KUALA LUMPUR: The 2023 Budget should have impactful measures for first-time homebuyers such as giving them a one-off grant for a property priced up to RM500,000, industry players said.
Gamuda Land chief executive officer Ngan Chee Meng said the local property market continued to face challenges such as rising prices for building materials and compliance costs, and weak demand.
The cost of living is also higher, with more people without work, he said.
"My wish list includes everyone being able to buy a home and returning to normalcy. For homeowners and first-time homebuyers, we hope the government will do much more. Many people lack the means to even pay the down payment," he told the New Straits Times.
"I don't believe that the dynamics will change as a result of the rising overnight policy rate because it will not significantly affect borrowers. Whether people have work will change the dynamics. We hope the government can control inflation and that a recession won't occur," Ngan added.
Tan Sri Leong Hoy Kum, the founder and group managing director of Mah Sing Group Bhd, hopes that the government will announce new programmes to aid first-time homebuyers, simplify the home-buying process for them, and accelerate the recovery of the real estate market.
The developer's budget wishlist also calls for reactivating the MyHome Scheme programme for qualified buyers and providing a one-time RM30,000 first-time homebuyer incentive for properties valued up to RM500,000.
The Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) or first-time homeownership rebates are on LBS Bina Group Bhd executive chairman Tan Sri Lim Hock San's wish list.
Lim said despite the fact that 2022 had been predicted by many to be the year of recovery as economies gradually reopen following the two tumultuous years of lockdowns and business disruptions caused by the pandemic, it had been a difficult year.
The country felt the effects of a persistent labour shortage, interest rate hikes and an increase in raw material prices.
He expects the government to subsidise the rising cost of raw materials to reduce construction prices, which are projected to rise by an average of 19 per cent this year, according to the Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association of Malaysia.
Tan Ka Leong, group managing director of CBRE|WTW, said although property consultants were more focused on the property market, there was a need for a more holistic approach in the face of the global economic slowdown, falling household income, slower export earnings, and the weakening ringgit.
He believes that requesting for additional incentives to encourage house buying will have a negligible impact if house buyers do not have the income to buy homes.
"We need to increase manufacturing output and export earnings and, in this way, put more money into the hands of households to purchase properties," he told the NST.