PETALING JAYA: The government needs to rejuvenate domestic demand for the property sector through various policies.
Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association of Malaysia (REHDA) national treasurer and REHDA Institute Trustee Datuk Mustaza Mohamad said that during previous economic downturn cycles, the government came up with various incentives to promote home ownership.
“We do get a lot of support now, but it is not enough. We need a lot more support. Our wish list for 2018 is (for the government) to waive the stamp duty because we have GST on the commercial side,” he said.
Mustaza added that in order to spur the industry’s growth, stamp duty needs to be minimised and property prices should be made more affordable.
“We want the government to increase infrastructure projects too,” he added.
Mustaza was speaking at REHDA Institute’s Economic and Business Outlook Conference 2017. REHDA Institute is the training, research and education arm of the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association
Additionally, he said that it was important to safeguard the health of the property sector in the country.
“The property market itself is quite small but there are (some) 200 related economic sectors, because it involves the construction sector, manufacturing sector, services sectors (lawyers, engineers, financial services, insurance and etc.).