The HOC which ran from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2019 was initiated to increase home ownership among Malaysians and to address the property overhang in the country.
“Everybody thinks it is a cheap sale just because we [the developers] give a 10% discount (from the approved selling price) but you can get that discount even without the HOC as well.
"More importantly, the HOC is about the benefit to homebuyers when the government comes out to help them reduce their financial burden such as giving stamp duty waivers for loan instruments and on the memorandum of transfer,” he explained during EdgeProp.my Fireside Chat titled - Will the Malaysian property sector survive the mother of all crises?
Joining him were Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia chairman Tan Sri Eddy Chen and Rehda Institute chairman and Malaysian REIT Managers Association chairman Datuk Jeffrey Ng. The fireside chat was moderated by Au. It went live at 2pm on EdgeProp Malaysia’s Facebook page today.
“You can change it to another name instead of HOC - just call it a stamp duty waiver [campaign]. What we are telling the government is to come up with something that will reduce the financial burden of the buyer," he added.
He highlighted that while it helps both buyers and the developers, most of the measures proposed to the government to stimulate the property sector are to help the buyers.
He said the only thing developers are asking for is to lower the cost of doing business.
“Buyers have to pay for stamp duty, legal fees etc. There are a lot of outgoings that they have to pay and most homebuyers are first time buyers. Such incentives will actually help them,” Soam concluded.
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For the full report on the virtual Fireside Chat read the April 24, 2020 issue of Edgeprop.my pullout.
Missed our first Fireside Chat on ‘Undervalued Properties: Opportunities or Risk?’ which was held on April 10? Please click here to view the video.
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