EDGEPROP. 24TTH FEBRUARY: Stressing the government’s aim is to alleviate the rakyat’s struggles amidst the economic challenges, while ensuring a sustainable fiscal growth for the nation.
The revised national Budget 2023 tabled by the 10th Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today unveiled the biggest ever allocation of RM388.1 billion, an upward revision from the RM372.3 billion budget announced on Oct 7, 2022.
Themed “Membangun Malaysia Madani”, Anwar, who is also the Finance Minister, stressed the government’s aim is to alleviate the rakyat’s struggles amidst the economic challenges, while ensuring a sustainable fiscal growth for the nation.
Houses for the rakyat
In line with that, there was a list of allocations for affordable housing programmes:
1. RM389.5 million to build People’s Housing Project (PPR) and People’s Rented Housing Programme
2. RM358 million to build 4,250 Rumah Mesra Rakyat units
3. RM463 million to build Malaysia Public Housing Project (PPAM)
4. RM50 million to repair run-down lifts in low-cost strata houses
5. RM460.2 million for building new and renovating houses in rural areas
6. To build 7 million units of affordable houses for armed forces under Satu Anggota Satu Rumah programme (SASaR)
7. More than RM500 million to maintain Rumah Keluarga Angkatan Tentera and repair the living quarters and institutions under the Ministry of Home Affairs
Housing credit guarantee scheme increased
For the real estate industry, the only incentive announced was for the housing credit guarantee scheme, where RM5 billion is allocated to help up to 20,000 borrowers with no fixed income from the gig economy to get loans. This is a significant increase from the RM3 billion in the October budget.
Stamp duty on family property transfer revised
The stamp duty of only RM10 for transfer of properties between families no longer applies as it has been revised to the following, applicable for transfers signed from April 1 this year:
1. First RM1 million – full exemption
2. Balance above RM1 million – 50%
No more stamp duty exemptions for first homes
The following measures announced in the October budget, and which were supposed to be effective until Dec 31 this year, are no longer applicable:
1. The 100% stamp duty exemption for properties priced RM500,000 and below for first-time homebuyers through the Keluarga Malaysia Home Ownership Initiative (i-Miliki)
2. The 75% stamp duty exemption for houses priced between RM500,000 and RM1 million.