Houses in Penang Will Be 10% Cheaper Because Building Materials Are SST-Free!

Hurrah! Good news for everyone who is looking to buy a house in Penang because the chairman of Penang Rehda has just confirmed that houses on the island will be cheaper due to the return of the Sales and Service Tax (SST).

The Malay Mail reported that housing prices in Penang will be 10 per cent cheaper because of SST exemptions on some building materials. Penang Rehda chairman Datuk Toh Chin Leong said that SST exemptions on materials like cement and rock will cause a decrease in the construction costs.

Source: the malay mail

He was quoted as saying,

“Replacing the GST with SST has reduced costs and we have discussed with our members that any savings from SST will be passed on to the buyers so we will advise our members to reside overall pricing by 10 per cent.”

Nonetheless, Toh didn’t forget to mention that this reduction will apply to houses above the affordable housing price range of RM300,000. On the other hand, Toh revealed at a joint press conference with the Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng that they are looking into reducing affordable house prices by six per cent. Hopefully, they will make this come true! 

For illustration purposes | source: property hunter

Toh then added that the discount on housing prices will apply to upcoming projects after the comeback of SST this month (September 2018).

“We will discuss with our members to see if some of them can implement this discount for some ongoing projects,” he said.

Since Penang Rehda is making an effort to provide more inexpensive houses to the people, Lim hopes that developers all around Malaysia will also follow suit.

Source: the malaysian insight

He explained that developers shouldn’t have a problem with reducing the housing prices because the SST exemptions on some construction materials are applied nationwide.

On a different matter, the finance minister said that SST is totally different from GST (Goods and Services Tax) because only businesses with a total revenue of RM1.5 million will be taxed.

“There were only 4,372 registrants and we collected RM711 million, about RM500 million less than GST,” Lim explained.

Source: edge prop

He then assured that small businesses like coffee shops and restaurants, which earn less than RM1.5 million, will not be taxed because the current government intends to help these businesses while ensuring that prices in these shops will not be increased. Well, that’s good! 

It looks like affordable houses will soon be within our reach! We hope that the developers elsewhere in Malaysia will also follow in Penang Rehda’s footsteps to create more inexpensive houses for the people.

Do you think developers in other parts of Malaysia will follow this trend and reduce housing prices too? Let us know in the comments below! 

Also read: The Prices of These 5 Car Brands Have Reduced By Up to RM3,000 After SST