His words referred to the price of houses, which has skyrocketed in the past few years requiring much needed action to ensure the prices are not solely dictated by the market forces.

Ahmad Zahid said this during a speech at the Civil Servants Housing Convention jointly organised by the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) and the Malaysian National Co-operative Movement (Angkasa) recently.

The market price is not just determined by the demand, to some extent it is also determined by the real estate agents.

This situation has persisted for quite some time, with buyers at times falling victim to ruthless real estate agents.

It was when I stumbled upon an advertisement for a landed property bearing two different prices that I realised something amiss. The property owner quoted RM80,000 lower than the agent!

Housing, especially landed property in Kuala Lumpur, is currently only affordable to  those with a five-figure salary or more.

Meanwhile, others can only look at and dream of owning one.

A random look at online advertisements of freehold landed housing in Kuala Lumpur revealed that prices start from RM800,000, and most of these houses were built 20 to 30 years ago.

A friend of mine told me with a broad smile that the two-storey house in Setapak purchased over 20 years ago (as a second owner) for around RM300,000 thousand is now worth some RM1.2 million!

Price of housing in the area had skyrocketed following the presence of a shopping mall and upgraded roads.

Another friend purchased a three-room condominium in Kuala Lumpur for RM190,000 in 2003 and its estimated market value today is RM700,000.

I made many online property searches and found many are ridiculously priced.

A case in point was a so called a single-storey bungalow on the outskirts of the city priced between RM400,000 and RM500,000. In actual fact it is only a dilapidated wooden house on a piece of leased land.

In the early 1990s a buyer could own a two-storey home for RM200,000, but now the for the same price one will even find it hard to get a second hand or sub sale flats or apartment.

For example, an apartment in Shah Alam which the writer’s friend acquired in 2007 for RM125,000 is now valued at around RM210,000.

“You can’t get these kind of prices anymore,” said the civil servant who signed up for a 20 year bank loan with a monthly repayment of RM800.

Not only is the public have to live with mind boggling house prices, but they also need extra cash to cover the cost of loan agreements, sales and purchase agreements and stamp duties.

A bank officer that I contacted for clarification on housing loans estimated that the stamp duty cost between 2.0 and 2.5 per cent of the property’s value.

This means the higher the property price, the higher the stamp duty.

At the convention, the deputy prime minister also expressed his agreement on the proposal for officers and civil servants purchasing their first home through the Public Sector Home Financing Board exempted from stamp duties.

It is the writer’s hope that the exemption will be extended to all house buyers, maybe for a certain period, especially looking at the current challenging economic situation.

Give Malaysians a chance to own a home! 

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.