Tri Pinnacle by Aspen Group

Property price has been increasing steadily in Malaysia every year. The skyrocketing price of houses have made the lower income group and young people that just graduated even harder to own a house. This is a national issue, especially for Penang Island where the land is scarce. To address the issue, federal government and Penang state government are launching affordable housing through PR1MA and erumah.

MyHome Scheme

MyHome scheme is a new initiative by the federal government to subsidize low cost houses to a maximum of RM 30000 for those first home owners earning RM 3000 and below. The government has allocated RM 300 million for the program and it will take off on 1st April 2014.

Penang New Housing Rules

The Penang state government has announced new housing rules, hoping to curb property speculation. Starting from 1st February 2014, foreigners will be subjected to a 3% tax on the property price. On top of that,  foreigners can only purchase properties worth more than RM 1 million, while they will only be allowed to buy landed property on the island if the value exceeds RM 2 million.

The state will also impose a 2% levy on property sold within three years of purchase, excluding affordable housing. A moratorium of ten years will be applied to low-cost homes costing up to RM 42000 and low-medium cost homes worth up to RM 72500 and covers all past and future purchases. On the other hand, a moratorium of five years will also be imposed on the sale of affordable housing, which covers houses worth no more than RM 400000 on the island and a maximum of RM 250000 on the mainland.

For low-cost homes, low-medium cost homes and affordable homes, homeowners who wish to sell their property before the end of the moratorium will need to get state approval and can only sell to listed buyers who have registered with the state’s housing department and meet income requirements.

There are 10 locations for the new low-cost and affordable housing projects, namely Jalan S.P. Chelliah, Teluk Kumbar, Jelutong and Pintasan Cecil on the island and Batu Kawan, Kampung Jawa, Mak Mandin, Ampang Jajar, Bukit Mertajam and Juru on the mainland. In conjunction with this, the state's housing department has updated the housing registration system - erumah. Those who are interested can download the application form via erumah.

All application forms can be submitted at Level 3 in Komtar or at the state assemblymen service centres. The deadline to submit the application forms for houses in Jalan S.P. Chelliah is 31st March 2014. For those applying for houses at other locations, the deadline is 30th June 2014.

Malaysia Budget 2014

Budget 2014 for Malaysia was presented officially on last Friday. Two major announcements of Budget 2014 were the 6% Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate and abolition of the 34 sen sugar subsidy. Let's go through all the highlights of Budget 2014 and its impact to specific group of people.

For everyone,

• 6% GST will be implemented on 1st April 2015 with the GST rate among the lowest in Asean countries. Sale, purchase and rental of residential properties as well as selected financial services were exempted from GST. Similarly, GST would be excluded in transportation services such as bus, train, LRT, taxi, ferry, boat, highway toll and education & health services.
• Abolition of sugar subsidy effective from 26th October 2013 due to the high diabetic rate among Malaysians under the age of 30.

For the lower income group,

• Under BR1M 3.0, households with a monthly income of below RM 3000 can get RM 650 (increment of RM 150 from BR1M 2.0). BR1M assistance of RM 450 is also extended to households with monthly income of between RM 3000 and RM 4000. 
• For single individuals aged 21 and above and with a monthly income not exceeding RM 2000, BR1M is increased from RM 250 to RM 300.
• One-off cash assistance of RM 300 to households who are BR1M recipients would be given when GST is implemented.

For affordable housing,

• For gains on properties disposed within the holding period of up to three years, the RPGT rate is increased to 30%, whereas for disposals within the holding period of up to four and five years, the rates are increased to 20% and 15%, respectively. For disposals made in the sixth and subsequent years, no RPGT is imposed on citizens, whereas companies are taxed at 5%.
• For non-citizens, RPGT would be imposed at 30% on the gains from properties disposed within the holding period of up to five years, and disposals in the sixth and subsequent years, RPGT is imposed at 5%. Minimum price of property that could be purchased by foreigners will be increased from RM 500000 to RM 1million.
• Government also prohibits developers from implementing projects with Developer Interest Bearing Scheme (DIBS), to prevent developers from incorporating interest rates on loans in house prices during the construction period. Financial institutions are prohibited from providing final funding for projects involved in the DIBS scheme.
• To further increase access to home ownership at affordable prices, an estimated 223000 units of new houses will be built by the government and the private sector in Year 2014.
• Government will allocate RM 578 million to the National Housing Department (JPN) for low cost flats consisting of 16473 housing units. Government will provide 80000 housing units with an allocation of RM 1 billion under affordable housing scheme. The sales price of the houses will be 20% lower than market prices.
• Introduce the Private Affordable Ownership Housing Scheme (MyHome) to encourage the private sector to build more low and medium-cost houses. The scheme provides a subsidy of RM 30000 to the private developers for each unit built. Preference will be given to developers who build low and medium-cost houses in areas with high demand and limited to 10000 units in 2014. The scheme is for housing projects approved effective from 1st January 2014 with an allocation of RM 300 million.

For government servants,

• Half-month bonus for 2013 with a minimum payment of RM 500 will be paid in early January 2014.
• Pensioners will receive a special financial assistance of RM 250 to assist them meet the rising cost of living. 

For employees,

• Individual income tax rates would be reduced by 1% to 3% for all tax payers to increase disposable income.
• Special tax relief of RM 2000 will be given to taxpayers with a monthly income up to RM 8000 received in 2013.

For students,

• 1Malaysia Book Voucher Programme valued at RM250 will continue to be provided to each student. The initiative is expected to benefit 1.3 million students involving an allocation of RM325mil. 
• RM 100 schooling assistance will still be given to all primary and secondary students.

Subsidies for Affordable Homes

Syarikat Perumahan Negara Berhad (SPNB) was established on 21 August 1997 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Minister Of Finance Incorporated (MOf Inc.) with the objective of providing quality affordable homes for every family in Malaysia. SPNB is responsible in implementing Rumah Mampu Milik Programme and the Rumah Mesra Rakyat Programme to ensure those in low income group are able to affordably own comfortable homes.

Second Finance Minister today announced that the government will provide subsidies of between RM 15000 to RM 20000 to enable the people to own affordable homes. SPNB would come up with three types of three-bedroom affordable homes valued at RM 65000, RM 55000 and RM 45000. For the RM 65000 homes, the government will provide a RM 20000 subsidy. For those costing RM 45000, the subsidy provided is RM 15000.

The government is also pushing SPNB to be a large-scale developer of affordable houses for the people, building bungalows with a selling price of about RM 250000, alongside semi-detached and terraced houses for about RM 100000 and RM 80000 respectively.

This is a good news for the people as the property price in major cities in Malaysia has been increasing steadily over the past few years. You can take a look at all the projects by SPNB here.

PR1MA Phase 1 Announcement

PR1MA website was officially open to public for registration of interest in December last year. To date, 250000 registrations had been received for affordable housings. PR1MA has approved 20 000 homes under 15 affordable housing projects for development in Greater Klang Valley, Johor, Penang, Sabah and Sarawak.

These 15 new developments come under Phase 1 of the PRIMA programme:

Approved Projects	State	Proposed unit
Alam Damai, Cheras	W.P. Kuala Lumpur	2074
Bukit Jalil	W.P. Kuala Lumpur	416
Brickfields	W.P. Kuala Lumpur	803
Bukit Bintang	W.P. Kuala Lumpur	543
Setapak	W.P. Kuala Lumpur	800
Kajang	Selangor	1200
Seremban Sentral	Negeri Sembilan	4420
Seremban Utara	Negeri Sembilan	1754
Pasir Gudang	Johor	475
Tebrau	Johor	1298
Bayan Lepas	Penang	410
Gelugor	Penang	2100
Sungai Petani	Kedah	1349
Jalan Buli Sim-Sim, Sandakan	Sabah	1000
-	Sarawak	1877

Infrastructure work on three of the projects, namely Alam Damai, Cheras; Pasir Gudang, Johor; and Seremban Utara had started. By year-end, there will be more projects on board to meet the 80000 homes as announced in Budget 2013.

Specifications of the houses, including pricing and floor plans, will be announced in the next few months. Prices of the houses are below RM 350000 while the size of houses range from 1400sq ft to 1700sq ft for landed properties and between 670sq ft and 1300sq ft for high-rise units. 

Stay tuned for more details on PR1MA affordable homes. If you have not yet registered, please check your eligiblity here.

Jalan S.P. Chelliah Affordable Housing

The exhibition for Penang State Government affordable housing project had ended on 7th March 2013 with more than 17000 applications. The state government has awarded the project to local construction company Zubicon Sdn. Bhd. The Bayan Baru company is picked out of eight companies that had submitted their tender for the Request for Proposal as it had offered the highest Guaranteed Monetary Contribution (GMC) of RM 60 billion.

Construction of the project is expected to start within a year after Zubicon signs the contract for the project and it will be completed within three years. Zubicon will add 580 units of affordable homes at 800 sqft, thereby increase the total number of affordable homes from 1320 units to 1900 units:

Category	Size	Price/unit	Initial Plan	New Plan
Medium Cost	1000 sqft	RM 400000	275 unit	275 unit
	900 sqft	RM 300000	165 unit	165 unit
	800 sqft	RM 200000	110 unit	690 unit
Low Medium Cost	700 sqft	RM 72500	770 unit	770 unit
		Total	1320 unit	1900 unit

Zubicon has proposed the concept of sustainable and self-contained compact development which would fit into a central business district, consisting of RM 25 million worth of public facilities that include a linear park, a 70 percent green space and the improvement of Sungai Pinang.

There is also proposal of a public bus terminal, pedestrian and bicycle lanes and a big sky tree.The design of the building which will comply with the Green Building Index, boasting of a recycling centre and a stand-alone surau.

If you are interested in the project, you may still download the application form via erumah. You can then submit the application form to Komtar 3rd Floor or PDC Bayan Baru.

Penang State Government Affordable Housing Details

As mentioned earlier in the first post, there are two projects under the Penang State Government Affordable Housing. The first one is the Jalan S.P. Chelliah project in Penang Island and the second one is the Bandar Cassia project in Batu Kawan, Seberang Perai.

There is not much information about the project in Jalan S.P. Chelliah. There are only artist illustration of the project and the location map shared at the registration counter. The project is situated at the prime location in Georgetown as you can see from the map above. Below is the artist illustration of the project.

However there are a lot of information on Bandar Cassia. Bandar Cassia will be the major housing development by Penang state government. It is strategically located with just 5 minutes away from Penang Second Bridge.

This is the town planning of Bandar Cassia.

The artist illustration of Bandar Cassia.

The project opens for registration this time is Bandar Cassia Phase 1.

The floor plan for 800 sqft unit.

The floor plan for 900 sqft unit.

The floor plan for 1000 sqft unit.

The registration counters are open during the Chinese New Year holidays. Do visit for more information if you are interested on the projects. Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Penang State Government Affordable Housing Registration

Penang State Government's affordable housing project is open for registration starting from today! I've visited MPSP Bandar Perda to get more information about this project.

The criteria to apply for the Low Medium Cost house and Affordable house are as below:

1. Malaysian, aged 21 and above.
2. Household income (base salary) per month not more than RM 3500.00 for Low Medium Cost house (maximum RM 72500.00).
3. Household income (base salary) per month more than RM 3501.00 for Affordable house (from RM 72501.00 and above).
4. For Low Medium Cost house, applicant and spouse must not own any house.
5. For Affordable house, priority will be given to those who are buying first house.
6. Priority will be given to all registered voters in Penang.

If you are eligible, you might proceed to get the application form, fill up your personal details, current address, occupation, monthly base income (personal and spouse) and your choices of the project. You need not submit any supporting document at the time of application. A confirmation slip will be returned by the officer when your application form is submitted.

Penang State Government Affordable Housing Project

Good news to all Penangites! The Penang State Government's affordable housing projects located at Jalan S.P. Chelliah in Penang Island and Bandar Cassia in Batu Kawan will be open to public for registration starting from 7th February 2013.

If you are interested in the affordable housing projects, you may walk in to counter in Komtar, PDC or MPSP Bandar Perda to register, operating hour is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m everyday including Chinese New Year holidays and weekends. All Malaysians can apply but priority will be given to Penangites. The detail criteria of eligibility will be announced later.

Below table shows the details of the affordable housing projects by build up area, number of unit and price:

Project	Category	Size	No. of Unit	Price/unit
Jalan S.P. Chelliah	Medium Cost	1000 sqft	275	RM 400000
		900 sqft	165	RM 300000
		800 sqft	110	RM 200000
	Low Medium Cost	700 sqft	770	RM 72500
Bandar Cassia	Medium Cost	1000 sqft	1092	RM 220000
		900 sqft	392	RM 168000
	Low Medium Cost	800 sqft	596	RM 72500

Affordable Housing - PR1MA

The prices of Malaysian properties have been increasing steadily since the past five years. Average prices of properties in major cities like Klang Valley, Penang and JB have at least doubled up compared to five years ago. The federal government had initiated an affordable housing project called Projek Perumahan 1Malaysia (PR1MA) on 4th July 2011 to help the middle income group to own a house.

On 8th December 2012, in conjunction with PM's visit to Penang, the official website of PR1MA is open for  eligible Malaysians to register for their interest in the affordable homes.

Before you proceed to register, please check whether you are eligible for it:

• Applicants must be Malaysians, aged 21 years old and above.
• Applications open to individuals or families (husband & wife) with a monthly household income from RM 2500 to RM 7500.
• Applicants do not own more than 1 property.
• Additional guidelines set-forth by states' government.

To prevent abuse of affordable housing, PR1MA houses must be own occupied and cannot be rented. Also, A 10-year moratorium will be imposed, during which time the property cannot be sold or transferred to another party without prior approval from PR1MA.

These are the 7 steps of applying for PR1MA homes:

1. Check for eligibility
2. Register and get a unique PR1MA registration number
3. Receive notification via email or SMS when PR1MA of your choice is launched. Submit application for balloting
4. Applications will undergo verification and successful applications will be processed for balloting
5. Verified applications will be selected via a fully audited balloting process
6. Successful balloted numbers will be listed on PR1MA website. Successful balloters will be contacted via SMS and email. Proceed for housing loan application
7. PR1MA will contact all successful balloters with details of allocation

Please register your interest through the official website http://www.pr1ma.my/ as there is another fake website around (www.pr1ma.net). Happy registering and hope you get the home of your choice.

Malaysia Budget 2013 (Actual)

3 out of 6 predictions which were posted this morning are announced officially in today's Budget 2013. Let's have an overview for the Malaysia Budget 2013 as below:

For the lower income group,

• Under BR1M 2.0, RM500 will be given out to family with monthly household income lower than RM3,000. In addition, single unmarried individuals aged 21 and above, earning not more than RM2,000 a month, are entitled for RM250.
• 50% discount on KTM Komuter fares extended to all Malaysians with a monthly income of RM3,000 and below and who travel by KTM Komuter.

 For affordable housing,

• Affordable homes with cost between RM100,000 to RM 400,000 each will be built in key locations like KL, Shah Alam, Johor Baru, Seremban and Kuantan. The initiative will be implemented by PR1MA, Syarikat Perumahan Nasional Berhad (SPNB)and Jabatan Perumahan Negara
• PR1MA will provide the Housing Facilitation Fund totalling RM500 million to build houses in collaboration with private housing developers. The house prices under this programme will be 20% lower than the market price and distributed through an open balloting system.
• To enable more Malaysians to own their first residential property, My First Home Scheme, which was launched under the previous Budget, will be improved by increasing the income limit for individual loans from RM3,000 to RM5,000 per month or joint loans of husband and wife of up to RM10,000 per month.
• In a bid to curb speculation, the Government proposes the real property gains tax (RPGT) from the disposal of properties made within a period not exceeding 2 years from the date of purchase will be taxed at the rate of between 15% and 10% of disposal of property within a period of 2 to 5 years. For property disposed after 5 years from the date of acquisition, RPGT is not applicable.

 For government servants,

• One and a half months bonus for civil servants - of this total, half a month bonus was paid during the past Aidilfiltri, another half month bonus to be given end-of December 2012, and January 2013, respectively.
• Retired civil servants who had served the government for at least 25 years will now see their pension raised to a minimum of RM820 per month from the previous RM720.

For employees,

• Individual income tax rate to be reduced by 1 percentage point for each grouped annual income tax exceeding RM2,500 to RM50,000. The measure will remove 170,000 taxpayers from paying tax as well as provide savings on their tax payment.
• SOCSO will allocate RM200mil to enable its 1.4 million members to undertake free health screening in Government hospitals or SOCSO's panel clinics to detect non-communicable diseases.

 For young adults,

• Through the Youth Communication Package, a one-off rebate of RM200 will be provided for the purchase of one unit of 3G smartphone from authorised dealers. The initiative is for youths aged between 21 to 30 years with a monthly income of RM3,000 and below. A sum of RM300 million is allocated benefiting 1.5 million youths.
• Government will establish the Graduate Employability Taskforce with an allocation of RM200mil to strengthen employability of unemployed graduates under Graduate Employability Blueprint by end-2012
• The Government will allocate RM440 million to the Skills Development Fund Corporation (PTPK), to provide loans for trainees to undergo skills training
• PTPTN loans: Incentive - repayment of full loan from 1 October 2012 until 30 September 2013, a discount of 20% will be given on their loan. Regular repayment gets a 10% discount.

 For college & university students,

• 1Malaysia book voucher worth RM250 will be given to students who are studying at institutions of higher learning.