REHDA, REHDA INSTITUTE URGE MORE ACCESS TO FINANCING FOR THE PEOPLE, EXPEDITE INITIATIVES

PETALING JAYA, Dec 16 -- The Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association Malaysia (Rehda) and Rehda Institute are hoping that banks and financial institutions would expand their step-up financing and other alternative financing to improve home ownership for the people in this country.

Rehda president Datuk Soam Heng Choon said the government on the other hand should also accelerate the rent-to-own (RTO) scheme and other various initiatives for the people as announced in Budget 2022 and the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP). 

"As the economy is recovering, we also recognised that the COVID-19 has impacted people differently especially in terms of their access to financing. Most financial institutions are still very risk-averse and too stringent in their assessment criteria to the detriment of prospective house buyers, looking for a home. 

"We are also hopeful that government could extend the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) to support the sales and marketing activities in the property market. 

The sales and marketing activities are currently facing several challenges due to the soft market sentiment and pressure from external market forces," he said in a joint press conference today in conjunction with the preliminary findings by Rehda Institute on Marketing & Sales Research Report for the Property Industry here. 

According to the recent Rehda Property Industry Survey (PIS) first half (H1) 2021, 88 per cent of respondents continued to face end-financing issues in H1 2021. 

The top three factors were namely ineligibility due to buyers’ income, offered lower margin of financing, and inadequate financial documentation. 

Meanwhile, Soam said the marketing and sales activities in the property sector were also facing difficulties in terms of reaching out to their target market, especially the smaller and medium-sized developers due to very slow and lack of digital technology adoption. 

He noted that lack of knowledge, cost involving digitalisation and the heavy reliance on third-party specialised knowledge have created an unbalanced ecosystem in the digital sphere. 

"To upskill and improve the digital marketing capability, Rehda Institute will look into developing a suitable Digital Marketing Transformation Initiative (DMTI) through a certification programme in 2022.

"This will be done with several partners including universities to assist property developers and the sales and marketing ecosystem towards digitalisation," said Soam. 

According to Rehda Institute’s Industry Marketing & Sales Survey in November 2021, 18 per cent of  respondents stated that the impact of digital marketing spending and digitalisation were most impactful, 49 per cent were impactful, 28 per cent were somewhat impactful, four per cent less impactful and only one per cent of the survey were least impactful. 

Besides, he said Rehda hoped that the government and agencies would provide more incentives for digitalisation initiatives for the smaller and medium-sized developers.

“Overall, we all hope for a better 2022 for all Malaysians and the property sector, with a caveat that there will be no more movement restrictions,” he added. 

-- BERNAMA