YOURSAY | ‘Let the developers enjoy capitalism in all its glory, bankruptcy included.’

KJ: Guan Eng's soft spot for developers appearing again

Touche: For once, former minister Khairy Jamaluddin is right. The Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) is a scam. It does not deserve the support of Finance Ministry, Bank Negara and Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

It should allow market forces to dictate. If I’m Guan Eng, I would consolidate the property industry by reducing property prices and allowing developers to sink.

How to do it? By simply having a policy that developers must reduce selling price by 20 percent if unsold after CCC/VP (Certificate Completion and Compliance/Vacant Possession).

Next is to introduce a vacancy tax. I bet many developers will go to the wall and prices will collapse to affordable levels which are currently unreal.

Anonymous_1551583231: Well said, Khairy. This whole home ownership charade is a scam to bail out developers who have made phenomenal profits until very recently.

Let the developers enjoy capitalism in all its glory, bankruptcy included.

Eclipse: Yes, I fully agree with Khairy. Lately, he has been giving a lot of concrete comments which Pakatan Harapan should consider. If only he had been consistent during BN era, he would have been the rakyat’s hero. But, it’s never too late. Please keep it up.

Guan Eng has lost it. He tries hard to please everyone and no longer take comments as advice.

Expect him to reply with reference to old government’s mistakes and shortcomings. He will never accept criticism with open arms like before. Now, he only counters with excuses and plays the blame game.

Perak Boleh: Guan Eng is not siding with the developers but with potential house buyers. Read the statement that the developers are required to give a minimum 10 percent discount which makes the property more affordable.

Anyway, the banks nowadays do not want to take any risk and reject a loan application with the slightest reason. Housing developers are also human and to make a profit with their business is reasonable.

If they are running at a loss and close down, just imagine the after effect of massive jobs retrenchment and abandoned projects.

Anonymous_152795388: How come Khairy did not try to rein in the drastic sharp increases in home prices from 2014 to 2016 when BN regime in power?

The Harapan government and Guan Eng inherited this problem from them and it would be very difficult to get developers to drop prices now.

Bob Kids: Indeed, why blame Guan Eng and the developers? Khairy should instead look at the bumiputera Malaysians who cannot qualify to get a loan due to low salaries.

Poor education leads to poor career opportunities for better pay.

Prudent: Soft spot for developers? Yes, but hard spot for homeowners with his penny pinching new RPGT (real property gains tax).

He should impose RPGT for luxury properties and foreigners but waive it for lower-end properties.

Patriot 1: @Prudent, at this juncture, I believe the purpose of RPGT is to contain speculation because it makes it less attractive.

For genuine house buyers, it is rarely a problem but the waiver of stamp duties does reduce the burden on the buyer.

Not all developers in Malaysia are Guan Eng’s ‘friends’. Why must everyone only look at this from the benefits for the developer and not for the buyer?

I am not affiliated to any political party and I don't care whether it is the BN or Harapan government, as long as it's a competent government as Deng Xiao Peng puts it: "It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice."

The sad part of our nation now is the politicking has not stopped.

Prudent: @Patriot 1, it's a problem for the sellers. Less sellers, less houses on the market. The house prices go up. This helps the developers which Guan Eng has a "soft spot" for.

So far, virtually all Guan Eng’s tax policies are aimed at confiscating money from the poor and the not so well-off.

The present slump in the economy affecting mainly the poor are the result of his SST (Sales and Services Tax) which arguably confiscates more money from the poor than MO1's GST (Goods and Services Tax).

The divvy he got from Petronas, he is using to refund those owed GST and income tax arrears, i.e. those who are well-off.

He should privilege the poor first by placing more money into their hands. This would jump-start the economy and create a "trickle-up" effect for business as the poor are more likely to spend.

Those to whom GST and income tax arrears are owed will likely hoard up the refunds since they have done okay without those refunds. Guan Eng should only refund them from the stolen funds recovered from the Umno-BN-PAS kleptocrats.

Stolen money should be refunded with the stolen money recovered. No? But so far, the said kleptocrats are still obscenely luxuriating in their ill-gotten wealth. This is a very bad eyesore for the rakyat.

Wira: That the prices of houses had not crashed shows that the holding power of house buyers and the regulatory laws put in place to prevent over gearing.

During the Pan-El crisis of 1985-86, property prices crashed 50 percent, causing many to force sell their properties at bargain prices.

Anonymous 2465861491622056: Guan Eng, please do not interfere in the running of banks. If they make loans easy and bad debts increase, you will then have to rescue the banks using rakyat’s money.

In fact, you should work to increase the rakyat’s income so that more can qualify for loans

Anonymous 2442111479476119: Indeed, why would banks reject loans if the borrower is capable of servicing the loan? Banks are commercial enterprises.

Anonymous_78ab6882: I agree with Khairy. The finance minister must be firm with the developers whose greed led to the market mismatch.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.