KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 — Fewer than 12,000 homes out of 141,661 units that are being developed by Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia have been sold to date, theSun Daily reported today.
The newspaper suggested that with only 11,944 units priced between RM100,000 and RM400,000 sold, the average Malaysian is still unable to afford these homes under federal government’s affordable housing scheme.
When contacted, the government corporation told the newspaper that demand was high for its houses with the current buyer registration at 1.5 million.
However, PR1MA reportedly acknowledged that many registered buyers for its homes failed to secure bank loans during the financing stage, resulting in a high “drop out” rate.
It explained that the Special PR1MA End Financing (SPEF) scheme was introduced in January as a “loan booster” to help registered buyers with the purchase of the homes.
“However, if they have other financing issues that hinder them from getting a loan in the first place, SPEF is not the solution,” the company was quoted saying.
PR1MA added that it has received a total 197 SPEF applications for RM44.1 million in loans, but since January, only 50 had been approved.
“Difficulties in obtaining home loans are not PR1MA-specific, but an issue faced by other developers as well, especially those involved in public housing programmes. This is mainly because these types of homes are targeted towards those who may or may not have adequate financial ‘muscle’ to purchase a house,” PR1MA was quoted saying.
According to the news report, 10,199 units of PR1MA homes have been built nationwide and the company is hoping to build 17,000 more units by the end of this year.
PR1MA is targeting to sell 16,250 units by end of January next year, the report added.
