Malaysians Can Enjoy Cheaper House Prices of Up to 10% Following SST Implementation

Steep house prices are one of the biggest hurdles standing in between youngsters and their first home. However, with the implementation of the Sales and Services Tax (SST), it looks like young people are now one step closer to their dream of purchasing their first home!

That’s because Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has recently announced that construction materials such as bricks, sand, steel, and cement will be exempted from SST, thus reducing the pressure on house, industrial and commercial buildings prices. As such, the house prices are expected to drop up to 10 per cent.

He added that the developers and buyers should be able to reap some benefits from this policy as the execution of SST is more efficient compared to GST.

Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government said under the previous government’s administration, the main construction materials were subjected to GST and that had contributed to the increasing prices of property. 

Based on the ministry’s rough estimation, it’s possible for a house price to drop between 5 per cent and 10 per cent. “However, land prices is one of the factors that can strongly influence the property prices,” deputy minister Datuk Raja Kamarul Bahrin said.

Besides that, the local and state government have a certain influence on the price as well.

“We hope that the state government could cooperate by lowering the land premium price and developing charges in order to better control the property prices. If these cannot be done, it’d be difficult for the (federal) government to act alone by lowering the price,” he added.

This news is certainly music to most Malaysians’ ears, but a few netizens still remain sceptical as property prices have always been on the rise, and not the other way round.

Do you think the implementation of SST can really bring down the house prices? Tell us what you think in the comments!

 

Also read: Expert Predicts M’sia Property Market Crash in 2018, House Prices will Drop Drastically