Mohd Jafni says Johor has created an ecosystem to encourage home ownership.
JOHOR has recorded the country’s highest number of Housing Credit Guarantee Scheme (SJKP) loan application approvals.
The state achieved this through its first home ownership scheme as well as its affordable housing initiative Rumah Mampu Milik Johor (RMMJ).
According to Johor housing and local government committee chairman Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor, SJKP had made 5,147 loan approvals amounting to more than RM889mil from 2021.
He said SJKP approved financing of up to 120%, with a maximum financing amount of RM300,000.
“In 2021, there were 316 loan approvals involving a financing amount of RM42.1mil and in 2022, this amount increased to RM82.7mil, which comprised 528 loan approvals.
“But last year, the number of loan approvals increased sixfold to 3,047, with a financing amount of RM546.3mil.
“Until March this year, there were 1,256 loan approvals amounting to RM218.1mil,” said Mohd Jafni.
“Among the government’s steps to help people overcome difficulties in obtaining housing loans is the implementation of J-Home One-Stop Centre (J-Home OSC) with strategic partners such as Bank Rakyat, Bank Simpanan Nasional, Bank Muamalat and SJKP,” he explained.
He said this in reply to Sahrihan Jani (BN-Gambir) during the recent state assembly sitting at Bangunan Sultan Ismail in Kota Iskandar, Iskandar Puteri.
Sahrihan had asked about government initiatives in helping housebuyers obtain loans.
Mohd Jafni said the state government had also created an ecosystem to encourage home ownership and had cooperated with the Credit Counseling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK) in increasing financial management briefings, especially on programmes that focus on public involvement.
He shared that eligible applicants who sought assistance through the scheme were those with irregular incomes.
Some of these people were farmers, small traders, freelancers and gig workers.
Mohd Jafni is confident that this collaboration, leading to the opening of an AKPK booth, will add value in offering CCRIS (Central Credit Reference Information System) and CTOS (Credit Tip-Off Service) review services.
These services would then alert applicants and assessors on any factors that might lead to a loan repayment problem resulting in poor debt servicing ratios, he elaborated.
“The debt servicing ratio issue is the main cause behind individuals failing to get bank financing to own a home.
“The reasons for this failure include applicants not knowing their ability to refinance if they get a loan, or that they have a bad loan repayment record.
“Most applicants also do not know that the bank will always refer to CCRIS to find out the debt servicing ratio of every customer,” he added.
