With the persisting property glut, the International Real Estate Federation’s (FIABCI) Malaysian chapter called on the government to encourage foreigners to acquire real estate here. FIABCI Malaysia president Michael Geh noted that foreigners currently own less than three percent of real estate in the country.

“Three percent is still relatively low so we can increase foreign owners of Malaysian properties to five percent,” he said. 

He explained that this is not an invitation for foreigners to speculate on Malaysia’s real estate. Instead, foreign buyers who are keen on residing, working or letting their children study here should be welcomed to invest in Malaysian property, reported Malay Mail.

“There are a lot of genuine foreign buyers, especially Malaysia My Second Home applicants, who are here to stay.”

With this, he suggested for the government to put up a special credit system for MM2H applicants that buy homes here.

“We can give MM2H applicants more points to ease their applications when they purchase properties here to encourage them to invest into our properties and live here.”

The extra points in the applications would encourage them to purchase property, reducing the number of unsold residential units in the country.

He noted that these MM2H applicants are mostly retirees with high spending power from developed countries such as Japan, Australia and US. “They will also bring about economic development with their higher spending power,” he added.

In May, it was reported that Malaysia’s residential property overhang rose 30.6 percent in terms of volume and 27 percent in value.

This prompted the government to launch a six-month home ownership campaign in January, which was recently extended until December.