By Sharen Kaur
sharen@nstp.com.my
Published in NST on August 29, 2012
THE entry of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) as a big investor in real estate will create more challenges for the sector, said Country Heights Holdings Bhd founder Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew.
"With the recent land acquisition in Sungai Buloh, the EPF is going to be one of the biggest developers here. There is also competition from boutique developers and government agencies that have embarked on property development," Lee said.
The EPF's wholly-owned unit, Kwasa Land Sdn Bhd, has acquired 932ha of Rubber Research Institute (RRI) land in Sungai Buloh from the Malaysian Rubber Board for RM2.3 billion.
Lee said other challenges faced by the industry included inconsistent government policies by both federal and state governments.
He also said the building of low-cost houses is creating a slump in the market place and does not fulfil the requirement of a quality lifestyle.
Since the 1980s, developers are required to build low-cost houses priced RM42,000 a unit and below. But rising cost of raw materials is causing them to lose money from each house built and the take up by the lower income group has been slow.
The issue has been raised numerous times by the Real Estate And Housing Developers' Association (Rehda), which comprises more than 1,000 members, for several years now.
"Developers are also at the mercy of bankers. I don't think the property market can be sustained like this, unless the government does something soon. Local developers are capable of building healthy properties to avoid a property bubble here," Lee said yesterday at the 15th National Housing and Property Summit 2012.
Rehda president Datuk Seri Michael Yam added that there should be a shift from low-cost hou-sing to affordable homes.
He said there is a lot of demand for properties priced between RM150,000 and RM300,000 and Rehda is appealing to the government to study the current market demand and situation.
Rehda is urging the government to freeze imposition of policies, guidelines and laws that add to the cost of development.
"We also hope the government will free up more land that they own for development. The government should consider developing Malay reserve land and building properties over existing infrastructure," Yam said.
Glomac Bhd group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Fateh Iskandar Mohamed feels that the property market will face new challenges going forward.
"Banks are still overzealous in end financing. The cost of doing business has also shown an increase in compliance cost, which is now about 30 per cent of total construction expenditure, not related to enhancement of property," he said.
sharen@nstp.com.my
Published in NST on August 29, 2012
 |
"With the recent land acquisition in Sungai Buloh, the EPF is going to be one of the biggest developers here. There is also competition from boutique developers and government agencies that have embarked on property development," Lee said.
The EPF's wholly-owned unit, Kwasa Land Sdn Bhd, has acquired 932ha of Rubber Research Institute (RRI) land in Sungai Buloh from the Malaysian Rubber Board for RM2.3 billion.
Lee said other challenges faced by the industry included inconsistent government policies by both federal and state governments.
 |
Since the 1980s, developers are required to build low-cost houses priced RM42,000 a unit and below. But rising cost of raw materials is causing them to lose money from each house built and the take up by the lower income group has been slow.
The issue has been raised numerous times by the Real Estate And Housing Developers' Association (Rehda), which comprises more than 1,000 members, for several years now.
"Developers are also at the mercy of bankers. I don't think the property market can be sustained like this, unless the government does something soon. Local developers are capable of building healthy properties to avoid a property bubble here," Lee said yesterday at the 15th National Housing and Property Summit 2012.
Rehda president Datuk Seri Michael Yam added that there should be a shift from low-cost hou-sing to affordable homes.
He said there is a lot of demand for properties priced between RM150,000 and RM300,000 and Rehda is appealing to the government to study the current market demand and situation.
Rehda is urging the government to freeze imposition of policies, guidelines and laws that add to the cost of development.
"We also hope the government will free up more land that they own for development. The government should consider developing Malay reserve land and building properties over existing infrastructure," Yam said.
Glomac Bhd group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Fateh Iskandar Mohamed feels that the property market will face new challenges going forward.
"Banks are still overzealous in end financing. The cost of doing business has also shown an increase in compliance cost, which is now about 30 per cent of total construction expenditure, not related to enhancement of property," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment