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100 Days On, Is there Hope in Pakatan Harapan?

Today marks Pakatan Harapan’s 100th day in power since the political earthquake that shook Malaysia — the 14th General Election.

The pressing question is whether the nascent government has delivered on its word and lived up to the expectations of Malaysian voters thus far.

The last three months for Pakatan has been like a walk on the proverbial tightrope, with the coalition struggling to deal with the threat of bailing investors and a sovereign downgrade, and a national fiscal debt that has turned out to be more critical than expected.

A survey carried out by the Merdeka Centre earlier this month (August 2018), found that Malaysian citizens were largely satisfied with Pakatan Harapan ministers, but with some concerns about the economy, and racial and religious rights.

As part of its election manifesto, the government had pledged to deliver 10 promises in 100 days, but not all of these promises have been fulfilled.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the Prime Minister, said that the reason behind the government’s inability to fulfil the 10 promises was because they had to prioritise other important matters.  

“The government’s focus is not only on the 10 promises in 100 days, the government has a lot of work to do and this includes ‘cleaning up’ the government which was tainted with corrupt practices and abuse of power during the past administration,” he said.

Harapan Tracker, a website which monitors the government’s performance, gave Pakatan a score of 45%, a cumulative average from its two scores of “the letter of the promise” (30%) and “the spirit of the promise” (60%).

 

Housing Not Part of 100-day Pledge

The housing sector, in particular, was not included in Pakatan’s list of 100-day promises. 

Many Malaysians are concerned about housing, and rightly so. There has been a glut of high-end residential property and a scarcity of affordable housing in the country —  an imbalance that has caused many Malaysians, especially those from the bottom 40% of income earners (B40), to be unable to afford their own homes.

Pakatan's 10 pledges to be achieved in 100 days
Pakatan’s 10 pledges to be achieved in 100 days

Dr Carmelo Ferlito, an economist with the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) said the spectacular growth of the high-end property segment was ignited by rising profit expectations, growing demand and easy credit conditions.

“The mix of elements generated a bubble which reached its peak between 2012 and 2013.”

Zuraida Kamaruddin, the new Housing Minister, has embarked on a consolidation of all affordable housing projects under the Ministry in an effort to streamline the building of affordable homes. Certain projects like the 1Malaysia Housing Programme (PR1MA) were previously placed under the Prime Minister’s Department.

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The new National Affordable Housing Council is expected to begin its work this month (August 2018) once papers regarding its set-up are finalised by the Cabinet. The council will monitor the construction of affordable housing, coordinate databases and implement a self-renting scheme for the B40 and M40 (middle 40% of income earners) groups nationwide.

Ms Zuraida also plans to set up a one-stop online platform for affordable housing that would enable buyers to submit an application online, and find out their approval status within days.

In an effort to further bring down the price of housing in Malaysia, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced that building materials and construction services will be exempted from the upcoming Sales and Service Tax (SST). The SST is set to kick in on Sept 1.

Under the previous Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, building materials and construction services were subjected to a 6% tax. However, players in the construction industry are not optimistic that the tax exemption will impact house prices significantly.

Datuk Steve Chong, chairman of the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda) in Johor, thinks that the exemption is insufficient to bring down the prices of homes.

“We believe that the savings is too small to be passed on to homebuyers which will not in any way translate to a significantly lower price for homes in future,” he said.

Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM) president Ezumi Ismail added that raw materials only accounted for less than a third of the total development cost, and other factors contributed to high housing prices.

“The rest … would consist of the cost to purchase the land and other compliance charges that come with the building the houses or units. SST may reduce the house prices but it may not be much.

“Some projects require the developers to construct basic infrastructure and facilities that are supposed to be built by utility companies. The added cost would then be (pushed) back (to) the consumers. It would be better if the authorities come up with a building master plan that could address these issues,” he added.

A new National Housing Policy is expected to be announced in September with a considerable number of changes, one of which includes the rental-tenancy market.

The rising supply of residential properties, particularly condominium and apartment units, has caused rentals to continue to drop in Kuala Lumpur.

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Previndran Singhe, CEO of Zerin Properties said, “It is a tenant market right now as they have plenty of choices. There have been drops in rental in KL, generally around 10%.”

“Some owners have to reduce their rents because their units are already old and they will not be able to compete (with newer properties) if they don’t upgrade their homes.”

 

Silver Lining

There is a silver lining in sight. Yet, it may be a long while before housing issues are fully addressed in the country. Until then, what stands to remain is the loftiness of house prices in prime areas like the Klang Valley and Penang — and to a certain extent, Johor Bahru —  which will impact not just first home buyers, but also local property investors.

With economists slashing economic growth forecasts due to weak economic data (ahead of Bank Negara Malaysia’s release of GDP 2Q2018 figures), and potentially more fiscal tremors ahead, a single 5-year term may not be enough for the government to make the changes it wants to.

Investors should continue to maintain a wait-and-see stance before embarking on investment-related decisions in the local property market or, alternatively, look beyond Malaysian shores. Virata T of CSI Prop says that investors can still get good returns on properties in countries abroad.

“With rental yields dropping locally, investors wanting to invest in property could look overseas to get better returns on investments. There is a rising interest among Malaysian investors for this type of investment,” he said. 

“Up-and-coming cities in countries with a stable economy like the UK and Australia, are particularly attractive as they provide good returns while reducing investors’ exposure to economic risk.”

What do you think of Pakatan’s performance so far?  Leave us a comment below!

If you are curious about investing overseas and the returns you can obtain thanks to low vacancy rates, call (+65) 3163 8343 (Singapore), 016-228 8691/ 9150 (Malaysia), or email us at info@csiprop.com!

By Ian Choong
Additions & Edits by Vivienne Pal 

Sources:

  • https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/08/15/merdeka-centre-august-poll-show-voters-happy-with-pakatan-leaders/
  • https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/08/17/pakatan-govt-needs-to-make-good-on-its-promises/
  • https://harapantracker.polimeter.org/
  • https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2018/07/392262/pm-concedes-government-not-able-realise-10-promises-100-days
  • http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/housing-and-local-govt-ministry-set-online-platform-govt-affordable-housing
  • https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2018/07/25/changes-in-national-housing-policy-to-be-unveiled-in-september/
  • https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/08/12/guan-eng-construction-services-building-material-costs-exempted-from-sst/
  • https://www.malaymail.com/s/1662133/johor-developers-sst-exemption-wont-impact-homebuyers
  • https://www.malaymail.com/s/1661951/sst-wont-mean-much-cheaper-homes-says-architect-group
  • http://www.thesundaily.my/news/2018/06/12/national-affordable-housing-council-begin-work-august
  • https://www.edgeprop.my/content/1407669/new-national-housing-policy-rakyat-december
  • https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2018/07/25/review-on-housing-policy-next-month-says-minister/
  • http://www.thesundaily.my/news/2018/08/16/kl-rental-drops-rising-supply
  • http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/hlib-cimb-research-slash-msia-2q18-gdp-growth-forecasts-amid-weaker-data
  • Featured image: malaysianaccess.com

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