Stop pre-launch sales to curb excessive speculation, Malaysian property developers urged

January 22, 2014 Leave a comment

Updated: Tuesday January 21, 2014 MYT 1:19:42 PM

Stop pre-launch sales to curb excessive speculation, property developers urged

KUALA LUMPUR: Property developers should eliminate pre-launch sales to curb excessive speculation, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk SeriAbdul Wahid Omar.He said there were cases of property buyers purchasing multiple homes without the intention of staying in any one of them and some of these transactions were done prior to the official launch of the property.

“While we appreciate that developers want to sell their products and that is part of the risk mitigation, I don’t think we should continue to allow this as it will lead to property speculation,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of Cagamas’ 25th anniversary publication, “Housing the Nation: Policies, Issues, Prospects”.

Also present at the launch was Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz.

Abdul Wahid said the government estimates that 1.7 million households (20% of the total) have yet to own their own houses, primarily due to price hikes.

“On the supply side, the government therefore plans to build one million houses for the lower- and middle-income categories over the next five years, undertaken bySyarikat Perumahan Negara Bhd (SPNB), PR1MA Corporation Malaysia and private housing developers,” he said.

Meanwhile, Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia President, Datuk Seri Michael Yam, said developers ‘test the market’ through pre-launch sales to gauge public response for the project.

“Maybe we can come up with some specification on ‘test-marketing’ by developers,” he said, responding to the minister’s suggestion. – Bernama

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