The Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (SHAREDA) and Property Hunter has agreed on a partnership to promote affordable properties to the public, in line with the government's efforts to bring homeownership to the masses, by co-organizing the inaugural Home Ownership Campaign Expo 2019 that will be held on 1-3 March at Dewan Foo Chow.

Over the course of the expo, visitors can learn and take advantage of schemes introduced by the government to help homebuyers such as the exemption of stamp duties on properties ranging from RM300,000 to RM1 mil between 1 January to 30 June 2019. For residential properties ranging from RM1 mil to RM2.5 mil, there will even be a 3% stamp duty exemption. These exemptions are only applicable to properties under developers registered under SHAREDA, REHDA (Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association) and SHEDA (Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developer Association), respectively.

Elson Kho, Director at Property Hunter believes that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, saying, "Homebuyers should take advantage of the free stamp duty promotion, which amounts to a significant saving. If you are considering buying your own house, we strongly encourage you to visit the expo and learn about all the benefits and incentives that the government is offering, as well as check out the discounts and packages offered by the developers."

These initiatives are part of the National Home Ownership Campaign initiated by the government where developers will offer 10% discounts on existing unsold properties following the exemption of the sales and service tax (SST) on basic construction materials. The Ministry of Finance has also delayed the implementation of the new real property gains tax (RPGT) as per the Budget 2019 to July 2019.

The federal government offers three homeownership programmes: the People's Housing Programme, the Housing Loan Scheme and the Transit Home Programme. These programs are paired with schemes to help with down payment namely the First Home Deposit Funding Scheme (MyDeposit), the Private Affordable Ownership Housing Scheme (MYHOME), My First Home Scheme and the Youth Housing Scheme.

The government also encourages private sector initiatives to ease first-time homeownership which saw the Launch of EdgeProp Sdn Bhd's FundMyHome scheme last year, which enables a person to own a home by only paying 20% of the property price.

Learn about these programs and consider a new home at the Home Ownership Campaign Expo, 1-3 March at Dewan Foo Chow. Make sure to come and browse through all the properties on show, see you there!