Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Thanks to PAS state govt, it's now 50 per cent.

The Kedah PAS-led state government has infuriated housing developers in the state with a new ruling requiring a 50 per cent quota for new houses to be allocated to bumiputras, the New Straits Times reported today. The current policy is 30 per cent for bumiputras in other states. At a glance, it makes sense for Kedah to have the ruling as the state's population is predominantly Malays. The only snag is that with the 50 per cent ruling, which comes with discounted rate for bumiputra buyers, housing developers can expect to be hard hit. In short, it means losses. The sole DAP assemblyman Lee Guan Aik has given the state government until Nov 18 to withdraw its new policy. Even the Kedah Malay Chamber of Commerce president Datuk Zainol Abidin Abdul Hamid has objected as bumiputra developers would be hit as well. Obviously, the Kedah PAS state government has given little thought to this policy. Earlier this year, the state government irked environmentalists with its decision to carry out logging in a densely forested area. Lee is now saying the policy was not reflective of the Kedah PAS' slogan of "PAS For All."

20 comments:

Mango said...

Thanks to BN State Govt too, the quota is 40% and 15% discount in Johor. Thats equally discouraging too for developers. In fact , even malays in JB do not want to buy the bumi units despite the 15% discount as they can only on sell to malays later on. That restricts the upside potential of the bumi units as your secondary market is limited and bumi can go for new launches. Isnt then the BN policy "discourage" wealth creation for bumis in Johor via real estate ? Instead they encouraged them to put in Dana Pelaburan Johor, that almost lost everything.
Looked like PAS have picked up this 'trick' from BN.

Unknown said...

Dear Wong,

It is obvious that this policy has been implemented without much thought or maybe the state exco is not well versed in economics.

There is a learning curve in everything and we should not condemn the state govt so strongly as they are in power for only 7 months.

If they are given 51 years, I am sure they will be on the top of things. Do you agree?

Anonymous said...

So? As it is given the current scenario the developers are soon going to be giving discounts of more than 5% anyway to offload unsold units anyway. Kedah State is merely one step ahead of the developers.

As for that Chamber of commerce beating his breast aren`t they all umno champions anyway, one couldn`t expect less from them.

-jeeva

Anonymous said...

Well said Chung Wai. For far too long now, state governments have been imposing these guidelines as if they are "laws" when they are not. It is also against the Federal Constitution!

Thanks once again for highlighting an issue which has been described as one of the most blatant discriminatory acts which affects the economy of our country.

BlueMoon said...

I think the quota should be raised to 90% bumiputra so that it matches ethnic composition of the state. It is wrong to assume that devloppers will go burst because of the quota system. There are plenty Bumi house buyers in kedah as well as in other states. The general thinking which associates bumi as squatters and chinese as morons is thing of the past. Today there're thousands if not millions bumi middle class with many owning more than one expensive bungalows. So bro. Wong please check your fact first before posting.

Anonymous said...

This guy is very quick to pick and criticise PR's govt. But he is slow or even condones BN's faults.

Shame on u!!!

Anonymous said...

discount is non issue. developers can jack up the price to compensate for the discount and still get good margins. problem is slow take-up, therefore high holding costs. plus not fair to non bumi buyers because its like subsidising the bumis for their houses. i am malay but i think this policy is so unfair. get rid of it.

Anonymous said...

Which government started all these affirmative policies in the first place? Anyway, if the government wants it that way, then let that state rot without development.

Anonymous said...

If PAS is not about the hududisation of Malaysia, they're about uprooting non-Malays.

This 50% policy sux in that the unsold units may not be sold to non-Bumis, thereby creating an articifial demand by non-Bumis for houses, thereby artificially inflating the prices which non-Bumis have to buy.

Anonymous said...

Typical selective proscutor wannabe wong chun wai.Loves to wack anything not to his personal liking,all this became his personal campaign after coming back from Holy Land.Same standard of behaviour as the UM fiction writer,deella write fiction.This Wong chap write cheap shots.
arjun.

Anonymous said...

If the Malay population in Kedah is 90% and non-Malays are 10%, then I propose that 90%of the houses are set aside for Malays and 10% for non-Malays. As a small minority in Kedah, the non-Malay 's 10% of houses should be given a 10% discount to encourage the non-Malays as affirmative action. That way the PAS government can ensure that more non-Malays settle in Kedah, and these non-Malays will be happy to give their votes to PAS, and help PAS to defeat UMNO in the election. PAS should realise that if the non-Malays all run away from Kedah, UMNO has a good chance to defeat PAS !

kwmark said...

Well,I don't see any problem with such arrangement.The population of PAS rule state consisted of the Bumi majorities.

It's fair that the caring state government imposed a higher allocations for these group of citizens.Of course we must all thank PAS State Government for such an implementation.

Finally,since the State Government is still new, it's not only a merely thank as what suggested by Wong C W. Though may sounds sacarstic to many ears,I have to improve the actual word from 'Thank' to ' Appreciation' instead.

Personally, I myself not a Bumi but these bBumi citizens deserved that pretty much.

Cool PAS!!!

Anonymous said...

The PR govt is no different from the BN govt. Looks like PR is being seduced by the dark side.

That means we need a third force. We cannot afford to have a two party system We need a three pty system.

I think Gerakan should break out of BN and be the third force.

Anonymous said...

just stroll along lagenda heights, ambangan heights, laguna merbok, cinta sayang in sungai petani (to name a few), then you will understand the relevance of this quota issue. what is the point of building RM300k and above houses (which seems to be the trend in kedah now), when 80% of the population could only see and dream. this ill trend must stop. who cares about REHDA, it is the people of kedah who must come first. kudos to ustaz azizan.

Anonymous said...

Kedah Govt just want to prevent creation of mono-race ghettoes for 2nd class citizens like Bandar Utama.

Anonymous said...

Wong,

What's the racial breakdown of Kedah's population? Free marketism as esposed by Rehda has it's limits as shown by the current financial crisis which is a result of unbriddled free marketism. What was that Ahmad of Penang saying again? And your former idol Dr Em added that the m's really believed that the c's and i's will leave the country once the brits were gone. just like u wished that the nepalis, burmese, indos, banglas will do the same once their work permits expire.

romerz said...

Wrong Datuk,

The % set for bumi allocations is not the problem. It is the release from the ruling which is.

5% difference from selling price is not going to make a difference to the developers, be they Malays, Chinese or Indians. They have already factored in this 5 or 15%.

The problem is the market.

Once a project is completed, the developers wants to sell all units and move on to the next project, as soon as possible.

It doesn't matter if the quota is 90% bumi but as long as they all sell. Who cares? Government is happy, developer is happy, NEP is being met, even non-bumis are happy (knowing that the reality is not all of these units will be taken up by bumis).

The non-bumis don't ask for much only some consideration which our Malay brethren don't seem to understand.

The problem arises when it comes time to ask for release to sell to bumis only. The time frame is 6 months (I think) under the law but the reality is years through the red-tape.

Then it becomes a problem when these units remain unsold because of intentional 'red tape'!

Anonymous said...

i cannot believe the facts that what Wong said is pro BN and what PKR done is correct. some more want to shame on people?
come on man la.

Anonymous said...

Dear li huat chai and arjun,

To be fair to the Writer, he did lambast the Johor's 40% bumi and 15% discount policy.

What he did is very good - exposing the greater hypocrisy of Pakatan who preached about nothing but CHANGE. Change? My Foot!

Anonymous said...

Dear Dato'
Kedah is not the only state imposing 50% Bumi/Malay quota. The same 50% Bumi/Malay ruling has been in practiced in Melaka. And that's why we see many abandoned projects in Melaka, as it's financially not viable to developers considering the funding and market risk.