PropertyGuru: Budget 2024 must look beyond property prices, address living costs

KUALA LUMPUR - PropertyGuru Malaysia hopes that Budget 2024 will not only address the issue of property prices but also the broader concerns of rising living costs and stagnating consumer wages.

Its country manager (Malaysia), Sheldon Fernandez, urged the government to consider developing house ownership initiatives that provide financial support to house buyers and steps to stimulate income growth to make homeownership more accessible to a broader demographic.

"The government can consider implementing homeownership initiatives similar to the successful Home Ownership Campaign (HOC),” he said in a statement.

The recent PropertyGuru Malaysia Property Market Report (MPMR) for the third quarter (3Q) of 2023 highlighted resistance from potential house buyers towards rising property prices, causing a 10.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter dip in property inquiries in 2Q 2023.

Another study by the marketplace also identified property costs as the foremost hurdle to purchasers, with stagnating income and growing living expenditures remaining significant bottlenecks to home ownership.

"This underscores the importance of a balanced property market where prices align with income growth and costs of living,” he added.

According to PropertyGuru, 45 per cent of respondents are struggling to secure financing for affordable housing schemes, which necessitates a comprehensive reevaluation of existing housing schemes in relation to consumer incomes to ensure their accessibility to Malaysians, as well as creating greater incentives for developers to develop affordable housing in light of rising construction and labour costs.

"Looking ahead, we remain optimistic that the Madani Economy initiative will usher in policies that improve property access and foster a more inclusive housing market.

"As part of Budget 2024, we anticipate detailed strategies that restore confidence in public housing programs aligned with the National Housing Policy,” Fernandez said. - BERNAMA