THE Home Ownership Campaign 2.0 will continue until Dec 31 next year with first-time house buyers being given a full stamp duty exemption for properties priced RM500,000 and below under the programme, says Nga Kor Ming (pic).
“In Budget 2025, the Madani administration also allocated RM900mil to building People’s Residency and Rumah Mesra Rakyat projects.
“At the same time, the government has prepared additional incentives to encourage homeownership among first-time home buyers,” the Housing and Local Government Minister said in a statement yesterday.
Nga was initially slated to respond to a similar question by Datuk Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Aziz (IND-Kuala Kangsar) during Question Time in Parliament yesterday but proceedings progressed to debates on the Supply Bill 2025 instead.
When tabling Budget 2025 on Oct 18, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced that first-time buyers will also get tax relief of up to RM7,000 for purchasing residential homes priced up to RM500,000.
As for properties priced between RM500,000 and RM750,000, buyers will qualify for tax relief of up to RM5,000.“These reliefs can be claimed for three consecutive assessment years on sale and purchase agreements completed between Jan 1, 2025 and Dec 31, 2027,” said Anwar.
Separately, Nga said the rights of strata property title owners will be protected if they agree to participate in redevelopments under the proposed Urban Redevelopment Act. “Strata title owners that agree to join are given two options: The first is through negotiations where homeowners will be given a new residence or more, through an equally commensurate agreement.
“They can also decide to sell the property if they wish. A mediation committee will also be formed to tackle any arising issues in urban redevelopment projects,” he added.
Nga said 52 engagements have been held on the proposed Urban Redevelopment Act involving the public and private sectors.
He was responding to a question by Datuk Seri Dr Ismail Abd Muttalib (PN-Maran) who asked about updates to the proposed Act.
Ismail also asked about measures to protect homeowners in impacted areas.
In a related matter, Nga explained the 80% consent threshold for residents in redevelopment projects under the proposed legislation.
“Let’s say an apartment has 1,000 units. If 999 residents agree and one objects, the proposed redevelopment cannot proceed.
“This is not very practical and goes against public interest, especially if the area is no longer safe for living,” he said.
He said the ministry, through PlanMalaysia, also conducted comparative studies with other countries on the matter.
Nga said countries like New Zealand has a 75% consent threshold, Hong Kong (90%), Australia (75%) and British Columbia Canada (80%).
“For this Act, we propose for the consent threshold to be no lesser than 80%. That means at least eight out of 10 property owners in the area must agree.
“Only then, we can have further negotiations,” he said in response to a supplementary question by Suhaizan Kaiat (PH-Pulai).
