KUALA LUMPUR – The government has been urged to extend its rent-to-own financing scheme, which currently only involves the 1Malaysia Housing Project, to prospective buyers of Residensi Wilayah Keluarga Malaysia.
National Housing Tenants Organisation (NHRA) chairman K. Prakash said expanding the scheme would help potential buyers rent their dream homes in advance until they can obtain financing to buy a house that has been inhabited.
“NHRA hopes that the government can impose a restriction or moratorium on resales and rentals for a period of at least 10 years so that buyers do not sell or rent out these houses.
“It is in line with the government’s intention to help the B40 and M40 groups to own a Residensi Wilayah Keluarga Malaysia house by providing subsidies to reduce the sale price of the house,” he said in a statement today.
According to Prakash, approval to own a Residensi Wilayah Keluarga Malaysia house should only be given to first-time home buyers and people with less ability to buy a house at market prices.
Apart from that, he said regular enforcement is also needed by the local authorities to prevent houses under the People's Housing Programme (PPR) from being rented out to others, especially to foreigners.
“The results of NHRA’s observation found that most PPR house owners who received government subsidies have taken the opportunity to rent to foreigners..
“The government created the PPR house concept to help the poor own houses, and not commercialise or rent them to others,” he said.
Prakash said he hoped that the issue could be addressed with the enforcement of clear conditions, rules, and laws to prevent the rental and sale of PPR houses with the Residential Rental Act enacted by the Housing and Local Government Ministry. – Bernama, June 31, 2022