KUALA LUMPUR: The government will set up a comprehensive database to identify the actual housing demand in areas as part of its efforts to tackle the problem of unsold houses.
Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad said the database can be utilised by any party, including state governments and private developers.
“The issue involves oversupply of houses that are unsold due to mismatch (of supply and demand) and areas that have a larger supply compared to others.
“To overcome this problem, the government will set up a database that can be used by any federal and state government agencies as well as developers to identify actual demand for houses in such areas,” he told the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday.
He was answering a supplementary question from Wong Shu Qi (PH - DAP - Kluang) on what the government is doing to tackle the issue of oversupply of houses due to mismatch of supply and demand.
Raja Kamarul Bahrin said the ministry is working with related agencies like the Inland Revenue Board (IRB), Bank Negara Malaysia, National Property Information Centre and Department of Statistics to tackle the problem.
On the issue of high-end property oversupply, he said the first quarter of this year showed that only 13 percent of properties priced RM1 million and above were unsold, compared to 61 percent or 17,883 of 29,227 housing units priced below RM500,000.
“The statistics dispel the notion that property market imbalance is caused by an oversupply of luxury properties,” he said.
In reply to a supplementary question from Khairy Jamaluddin (BN - Umno - Rembau) on whether the government intends to restrict the sale of unsold property at Forest City, Johor to foreigners, Raja Kamarul Bahrin said that certain efforts are being made.
“So far for the Forest City project, more than 93 percent of property is owned by foreigners. The ministry has taken several steps recently including meeting with the developer and the Johor government.
“We wish to find a way to ensure the locals are not left behind in terms of owning property in the said project. However, Forest City is under the Johor government, so there is no limit set for purchases by foreigners,” he said.