KULAI – The Johor government wants the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) rules to be relaxed further to help developers sell off existing luxury condominium units and service apartments in the state.
State Housing and Local Government Committee chairman Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor said the state government is hopeful that apartment units worth more than RM500,000 will be included in the properties that can be purchased by the programme’s participants.
“We are not targeting buyers that want to buy bungalows or landed properties, but we’re hoping to sell off unsold condos and apartments in Johor, since these are the types of property that largely make up the bulk of overhang properties in the state,” said Jafni.
“The programme (MM2H) is under the home minister (Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail) who is expected to visit Johor sometime next month.
“I’ll discuss this with him and hope the requirement can be relaxed a little so that genuine buyers and investors can take up these unsold units,” he told reporters after attending an event in Kulai.
The Bukit Permai assemblyman said Johoreans are more fond of landed houses than high-rise apartments.
An industry expert had also shared the same observation with The Vibes previously.
A unit becomes listed as an “overhang” property if it has received its certificate of completion and compliance but remains unsold for more than nine months after launch.
At present, MM2H applicants are subject to higher qualifying thresholds that include having RM1.5 million in liquid assets, RM40,000 in monthly offshore income, and RM1 million in a Malaysian fixed deposit account.
Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi had told the state assembly in early December that the state would work together with Putrajaya to study the implementation of MM2H in Johor, as a means to deal with the property overhang issue.
However, property experts here stressed that speculators who hyped up Johor Baru as an up-and-coming international city about 10 years ago also contributed to the current predicament.
Based on Johor Housing Development Corporation data, 80% of residential overhang in Johor involves serviced apartments.
The remaining 20% are bungalows and luxury houses located mostly in Johor Baru and Iskandar Puteri.
In September last year, then deputy finance minister Datuk Mohd Shahar Abdullah was reported to have said that Johor recorded the highest in overhung residential units with 6,000 overhang units worth RM4.7 billion, contributing 17% and 21% for each of the number and value of overhang in the country.
He said almost 60% of the overhang units were in the condominium or apartment property segment, while in terms of price, almost 43% were within the price range of more than RM500,000 per unit. – The Vibes, January 15, 2023
