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PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s property market is expected to remain resilient in the second half of the year, underpinned by strong gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the second quarter and government-driven initiatives to support market activities in the housing sector, the National Property Information Centre (Napic) said.
It highlighted that providing affordable housing and addressing the property overhang continue to be the main agendas of the government, particularly with the launch of the National Housing Policy 2.0 (2018-2025) and the incentives introduced in Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) 2019.
As the HOC incentives have been extended from July 1, 2019 to Dec 31, 2019, this is expected to improve home ownership among Malaysians and the residential overhang situation in the second half of the year.
Among the incentives in the campaign are a minimum 10% price discount for properties from registered developers and stamp duty exemption for memorandums of transfer and loan agreements.
Furthermore, Napic said the expected strong GDP growth, coupled with the lower borrowing cost, incentives for first-time home buyers, new rates for the real property gains tax on the disposal of properties after five years and the increase in stamp duty rates from 3% to 4% for transfers of properties valued above RM1 million are expected to have direct and indirect impact on the property sector.
“Given time, the property sector will undergo market adjustments and corrections accordingly,” it added.
