FundMyHome receives support from Malaysia’s largest banks

SEMENYIH (Nov 4): The FundMyHome scheme allows institutions to contribute to society by assisting Malaysians to own a home, said Maybank and CIMB Group.

The first-in-the-world homeownership scheme developed by EdgeProp Sdn Bhd, it allows homebuyers to pay only 20% of the price to own a home, while the balance 80% will be contributed by participating institutions, who share the returns from changes in the future value of the home.

Maybank and CIMB Bank are contributing as institutions to the 80% portion of the home price.

The launch of the scheme was officiated by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today.

CIMB Investment Bank Bhd CEO Datuk Kong Sooi Lin said the key reason for its support for FundMyHome is to help first-time homebuyers and contribute to the economy at large.

“We also want to contribute to society by helping these homebuyers through this scheme,” she told EdgeProp.my at the launch of FundMyHome.com today.

The scheme is expected to complement the bank’s mortgage business because at the end of the fifth year, the buyers will need to decide whether to stay on and if they need a loan to stay on, the bank can offer loan packages to them, she added.

Meanwhile, Maybank global banking group head Datuk Muzaffar Hisham said the FundMyHome scheme will complement the bank's and the government’s commitment to help the rakyat to own a home.

“[FundMyHome] will complement the government’s measures announced in Budget 2019, such as the RM1 billion fund to be set up by Bank Negara Malaysia to finance the first house purchase for those with monthly income not exceeding RM2,300,” he said.

“Helping people to own a home is a long-term agenda, so it is interesting to see FundMyHome as another alternative and explore how it can help homebuyers to own homes,” he added.

Muzaffar lauded the concept of the scheme, which allows the key stakeholders to play a role in the process, namely buyers, funders and developers.

“We want to see how once FundMyHome is launched, we can play a further role in it. If we can play a role where there is a win-win situation, we will be very open to the idea,” he said.

He noted that the group is committed to offer alternative solutions for Malaysians to own a home and hence it rolled out Malaysia's first bank-initiated rent-to-own (RTO) scheme called Houzkey under Maybank Islamic Bhd.

“One of the challenges we found is that many among the middle-income group, could not pay the downpayment, which could reach up to 70% to 80% of their savings, according to surveys,” he pointed out.

“Buying a house is a big investment and it could be the biggest spend in your lifetime. But we believe that buying a home is a good way to accumulate wealth as it will not only provide a roof over your family’s head but also allows you to enjoy the capital appreciation of the property, which will then increase your net worth,” he concluded.