FREE MALAYSIA TODAY. 29TH NOVEMBER: The Penang state government has told developers to stop building expensive residential housing units as unsold units in the category are the second highest in the country numbering close to 5,000.
Executive councillor Jagdeep Singh Deo said the way forward was to build more affordable units at a ceiling price of RM300,000 as they remained the most sellable price category in the state.
He said this after revealing that Penang’s property overhang stood at 4,638 units worth RM3.6 billion in the third quarter of this year.
Of that number, condominiums and apartments remained the highest lot of unsold units, at 3,872, he told the state assembly today.
Jagdeep said only 341 of the units were priced below RM300,000 and classified as affordable. He said these unsold units were related to compensation units and properties stuck in legal proceedings.
However, he said, the unsold numbers were a slight improvement compared to the second quarter, which recorded 5,005 unsold units worth RM3.8 billion.
Jagdeep said the main issue remained a high loan rejection rate and the inability of buyers to put up the 10% deposit for properties.
He said Penang was embarking on efforts to build rent-and-own schemes in the long run, through efforts by the state housing board.
He said Johor still led in unsold units at 6,509 worth RM4.8 billion, followed by Penang and Kuala Lumpur’s 3,863 units worth RM3.1 billion. In fourth spot was Selangor at 3,376 units worth RM2.9 billion.
Quoting data provided by the National Property Information Centre, he said there were 30,290 overhang units worth RM19.7 billion nationwide in the third quarter of this year.
He was answering a question by Daniel Gooi Zi Sen (PH-Pengkalan Kota), who had asked for a situation report on the state’s housing situation.