YOURSAY | ‘Are Zuraida and her ministry pro-rakyat or pro-developers?’

Zuraida clarifies ‘confusion’ over selling properties to China, HK

Quigonbond: Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin is still missing the point. Is she using tax money or government time to help prop up filthy rich developers?

The House Buyers Association (HBA) is spot on to say she is encouraging developers to continue building to attract foreign buyers instead of taking care of Malaysians' needs first.

How to get rid of billions worth of glut when you have stringent immigration criteria? That's just contradictory.

And how many foreign retirees do we want to attract under Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H)? What can they contribute to our economy? This is not like Singapore attracting productive talents.

WaLid JumbLatt: MM2H is a government initiative, not a marketing arm for developers who built without proper research on market needs and proper forecast.

It's best to let them suffer the consequences of their actions.

Anonymous_1423634406: I am a permanent resident of Malaysia and have been here over 20 years.

I am running an export business that brings foreign currency into the country and employs over 30 Malaysians.

I am also married to a Malaysian, have three kids and yet I am still subjected to the same buying limits as “foreigners”. I pay my taxes, abide by the laws of the country and don't owe anyone anything.

I am fuming that the government can think about selling properties to rich Chinese or Hong Kong buyers when there are those of us who have made Malaysia our home. At least, Zuraida has reversed her comments and “clarified” them.

Meanwhile, the permanent residence community which has done a lot for this wonderful country has to sit in silence in fear of being thrown out.

Big Data: Don't talk nonsense about capital input and the sharing of human resources. If you want to be serious about foreign investment in Malaysia, let them invest in our manufacturing sector.

Johoreans have been driven out of Johor Bahru to live in the outskirts amidst rising rentals caused by the purchase of properties in the city by Singaporeans.

ICAC: For existing completed houses, the government has the duty to promote their sales and to collect taxes and stamp duties to fund more affordable homes projects.

Therefore, it is not wrong for the government to do so. A win-win condition should be sought.

Undecided: Agreed. Don't politicise every issue, especially those which help or alleviate the problems faced by the country.

Frankie: Are Zuraida and her ministry pro-rakyat or pro-developers? It's best left to the developers to solve their problem of unsold high-end properties if they decided to get into that field in the first place.

Zuraida and her ministry should instead concentrate on encouraging developers to build affordable homes for the rakyat.

Anonymous 24331438100949: Indeed, developers should do their work to sell these unsold units, not the minister.

If these units are difficult to sell, it is the developers’ problem for selling at high prices. Why should Zuraida run any promotions for the developers? The government should concentrate on building affordable homes at a lower price and subsidise its cost.

Building affordable home should not be based on a profit motive. That's why building affordable homes shouldn’t be done by private developers. This is the government's responsibility.

Ravinder: The government promotion will only encourage greedy developers to build more high-end properties. Is this why Penang wants to create more land to build more high-end properties?

It is not the government that is losing money if developers can't sell their properties. Don't help them to get richer, but make them reduce prices and help the locals with affordable housing.

Zuraida's China solution on high-end properties glut can backfire - HBA

KerbauM: House Buyers Association (HBA) is correct that market forces should decide for high-end properties. After all, these developments are owned by those high-end developers.

Attention and incentives should be diverted to solve affordable housing. What's Zuraida solution for affordable housing?

Touche: Yes, why please China buyers? What about local buyers without homes? Just let market forces determine the price. If developers are unable to sell, let them go to the wall. Why should government rescue developers?

Otherwise, locals will never own homes if such homes are targeted at China Chinese. All the government needs to do is to penalise developers for holding on to unsold properties longer than 12 months through rates and taxes.

Dizzer: If the housing and condo market collapses, then some very big companies are going to go bust and some very big banks are going to take a massive hit.

It's in the national interest to encourage wealthy buyers (they don't have to all be from China) to invest in Malaysia.

Man Lee: @Dizzer, what national interest? It is in our interest that the high-end property market collapses so that these developers are forced to sell cheaply to buyers.

It is not in our national interest that we have too many foreign Chinese buyers coming in and causing friction with the usual ‘Melayu First’ politicians.

As for big banks, they need to learn a lesson too.

Beeja: Zuraida, please arrange to bail out the buyers who bought these overpriced condos.

These buyers are also suffering as loans need to be serviced, maintenance charges, assessment rates and fire insurance have to be paid and the units cannot be rented out even years after handover by developers.

Please rescue the buyers first and only then the fat cat developers with deep pockets.

Roger 5201: Zuraida seemed to have either forgotten that her Pakatan Harapan bosses criticised Umno for selling land to Chinese nationals before GE14.

How is this proposal even a possible solution when the take up of MM2H from Hong Kong is so dismal?

Yoursay: Zuraida, single religion townships don’t promote universal values

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