The Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) 2019 cleared some RM23.2 billion worth of houses, surpassing the initial target of RM17 billion.

Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin (picture) said the programme managed to clear 31,415 residential units developed by federal and state governments, and private builders.

“This is above our target. The private developers are very satisfied with HOC because it helped and encouraged them to ease their overhang units.

“They said they can offer their own discounts for buyers without HOC after this, so they can further minimise their losses,” Zuraida told a media conference in Putrajaya yesterday.

The HOC, which also provided ancillary support and services including financing schemes and legal assistance for property buyers, was designed to alleviate the RM20 billion overhang in the sluggish residential property market.

Under the scheme, which was also supported by various home exhibitions throughout the nation, houses with HOC certificate also enjoyed various stamp duty exemptions and discounts.

Last September, Zuraida said HOC could help sell at least 25,000 homes worth RM17 billion.

She said the latest RM23.2 billion was the figure recorded as at last November.

“As such, the latest, up to December, could be higher. We also allowed pre-December bookings to be part of the scheme even if the loan approvals were obtained later,” she added.

As of the first half of 2019, residential property overhang was valued at RM19.76 billion of 32,810 unsold houses.

The highest overhang was for houses that were priced between RM200,000 and RM300,000, with a total of 4,912 unsold units, according to the National Property Information Centre.

According to the HOC sales breakdown sighted by The Malaysian Reserve, 507 residential units sold were priced below RM300,000. Previously, those houses were tagged at above RM300,000.

The data also showed that houses priced between RM300,000 and RM599,999 recorded the most take-up, with 17,217 units (54.8%) transacted, followed by houses that were priced between RM600,000 and RM999,999, with 10,970 units (34.92%) sold.

Prior to the HOC, houses ranged between RM600,000 and RM999,999 dominated the list with 43.95%, or 13,808 units offered. During the campaign, most of the houses sold were located in Selangor (12,947 units), followed by Kuala Lumpur (KL) (7,282), Johor (3,592), Penang (2,370), Negri Sembilan (1,899) and Melaka (1,816).

Of the total, 5,705 units were completed units, while 25,710 were still under construction. In terms of sales generated, Selangor raked in RM8.55 billion, followed by KL (RM4.78 billion), Johor (RM2.3 billion), Penang (RM1.64 billion) and Negri Sembilan (RM1.05 billion).

According to the data, 769 developers participated in the scheme that involved 1,233 projects nationwide.

Zuraida, however, said the ministry has no intention to continue the HOC this year.

The campaign was initially planned for only six months from January 2019, before it was extended till the year-end due to good response from house buyers and developers.

Zuraida said the ministry is currently conducting a six-month study to re-examine the overall housing industry and market sentiment.

“We could do another incentive programme to clear up unsold units, if the overhang is still high,” she said.

Source: TheMalaysiaReserve.com