SEMENYIH, Nov 4 — Lim Guan Eng today assured Malaysians that the government will only proceed with its peer-to-peer crowdfunding initiative to help them buy their first homes after all factors are considered.
But the finance minister believes the novel money lending scheme, as announced in Budget 2019, is a risk worth taking as long as the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government fulfils its promise to deliver one million affordable homes next year.
He added that Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission (SC) have conducted their own evaluations and have not objected to it.
“But if we can, as Tun mentioned, fulfil and deliver that one million house promise, I think it’s a risk worth taking,” he told reporters, referring to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who had earlier launched the FundMyHome programme here.
Lim said the government had taken time to study the scheme before announcing it, and found it suitable for the Malaysian property market.
“So I would say that we would not be approving this until all factors are considered, but definitely we welcome the concerns.
“We got to go to the mechanics in the SC. The important part is the exchange platform. That is the critical point. So once that is done, everything else follows,” Lim said.
He said if the scheme was a success, it would raise the bar on large-scale home ownership.
Lim welcomed the criticisms raised by the Home Buyers Association (HBA) on the peer-to-peer scheme, including the possibility of a mortgage crisis due to too-easy financial aid given.
“If the HBA is not concerned, and just taking two paragraphs from my statement, then there is something wrong with them,” Lim said when asked to comment on the association’s concern over bad debt.
He added that he would be meeting with the HBA soon.
Lim hopes the peer-to-peer scheme will be approved for rollout by early next year.
